Walking together at Lambeth 2020?

From The Living Church-

Summary: Building on yesterday’s analysis of walking together, this article explores the problems faced by the Lambeth Conference in 2008 and how they continue to be present as we approach Lambeth 2020. To enable as close and truthful a walking together as possible, it suggests the conference may combine the two forms of gathering we have known and build on the decisions of the primates in 2016 and 2017 about consequences for unilaterally departing from Communion teaching. This could take the form of a non-resolution gathering (as in 2008) in which all provinces and ecumenical partners walked together despite the significant distance between them, followed by a more deliberative assembly passing resolutions (as before 2008) involving those living in a higher degree of communion and committed to intensifying that communion.

By Andrew Goddard

The last Lambeth Conference in 2008 was marked by a number of distinctive features. These included the failure of a large number of provinces and so several hundred bishops to attend due to the actions of the American Church and their presence at the conference, the non-invitation of a serving bishop (Gene Robinson) because he was in a same-sex union and another because of corruption (Bishop Nolbert Kunonga), and the decision to have an Indaba and not to pass any resolutions. It is also important to recognize that in his 2007 letter of invitation the Archbishop of Canterbury made clear that there were certain expectations and commitments expected of those attending:

http://livingchurch.org/covenant/2017/10/13/walking-together-at-lambeth-2020/

The Rt Revd Tim Thornton has been appointed the new Bishop of Lambeth, replacing Rt Revd Nigel Stock who is due to retire

From England-

The Bishop of Truro, the Rt Revd Tim Thornton, has been appointed as the new Bishop of Lambeth, and will be stepping down from his role in Cornwall.

Bishop Tim will take up his new post in September, when he moves to the borough of London with his wife, Sian, and their two children, to replace Rt Revd Nigel Stock who is due to retire.

Since his appointment in 2009 Bishop Tim has done a lot for the county, including co-chairing an inquiry into foodbanks which led to the report Feeding Britain.

He was also the president of the Royal Cornwall Agricultural Association and chair of the Development and Appointments Group, which oversees the leadership development work among senior clergy.

His duties at Lambeth will include supporting the Archbishop of Canterbury's work in the House of Bishops, general Synod and the Archbishop's Council.

He will also be heavily involved in the Lambeth Conference 2020, and take on the role of Bishop to the Forces.

More here-

http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/15201954.Bishop_of_Truro_to_step_down_following_new_appointment/

Lambeth Design Group puts down foundations for Lambeth 2020 planning

From Anglican News Service-

The Lambeth Design Group has been meeting this week at the Anglican Communion Office in London, to plan for Lambeth 2020. The group, coming together for the first time, has been chaired by the Archbishop of Capetown, Thabo Makgoba, who described the initial sessions as “very encouraging.” An early decision was to fix the venue for Canterbury, starting in the last week of July, 2020.

Among those taking part was the Bishop of Nairobi, Joel Waweru Mwangi, the Bishop of Sabah, Melter Jiki Tais, the Bishop of Dallas, Dr George Sumner, the Moderator of the Church of North India and Bishop of Amritsar, Pradeep Samantaroy, the Revd Dr Robert Heaney of Virginia Theological Seminary, Mrs Josephine Mujawiyera from Rwanda and Ms Cathrine Ngangira, a member of the Community of St Anselm at Lambeth Palace.

More here-

http://www.anglicannews.org/news/2017/03/lambeth-design-group-puts-down-foundations-for-lambeth-2020-planning.aspx

Lambeth Palace letter suggests ‘indistinguishable’ blessing after same-sex marriage

From The Church Times-

A LETTER from Lambeth Palace has said that a church service after a same-sex marriage can be “almost indistinguishable from a wedding”.

The letter was written to Dr Richard and Matthew Edwards, who married last year in Birmingham Register Office. Both are members of the PCC at St Paul’s, Birmingham. Dr Edwards is the treasurer, and Matthew Edwards the vice-chair and a churchwarden. They have been together for five years, and got engaged in 2015. Before they married, they wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury for guidance.

The letter they received in response, written by the Archbishop’s correspondence secretary, Andrew Nunn, demonstrates the Church of England’s ambivalence on the question of same-sex marriage. He states: “marriage in an Anglican church is not an option for you.” On the other hand, he describes the practice of having a blessing in church after a civil ceremony. “The church ceremony can be arranged so as to be almost indistinguishable from a wedding, but without the legalities.”

More here-

https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2017/3-march/news/uk/church-service-and-marriage-almost-indistinguishable

South Sudanese bishop to advise Archbishop of Canterbury on Anglican Communion Affairs

From ACNS-

The Bishop of Kajo-Keji in South Sudan, the Rt Revd Anthony Poggo, is to become the Archbishop of Canterbury’s new adviser for Anglican Communion Affairs, Lambeth Palace announced today. Bishop Anthony will succeed Bishop Precious Omuku, who retired in April after holding the post for two years. Bishop Anthony will move to London with his wife Jane and youngest daughter Joy at the end of October.

“I am absolutely delighted that Bishop Anthony is joining the team at Lambeth,” Archbishop Justin Welby said. “He brings the experience of his ministry in one of the most challenging provinces in the Anglican Communion where he has faithfully served the church as a pastor and teacher. Throughout his ministry he has engaged with the profound issues we face in many parts of the Communion, where famine, war, and violent ethnic tensions destabilise society and leave whole communities living in poverty.

More here-

http://www.anglicannews.org/news/2016/10/south-sudanese-bishop-to-advise-archbishop-of-canterbury-on-anglican-communion-affairs.aspx

Lambeth's long history of welcome uncovered

From The Church Times-

WELCOMING refugees with an invitation to live in the grounds of Lambeth Palace is not a new gesture, but history repeating itself.

The Syrian family who moved into the Palace last month, at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, were the first to be sponsored under a new Home Office scheme, designed to channel offers of goods and accommodation from members of the public into viable long-term support for refugees (News, 22 July).

But searching the archive this week, the Church Times unearthed a Central Press agency photograph of a former Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Michael Ramsey, and his wife, Joan, showing a Ugandan Asian refugee couple their new home — a cottage in the grounds of the Palace — on 3 November 1972.

The newlyweds, Sulfikaralli and Zebunisa Esmail, are seen with the Ramseys outside No. 216a. A note on the back of the photograph states that Sulfikaralli Esmail, a 28-year-old farmer, television engineer, and salesman, married Zebunisa, a typist, shortly before they left Uganda on 9 October 1972.

More here-

https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2016/19-august/news/uk/lambeths-long-history-of-welcome-uncovered

Primate says 2018 Lambeth unlikely

From The Anglican Journal-

Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, said he hasn’t heard directly from the Archbishop of Canterbury whether the next Lambeth Conference will be postponed, but “it’s pretty obvious that in all likelihood it would not be in 2018 because it takes three, four, years to plan.”

Hiltz responded in an interview with the Anglican Journal to media reports that the next Lambeth Conference, for which bishops from across the Anglican Communion usually gather every 10 years and which was expected to be in 2013, would may be delayed, perhaps until 2019 or 2020.
- See more at:

http://www.anglicanjournal.com/articles/primate-says-2018-lambeth-unlikely#sthash.fsz7M1jI.dpuf

‘Next Lambeth Conference a decision for the primates,’ says Welby

From ENS-

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has responded to inaccurate media reports that the Lambeth Conference had been cancelled by saying, “As it hasn’t been called, it can’t have been cancelled.”

Speaking to the BBC’s William Crawley, the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion said the historic meeting of bishops from around the world would take place sometime after the primates* had met together.

“When I was installed in Canterbury as archbishop I met all the primates, they all came to that, and I said to them that I would visit all of them in their own country which, God willing, I will have done by the end of this November, and that at the end of that we would consult together about when to have a Lambeth Conference.”

More here-

http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2014/10/07/next-lambeth-conference-a-decision-for-the-primates-says-welby/

Lambeth Conference cancelled

From Anglican Ink-

The 2018 Lambeth Conference has been cancelled. The precarious state of the Anglican Communion has led the Archbishop of Canterbury to postpone indefinitely the every ten year meeting of the bishops of the Anglican Communion.

A spokesman for Archbishop Justin Welby told Anglican Ink that as the archbishop had not yet met with each of the primates of the communion, he would not be commenting on the news. Since his installation last year, the Archbishop of Canterbury has travelled extensively and plans on visiting the 37 other provinces of the Anglican Communion within the first 18 months of his term of office.

http://anglicanink.com/article/lambeth-conference-cancelled

Archbishop of Canterbury offers monastic gap year at Lambeth Palace

From The Telegraph-

It has become an essential rite of passage for many young people and a chance to “find themselves” while trekking in the Andes or joining a Buddhist retreat.

But now the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, is making a surprise move into the gap year market by starting a new monastic community in Lambeth Palace for young people to experience a life of prayer and meditation.

In a major break with tradition, the Archbishop is inviting 16 young people to move into the 800-year-old palace by Thames, opposite the Houses of Parliament, for a year.

More here-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/11076095/Archbishop-of-Canterbury-offers-monastic-gap-year-at-Lambeth-Palace.html

Archbishop Calls Jo Bailey Wells

From The Living Church-

The Archbishop of Canterbury has appointed the Rev. Jo Bailey Wells as his new chaplain, based at Lambeth Palace. Her primary focus will be for the spiritual life at Lambeth Palace and for supporting the Archbishop’s pastoral and liturgical ministry.

“Jo is an outstanding speaker, scholar and pastor, with a very wide experience of the Anglican world,” Archbishop Justin Welby said. “I am delighted that she has been agreed to come and work with me at Lambeth.”

“I am honored and delighted to be joining Archbishop Justin’s team at Lambeth as he takes on a heavy but exciting mantle,” Wells said. “I look forward to supporting him personally and pastorally — above all by praying for his flourishing in that role — and so to facilitating the wider flourishing of God’s people in God’s church.”

More here-

http://www.livingchurch.org/archbishop-calls-jo-bailey-wells

Holy Land conference 're-thinking how we approach pilgrimage'

From Independent Catholic News-

A conference on Christians in the Holy Land, hosted for the first time, by Anglican and Catholic church leaders, Archbishop Rowan Williams and Archbishop Vincent Nichols, concluded yesterday. Throughout the two-day event at Lambeth Palace, participants heard from Christian, Muslim and Jewish religious and community leaders, describing the challenges of living in the Holy Land, and examining practical ways of building peace and providing a sustainable future for all.

The conference promoted the charity Friends of the Holy Land, which runs a centre for the elderly in Bethlehem, distributes food and medicines,and funds a project to develop new businesses offering employment, especially to young people.


More here-

http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=18641

Review Group Cites Lambeth Missteps

An independent group reported that it found no evidence of financial malpractice or dishonesty in its review of the 2008 Lambeth Conference’s finances. But the group said poor communication and risk management contributed to the conference's shortfall of more than half a million dollars.

Although the $564,000 deficit was less than the $1.74 million shortfall that was projected late last summer, the Lambeth Conference Funding Review Group said the smaller deficit was primarily because fewer bishops than originally expected attended the conference. Planners for the July conference committed expenditures before confirmed funding, a practice the review group called “precarious” and which made a shortfall “arguably inevitable.”

The group also said that “reporting lines, responsibilities and authority were sometimes unclear,” despite the formation of the Lambeth Conference Company in 2006 to manage the administration and finances of the conference. The reviewers said that having a company “to own the cost and contractual implications of decisions and to provide legal and financial accountability” was positive, but said the company had been “set up too late in the planning process to be able to inform key decisions.”

Recommendations for future conferences included having an approved operational and financial plan in place by 2013 for the 2018 conference; setting attendance fees to more realistically “factor in overall costs and financial need;” and “ensuring sufficient fundraising capability as part of future conference planning.”

The Church of England’s Archbishops’ Council and the board of governors of the Church Commissioners established the review committee after the Lambeth Conference Company came to them after the conference for financial help.

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2009/3/27/review-group-cites-lambeth-missteps

Why Lambeth 2008 had to look for a bail-out

FAILURES to face the true costs of last year’s £5.2-million Lambeth Conference are catalogued in a report published this week. They include an assumption that the Church Commissioners would pick up the bill if necessary, and “missing” a bill of £411,000 for the conference’s Big Top tent.

The Lambeth Conference Fund ing Review Group, chaired by John Ormerod, an accountant, which has produced the report, was set up after the Lambeth Conference Company sought £1.2 million of emergency funding, which was set aside by the Archbishops’ Council and the Church Commissioners.

The group includes the Bishop of Leicester, the Rt Revd Tim Stevens, the chairman of the General Synod’s House of Laity, Dr Christina Baxter, and the Third Church Estates Com missioner, Timothy Walker.

The report questions whether the company had the necessary in depend ence from the church in­stitutions. Its directors were the general secretary of the Anglican Communion Office (ACO), Canon Kenneth Kearon (chairman), William Fittall, the secretary-general of the Archbishops’ Council, and the Archbishop of Canterbury’s chief of staff, Chris Smith. The directors were also the trustees.

The review group also questions “whether the match between avail able skills and needs was as good as might be wished”.

The Anglican Consultative Council had a constitutional obligation towards the costs of the Conference, but had stopped putting money aside for the Conference since 2004, spending it instead on new offices.

More here-

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=72401

Women theologians barred

From the Church Times in England-

IT HAS emerged that two women theologians, from Pakistan and Tanzania, were refused entry into the UK for the first consultation for Anglican women theological educators from across the Anglican Communion, held in Canterbury between 23 February and 2 March.

The exclusion of the women under lined a growing trend, where people were unable to obtain visas to attend Anglican Communion meetings, a source said this week. Last year, some bishops’ wives were refused visas for the Lambeth Conference.

In the run-up to the conference, a Congolese member of the Lambeth Bible-study team that was to meet in South Africa had first to spend three weeks in Kampala, Uganda, in order to get a visa to enter South Africa, the source said. UK visas from Tanzania were now processed in Nairobi, delaying the process.

In some countries, such as Egypt, visas were no longer dealt with by the British Embassy, but by commercial enterprises, who were less likely to be influenced by the name of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Anglican Communion Office (ACO) had resorted to issuing letters signed by the secretary general, Canon Kenneth Kearon, to give to UK embassies abroad, the source said.
The importance of having all the relevant people at such meetings was emphasised after the Canterbury consultation agreed that “networking amongst women theological edu cators both from within and outside the consultation was identified by all participants as of great significance.”

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=72182

Pastoral Visitors Briefing Seminar

Lambeth Palace Press Release-

Monday 02 March 2009

Following the Report of the Windsor Continuation Group to the Archbishop of Canterbury (which was published at the Primates Meeting in Alexandria, Egypt, in February 2009) the initial group of Pastoral Visitors called for by the Windsor Continuation Group in their Report and commended by the Primates Meeting in their Communiqué (para 15) met for a briefing session at Virginia Theological Seminary from 25-28 February.

Those appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Pastoral Visitors team are: the Rt Rev'd Santosh Marray, the Rt Rev'd Colin Bennetts, the Rt Rev'd Simon Chiwanga, Maj Gen (ret'd) Tim Cross, Canon Dr Chad Gandiya, who all participated in the briefing seminar, and the Very Rev'd Justin Welby, who was unable to attend.

The meeting was facilitated by the Rt Rev'd Peter Price, Bishop of Bath and Wells, England, and received briefings from the Rev'd Dr Ephraim Radner (Wycliffe Theological Seminary, Toronto) the Rt Rev'd Gary Lillibridge (Bishop of West Texas, TEC and member of the Windsor Continuation Group), The Rev'd Canon Dr Chuck Robertson (Canon to the Presiding Bishop, The Episcopal Church), the Rt Rev'd Herbert Donovan (Deputy to the Presiding Bishop for Anglican Communion Relations, TEC) and the Ven Paul Fehely (Principal Secretary to the Primate, the Anglican Church of Canada) and members of the Faculty at VTS.
The Pastoral Visitors team will now report to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/2306

Archbishops hold Canterbury summit over threat of schism

London Times on an "Emergency" meeting between some Global South Primates and The Archbishop of Canterbury. Funny that these guys were all in town at the same time.

Anglican archbishops will hold an emergency meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury today to discuss the unfolding schism in the Church in America.

The meeting between Dr Rowan Williams and the primates of Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and the Southern Cone comes two days after conservatives in the US unveiled the constitution and canons of the new Anglican Church in North America.

With a membership of 100,000, drawn from disaffected members of the Episcopal Church of the US and from churches that broke away over the women’s ordination dispute, leaders of the new “province” claim they are not splitting from the 75 million-strong Anglican Communion.

A formal proposal arguing for recognition as the 39th province of the Anglican Communion will be put before the primates at their meeting in Alexandria, Egypt, at the end of January.

However, a statement from Lambeth Palace last night made it clear that no request for recognition as a province had been made and seemed to indicate that this was unlikely.

The Palace said there are “clear guidelines” set out for the creation of new provinces. “Once begun, any of these processes will take years to complete,” it said, making it clear that in the case of the US conservatives no such process had begun.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article5289581.ece

Tradtitionalists concerned over Covenant plans

The Prayer Book Society (an organization that still won't use the 1979 BCP) complains about the proposed covenant.

Singapore has been selected for the next meeting by the Covenant Design Group, encouraging a non-Canterbury-centric attitude. The last meeting was held in London in January, but included 12 representatives of Anglicanism from around the world who drew up a draft of the new Covenant which would provide a guide of Anglican orthodoxy as suggested in 2004’s Windsor Report.

This was offered for contemplation at the Lambeth Conference, but a letter from the Prayer Book Society notes: “At Lambeth the Bishops' thoughts were that the document, and I quote, 'needs to have a less Church of England basis, particularly in regard to the formularies'.”

http://www.religiousintelligence.co.uk/news/?NewsID=2699

Lambeth absentees press on as letters wait to be sent out

The Church Times on Lambeth reaching out (or not) to the Bishops who were missing last month.

The Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Peter Jensen, who is the newly appointed secretary of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), told The Guardian last week: “At Lambeth there was talk of building bridges, but as far as I know there has been no approach made.” His remarks followed the publica tion of a communiqué from the GAFCON Primates’ Council’s first meeting, held in London from 20 to 22 August. The five Primates — of Nigeria, the Southern Cone, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda — who formed the Council said that GAFCON “continues its advance”. They had found no reason “to make us hesitate from the course we are taking”.

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=62817

Lambeth: Interview with the Dallas bishops

The Dallas Diocesan Newspaper interviews the bishops about Lambeth. these are conservative bishops who are not in favor of the realignment.

ESPRIT: So where from here?

+JMS: It depends much on the will of the Communion. Bishops acting unilaterally do not help this. The future of the Communion depends on those who are willing to forgo what they perceive to be their rights and their prerogatives and agree to live with and for others. We’ve been deaf to that call. It just depends on the will of those who are in leadership and who say, you know, the time has come to work together in unity. As far as I’m concerned as diocesan bishop, we have strong ties and relationships with the Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Global South. The Global South bishops invited both Bishop Paul and me to a meeting with them. We cherish those relationships, and we will continue to witness and carry out our part in the Anglican Communion.

+PEL: I don’t know how I can expand upon that. We need to be faithful to the Scriptures and our Lord’s command to go forth into the world, but one of the things I’m trying to live into is what it means to be faithful to the vows I took when I was consecrated. There are some significant vows there. I think the House of Bishops and all bishops would do well to read those every day.

http://episcopal-dallas.org/