Lambeth Conference

Lambeth Conference, any of the periodic gatherings of bishops of the Anglican Communion held initially (1867–1968) at Lambeth Palace (the London house of the archbishop of Canterbury) and, since 1978, at Canterbury, Eng. They are important as a means of expressing united Anglican opinion, but the Anglican Communion has no central authoritative government. The bishops meet and deliberate as equals, with the archbishop of Canterbury as host, chairman, and “first among equals.” The time between conferences has varied, but the normal interval is 10 years.

The American and Canadian Anglican churches suggested a gathering of Anglican bishops in 1851 and 1866, respectively. At the first conference, held in 1867, Archbishop of Canterbury Charles Thomas Longley carefully limited the scope of deliberations to “expedient” resolutions concerning “matters of practical interest” and serving as “safe guides to future action.” He also declared that interpretation of “questions of doctrine” were not to be discussed in future Lambeth Conferences. Doubtful of the status and necessity of the international gathering, only 76 of the 144 Anglican bishops attended the first conference. Attitudes gradually changed, however. In 1998 both suffragan (assistant) and diocesan bishops were invited. About 630 bishops attended the 2008 conference. The first conference lasted only four days; later conferences lasted several weeks.

In 1897 a permanent continuation committee, the Consultative Body of the Lambeth Conference, was established to help prepare the agenda for the conferences. An Advisory Council on Missionary Strategy was established in 1948. At the conference of 1958 it was decided to appoint a bishop to serve as executive officer (from 1960) of the Anglican Communion and to work with these two inter-Anglican organizations. Action taken at the 1968 conference merged the two organizations into the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), which first met in 1971 and is headquartered in London. It carries on the cooperative work of the Anglican Communion between meetings of the conference.

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Lambeth Conferences are the primary means of joint consultation for Anglican leaders on internal Anglican matters, relations with other churches and religions, and theological, social, and international questions. They also have been used by bishops to discuss matters of Anglican unity and identity. The conferences normally issue an encyclical letter, a series of resolutions, and the reports prepared by committees. The decisions of the conferences have no binding power over the 38 national Anglican churches, which must adopt them by synodical or other constitutional means to give them legal force.

In the wake of the 1998 Lambeth Conference, there was heated disagreement between the churches of the Anglican Communion over the issue of biblical warrant for ordaining homosexual clergy and for blessing same-sex marriages. Although the 1998 conference had declared both practices “incompatible with Scripture,” they were subsequently promoted by some congregations of the Anglican Church of Canada and the Episcopal Church in the United States (ECUSA)—which elected the Anglican Communion’s first openly gay bishop in 2003. In protest, some American congregations withdrew from the ECUSA in 2007 and affiliated with the Church of Nigeria, whose primate appointed an American bishop without the consent of the see of Canterbury. In June 2008 more than 300 traditionalist bishops from North America and the United Kingdom joined Anglican leaders from the “Global South” (mainly Africa but also Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America)—where the majority of the world’s Anglicans lived—to attend the Global Anglican Forum Conference (GAFCON) in Jerusalem. About 230 of these traditionalist bishops boycotted the following month’s 2008 Lambeth Conference.

No resolutions were passed by the 2008 conference, during which Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams suggested a “covenant” regarding core Anglican identity to help overcome differences between liberals and traditionalists. The agreement would effectively make illegitimate the ordination of homosexual clergy and the blessing of same-sex unions, but it would not exclude from the Anglican Communion any member church that continued these practices. Instead, churches that failed to adhere to the covenant would lose the right to full participation in doctrinal decision making within the Communion. The proposal did not meet with broad support, in part because of the perception among critics that it would create two “tiers” of Anglican membership.