Doing the Lambeth Limp

It's Lambeth Conference Time again - that (normally) ten yearly gathering of the Bishops of the Anglican Communion. 

The Conference always hits the news headlines - not merely in the Church press - but also in the secular media. Sadly, this isn't because the world gets really excited about the conference itself - indeed it will almost certainly be dismissed by much of British society as an anachronistic irrelevance  - nor because the bishops say important and useful things about pressing world concerns - although to be fair, they often do - but rather because its organisers have a habit of shooting themselves in the foot and allowing the event to become newsworthy for what many will see simply as its sheer unpleasantness.

In 1998, for example,  people watched the TV news in disbelief as it showed footage of a certain African bishop trying to forcibly exorcise the then General Secretary of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement. All of my friends, both churched and unchurched, were appalled by what they saw. To the outsider, the whole conference appeared to be dominated by an unhealthy obsession with sex and characterised by overt homophobia. As such it did little to make Anglicanism look attractive. In a Curate's egg kind of way, there were, of course, some good aspects to the conference, and there were worthwhile discussions and resolutions concerning the empowerment of the poor in developing countries, and issues around business training and spiritual development; but of course these were of much less interest to journalists. Good news doesn't sell newspapers. Controversy and conflict makes for more exciting copy, especially when it highlights the shortcomings of the Church.     

In 2008, the row over homosexuality was still raging. The then Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams,  did his best to keep the lid on this particular issue - stressing that there would be no formal debating of the subject at this particular conference. He failed dismally because some conservative bishops made  alot of noise about the fact they wouldn't be attending if bishops from provinces that took a much more liberal stance were going to be present. ("See how these Christians love one another?") Williams also attracted much criticism - and a great deal of media interest - when he bowed to pressure to exclude the Rt Revd Gene Robinson, an openly gay, partnered bishop from the USA. 

The Conference scheduled for 2018 never happened. The then Primate of the Episcopal Church in the United States,  Katherine Jefferts Schori claimed that she had been told by the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby that the conference had been cancelled or at least postponed until such time as he could be confident that the majority of bishops would attend. (There was still alot of sulking going on.)  The Archbishop denied this, saying, perhaps rather pedantically, that as the Conference hadn't been called in the first place it couldn't be cancelled or postponed. To anyone paying any attention to the general climate in the Anglican Communion at that time, it was clear that the organisers simply didn't want to take the risk of another fractious conference and the media attention it would draw. 

In due course it was announced that the next Lambeth Conference would take place in 2020. Whilst bishops' spouses were normally invited to attend the conference (something that many will see in itself as a rather strange and extravagant custom), it was made very clear that this invitation did not include any same-sex spouses. When this fact became known,  students and staff at the University of Kent where the event was to be hosted, registered their protest, and the University itself was challenged that it was in breach of its own Equal Opportunities and Diversity policies by permitting this discrimination. Once again the conference hit the headlines, even before it took place, for the wrong reasons. In the event, Covid-19 prevented it from happening and eventually it was re-scheduled for July 2022, with an offer from the University of Kent to provide accommodation to the uninvited spouses, though they would still not be permitted to attend any official Conference events.    

It really did look for some time as if the 2022 Lambeth Conference might actually go well and without any unpleasant public skirmishes or adverse publicity. The Archbishop of Canterbury had emphasised that the focus this time would be on the issues that unite rather than those that divide, that no significant time would be given over to the sexuality debate and that there would be no formal resolutions that might prove contentious. He had, to all intents and purposes, played a blinder. 

But no. It was all too good to be true.    

News has broken that instead of resolutions, the conference will issue a series of 'calls' ("What's in a name?" I hear you ask) that will (I quote) "express the majority view of the Conference". The Conference papers including these 'Calls' have only just been issued in the last couple of days, as some of the bishops are already winging their way to Canterbury and others are too busy packing to have time to study them. 

Other than a catastrophic breakdown of all the CofE's photocopiers, one might wonder why these papers were issued quite so late. The answer has perhaps now become evident. Tucked away in these papers is a 'call' re-asserting resolution 1.10 of the notorious 1998 conference (remember that one?)  when it says that Christian  marriage can only be between one man and one woman (despite the fact that concessions have been previously made to accommodate some African cultures in which polygamy is still practised). 

Many people - including bishops from the more liberal provinces - are now outraged not only because this is in clear contravention of what they had been told to expect from the conference, but also because it's difficult to see the timing as anything other than deliberate in order to minimise any challenge. It's a ploy worthy of Westminster, and much used there when difficult reports are published on a timescale that  doesn't permit proper pre-debate scrutiny. 

Even if the timing is not a deliberate ploy, surely the conference organisers are not so naive as to imagine that there would be no questions asked and no outcry? 

Social media is already abuzz with all of this. The gunshots have been heard and somewhere I'm sure there are already conference organisers hopping around on one foot and doing the 'Lambeth Limp'.

Justin Welby has asked us all to pray for the bishops and for the Lambeth Conference. I for one will certainly do so, and I hope that much that is worthwhile will emerge from the Conference,  but I will also be praying that this will not be yet another spectacular own-goal that will hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons, further discredit the Church of England and impede our mission to a needy world that looks on in incredulity.