Tuesday 26th June 2007
The first Lambeth Conference was held against a background of controversy in the Church and, sadly, it does not look as if the thirteenth, being held next year, will be any different.
Back in 1867 the focus of those debates lay in questions to do with Church Order, and the interpretation of Scripture, and, again, it looks as if those could dominate our discussions in 2008.
One is tempted, therefore, to say to those who are trying to portray the current controversies as something new, 'that it was ever thus'.
And yet there is no doubt that, for a variety of reasons, relationships between some parts of the Anglican Communion are very difficult at present.
At such times it is easy to indulge in 'megaphone diplomacy' and there is plenty of that going on at the moment, particularly on the internet. But what the Conference will give us is a chance to meet many of the people that lie behind the words and to discover that our stereotypes do not fit the reality.
Back in 1998 I remember many bishops saying to me that the thing they most valued was the chance to sit down with their Bibles and to listen in their Bible Studies to the experience of their fellow Christians in many parts of the world.
Next year the Archbishop has asked those of us engaged in planning the Conference to build on the known strength of those encounters. A new feature will be a period of retreat at the start of the Conference and that will be mirrored by another, shorter one, at the end.
Resolutions will be kept to a minimum but there will be plenty of space in which to talk together. Our worship too will reflect the rich diversity of the Communion and that again was a highlight of previous conferences.
But the central focus, as the Archbishop stresses in his letter of invitation, will not be the current controversies but rather 'our equipping as bishops for leadership in mission and teaching'. Perhaps it is no surprise, then, that with so much that is so good that could flow from it, that there will also be the threat from division and destructiveness. Real life has that effect so often whether in a parish, a diocese or a Communion. Please pray for the Conference – and for all the bishops gathering there – that we will, to use the Archbishop's words 'rediscover the reality of the Church itself as a worldwide community united by the call and grace of Christ.'
The Rt Revd Colin Fletcher is Bishop of Dorchester