On 16 July, 650 Anglican bishops from all over the world will be welcomed at Canterbury for the Lambeth Conference 2008 Equipping Bishops for Mission. More than 80% of the bishops of the worldwide Anglican Communion have registered for the Conference. 550 spouses, including 10 husbands, will also be taking part in the parallel conference, God’s People for God’s Mission.
The Conference will begin with a three-day retreat and, as in previous Conferences, every day will begin with worship and Bible study in small groups.
The Conference this year has two key points of focus: strengthening the sense of a shared Anglican identity among the bishops from around the world, and helping to equip bishops for the role they increasingly have as leaders in mission, involved in a whole variety of ways in helping the Church grow.
The Conference aims for all delegates to:
- be restored and refreshed spiritually
- gain deeper knowledge of each other
- become more aware of the spiritual and physical resources God has given them to meet missionary challenges in different parts of the world
- develop greater understanding and appreciation of life together in the Anglican Communion
- address conflict
- discover a new level of trust in common service to God
- gain greater understanding of the contribution Anglicanism can make to the worldwide church and the world
Delegates will spend time together in spiritual reflection, learning, sharing experiences and discerning their particular role in God’s mission for the world. The bishops can expect what the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has described as:
. . . an unusually varied and original programme and a fresh style of working which will allow us both to confront differences honestly and to be focused anew on our primary tasks of service and mission.”
And Mrs Jane Williams said:
Bishops’ spouses are as varied as the spouses of people in any other profession would be, but we do have some things in common: like our faith, and the pains and pleasures of living with and supporting a bishop! In lots of Anglican provinces, spouses can hardly meet at all, because of distances and lack of resources, and while all bishops get some kind of training and resourcing for their role, their spouses may not.
So our two main aims in the Spouses Conference are to learn from each other and to resource ourselves to be God’s People for God’s Mission.”
By the close of Lambeth 2008 18 days later on Sunday 3 August, individual bishops will have taken part in 25 hours of corporate morning and evening worship (in addition to the Cathedral celebration on 20 July), 18 hours of bible study, and as much again of ‘indaba’ groups.
Over the 20 days from arrival to departure, the University Conference team can expect to serve delegates with 70,000 meals, 3.5 tonnes of bread rolls and 125,000 cups of tea and coffee. They will distribute nearly 2,000 complimentary packs of shampoo/shower gel to delegates’ rooms, and remove 2,500 pairs of sheets for laundering.
The ‘Marketplace’ provides a showcase for things going on around the Anglican Communion, a space for delegates to relax, meet friends and shop, and in 2008 for the first time it will also be open to members of the public, as well as to delegates. The four dozen stalls will include the Lambeth Conference Shop, stocking branded Conference gifts. Other exhibitors include organisations, church agencies, charities, lobby groups and commercial firms that provide goods, services and other resources to the Church.
And there will be more than 50 ‘fringe’ events, hosted by organisations as varied as Christian Aid and The Quiet Garden Movement, The Anglican Society for the Welfare of Animals and Operation Noah.
Return to Index for the Parish of Walthamstow Magazine, July/August 2008
