What is the Lambeth Conference?

The Lambeth Conference is a meeting of the bishops of the Anglican Communion held once every 10 years at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Though it is one of the Communion's four "Instruments of Communion," it has no binding authority over any province of the Communion.

The first Lambeth Conference met in 1867, marking the occasion when the various churches of the Anglican Communion began to be conscious of themselves as a single family of churches. The immediate cause of the first gathering was an effort on the part of several bishops to respond to the unsettling effects of the publication of Essays and Reviews and the "Colenso controversy." The "Colenso controversy" followed the arraignment of John Colenso, Bishop of Natal, on charges of heresy for holding "advanced" views of the creation stories in the Old Testament. The debate aroused intense feelings. A jurisdictional dispute between two bishops in South Africa regarding the controversy became a matter of concern for all the colonial churches of England.

In 1867 Charles Thomas Longley, Archbishop of Canterbury, responding to an appeal from Canada, invited Anglican bishops from all over the world to Lambeth for the purposes of mutual discussion and consultation. The meeting, neither a synod nor general council, was a purely informal gathering of bishops meeting at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The informal gathering continues to have no power to make binding decisions. The Conference has met at 10-year intervals, except during times of war. Its deliberations command considerable moral authority. From time to time it has made significant pronouncements.

Browse by Topic:

Browse by Topic: 2009 »   Anglican and Global Relations   Children, Youth and Young Adults   Congregational Ministries   Ecumenical and Inter-Religious   Education   Ethnic Ministries   Executive Council   FEAST: Faith, Environment, Action, Science, Technology   General Convention   House of Bishops   Liturgy and Music   Millennium Development Goals   Peace and Justice   Presiding Bishop   Program, Budget and Finance   Women and the Church