LAMBETH CONFERENCE

any of the periodic gatherings of bishops of the Anglican Communion held initially (18671968) at Lambeth Palace (the London house of the archbishop of Canterbury) and, since 1978, at Canterbury, England. 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 and chairman. The time between conferences has varied, but the normal interval is 10 years. The first conference was held in 1867 at the request of the Anglican Church of Canada. Many English bishops questioned the status and wisdom of the international gathering, although the archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Thomas Longley, carefully explained the limited scope of the deliberations: We merely purpose to discuss matters of practical interest, and pronounce what we deem expedient in resolutions which may serve as safe guides to future action. He later stated that it was not proposed that questions of doctrine should be submitted for interpretation in any future Lambeth Conference. Only 76 of the 144 Anglican bishops attended the first conference. Attitudes changed, however, and attendance gradually increased; 440 bishops attended in 1978, 518 in 1988, and approximately 800 in 1998, when both suffragan (assistant) and diocesan bishops were invited. The first conference lasted only four days, but 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, with headquarters in London, which first met in 1971. It carries on the cooperative work of the Anglican Communion between meetings of the conference. Lambeth Conferences are the primary means of joint consultation for Anglican leaders on relations with other churches, internal Anglican matters, and theological, social, and international questions. The conferences normally issue an encyclical letter, a series of resolutions, and the reports prepared by committees. During the 1998 conference, for example, a resolution was passed that rejected homosexual practices, same-gender unions (homosexual marriages), and the ordination of persons involved in such unions. Another resolution attempted to narrow the divide between those bishops electing to ordain women and those refusing to do so by declaring that no bishop should be compelled to ordain women. The decisions of the conferences have no binding power over Anglican churches, which must adopt them by synodical or other constitutional means to make them legally binding. See also Anglican Communion: Internal developments.