Lambeth 2022: Deeply divided
This article has relied primarily on the reporting of Mark Michael and Kirk Petersen of The Living Church and Timothy C. Morgan of Christianity Today.
WHILE THERE was much accord on many issues discussed at the Fifteenth Lambeth Conference held this past summer in Canterbury, England, it was marked by deep division over the issue of human sexuality.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, tried to hold the two sides together; nonetheless each side issued their own statements, which garnered scores of signatures.
The assembly of some 660 bishops from across the Anglican Communion was convened July 26-Aug. 8. It was the first Lambeth Conference to be held since 2008 and the first called by Welby who came to the archbishopric in 2013.
The decennial schedule followed since 1948 would have suggested a Lambeth Conference in 2018 but Welby chose not to call one that year due to the deep differences in teaching and practice on human sexuality across the Communion. Then due to the pandemic it was postponed for another two years.
With about 85 million adherents, the Anglican Communion is the third-largest body of Christians worldwide. It is comprised of 40 independent and autonomous provinces and exists in 165 countries.
Bishops from Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda boycotted this year’s Conference because several Anglican provinces, including Canada, Wales, Scotland and the US allow clergy to perform same-sex marriages or ordain clergy in same-sex partnered relationships.
And many conservative bishops who did attend refused to receive communion at services held in Canterbury cathedral. “We cannot break bread with bishops who betray the Bible,” said Archbishop Justin Badi, Primate of South Sudan and Chair of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches in an interview with Church Times, a UK newspaper. “We cannot just deceive ourselves, saying: ‘Fine, we are together.’ We are not really together. This is hypocrisy.”
Meanwhile bishops in same-sex partnerships were invited to Lambeth for the first time and participated in all aspects of the Conference. Their spouses, however, were not invited to the spousal events though many attended the conference as observers.
Twenty-four years earlier, the 1998 Conference adopted Resolution I.10, that “homosexual practice” [not orientation] is incompatible with Scripture.” It passed by a vote of 526-70 (with 45 abstentions), a supermajority of 82 percent.
The 2008 Conference avoided reopening this resolution, which nevertheless remained central to controversy within the Communion. Several African provinces, along with other bishops opposed to the blessing of same-sex unions and ordaining of same-sex partnered clergy, boycotted the conference.
The primates of Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda explained their continued boycott by saying that the Anglican Communion had “failed to address with remorse and repentance the issues that necessitated our absence” in 2008.
This year there were no resolutions but instead ten “Calls” were issued that could be discussed in table conversation and then taken home for further discussion in each diocese.
Initially, electronic voting on adoption of the Calls was planned, with bishops given the option either to affirm each Call or state that it “requires further discernment.” After it emerged that the Human Dignity draft reaffirmed 1998’s Resolution I.10, a third option was added for bishops to indicate that a Call “does not speak for me.” This, however, led to further disquiet within the liberal faction about the possibility that those opposing reaffirmation of Resolution I.10 could find their votes split between the latter two options. On July 31, the day allocated for discussion of the second of ten Calls, electronic voting was scrapped in favour of a system of voice votes, with no formal recording of numbers in favour of or opposed to each Call.
On Aug. 2 Welby stated that in Call 5 on Human Dignity “there is no attempt being made to alter the historic teaching of the vast majority of churches of the Anglican Communion.” He continued, “Let us not treat each other lightly or carelessly. We are deeply divided. That will not end soon. We are called by Christ himself both to truth and unity.”
Welby also asserted that the stance of Western liberals and Global South conservatives was essential to their ministries:
“For the large majority of the Anglican Communion the traditional understanding of marriage is something that is understood, accepted and without question, not only by Bishops but their entire Church, and the societies in which they live. For them, to question this teaching is unthinkable, and in many countries would make the church a victim of derision, contempt and even attack. For many churches to change traditional teaching challenges their very existence.”
“For a minority, we can say almost the same. They have not arrived lightly at their ideas that traditional teaching needs to change. They are not careless about scripture. They do not reject Christ. But they have come to a different view on sexuality after long prayer, deep study and reflection on understandings of human nature. For them, to question this different teaching is unthinkable, and in many countries is making the church a victim of derision, contempt and even attack. For these churches not to change traditional teaching challenges their very existence.”
“There is no attempt to change people’s minds in this Call. It states as a fact that the vast majority of Anglicans in the large majority of provinces and dioceses do not believe that a change in teaching is right. Therefore, it is the case that the whole of Lambeth I.10 (1998) still exists. This Call does not in any way question the validity of that resolution.
“I am very conscious,” he added, “that the Archbishop of Canterbury is to be a focus of unity and is an Instrument of Communion. That is a priority. Truth and unity must be held together, but Church history also says that this sometimes takes a very long time to reach a point where different teaching is rejected or received. I neither have, nor do I seek, the authority to discipline or exclude a church of the Anglican Communion. I will not do so. I may comment in public on occasions, but that is all. We are a Communion of churches, not a single church.
“I want to end by repeating this line from the Call on Human Dignity: ‘As Bishops we remain committed to listening and walking together to the maximum possible degree, despite our deep disagreement on these issues.’ ”
A few hours after the Call session, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry of the Episcopal Church released a video message in which he described himself as hopeful: “I’ve been a bishop 22 years. I’ve been a priest over 40 years. And I have to tell you that as far as I know that is the first time a document in the Anglican Communion has recognized that there is a plurality of views on marriage.”
Other bishops, though, had hoped to hear a clearer affirmation of traditional teaching from Welby. Bishop Joseph Wandera of the Anglican Church in Kenya’s Diocese of Mumias said, “My congregations back in Kenya are largely orthodox in terms of their understanding of marriage and sexuality. Any other teaching is one that would be difficult to convey or receive.
“The ordinary Christians look up to bishops as – in a sense – the fathers of the faith. The expectation would be that the fathers of the faith would be a lot clearer around what the Anglican church teaches. Issues around human sexuality are extremely sensitive in my context. My diocese is one that has a very, very strong presence of Muslims, who are watching and are listening in to what is going on at Lambeth. Any lack of clarity makes it a lot more difficult for us to witness effectively among the Muslims.
“My hope is that, as we go along, there will be greater discussions, and hopefully more clarity around what is it that we have received, and what is it that we are conveying to ordinary Christians on the ground.”
Shortly after noon Welby issued a letter to all Anglican bishops that affirmed the validity of Resolution I.10, but he accepted that some provinces reject the resolution’s opposition to blessing same-sex unions or marriages: “I write therefore to affirm that the validity of the resolution passed at the Lambeth Conference 1998, I.10, is not in doubt and that whole resolution is still in existence.”
However, less than an hour after Welby’s statement, Archbishop Badi, as Chair of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches, released the text of a resolution reaffirming Lambeth I.10 as “the official teaching of the Anglican Communion on marriage and sexuality.”
“Lambeth Resolution I.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference is a test of faithfulness to this doctrinal standard, because it explicitly applies the clear and historic teaching of Scripture to matters of sexual morality. The resolution does not take its authority from the Lambeth Conference, but from Holy Scripture,” Badi said.
Bishops registered for the Lambeth Conference who wished to sign on to the resolution were asked to register their support electronically. The process involved a verification of the bishops’ status as conference participants, and they were asked to indicate the province and the number of worshipers under their direct episcopal care.
The GSFA promised an independent verification of the vote and total anonymity for those registering their support. As of August 7, 125 bishops from 21 provinces had signed the statement, including eight bishops of the Episcopal Church and four from the Anglican Church of Canada. The GSFA campaign garnered votes from about one-fifth of clergy present. This may seem a small fraction but the 125 bishops have a total of almost 8 million members under their pastoral care–7,872,629 to be exact.
A counter-statement affirming LGBT+ people and the holiness of their committed relationships was issued the same day by those describing themselves as inclusive bishops, and had been signed by 175 archbishops and bishops by August 7.
These “inclusive” signatures easily outnumbered by 50 the GSFA signatures. However, some of those signing the inclusive statement were retired bishops who were not in attendance at the Lambeth Conference. Nor is there any indication of the number of Anglicans under their care. Twenty-two of the signing bishops were Canadian (Archbishop Linda Nicholls among them) while over 100 were Episcopalian (Presiding Bishop Michael Curry among them).
Sunday attendance in many of the American dioceses is miniscule compared to the huge number of worshippers in dioceses in the Global South.
“There are more Anglicans in church on Sunday morning in Nigeria than in all the British Isles and North America combined,” according to Gerald McDermott, a scholar and author of The Future of Orthodox Anglicanism.
The clash among Anglicans is unfolding as more nations have legalized same-sex marriages. As of 2022, 32 nations allow them worldwide. But South Africa is the only one of 54 African nations to legally recognize same-sex marriages.
This past July the Episcopal Church Pension Group revealed that from 2010 to 2021, more than one of every four new Episcopal priests and deacons identified as LGBTQ – a proportion more than three times higher than for the U.S. population.
The Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) and Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA) have emerged as two alternatives for conservative bishops. GSFA describes itself as a “holy remnant” intent upon remaining within the Anglican Communion. Its leaders participated in Lambeth 2022, while leaders of the conservative GAFCON movement boycotted it.
GAFCON is event-based and first met in Jerusalem in 2008 with 1,100 delegates from 29 countries. It was there that it issued the Jerusalem Declaration. Ten years later, GAFCON convened 1,900 delegates from 53 countries.
Conservative Anglicans will meet in Kigali, Rwanda in 2023 for the fourth GAFCON gathering. Many believe the future means to “decolonize” the faith, moving Anglicanism away from its historic centre at Canterbury and heterodox Western leaders. Or as Canon Chris Sugden, a leader at the Oxford Centre for Religion in Public Life, summarized their argument: “Africa is now the actual heart of Anglicanism.”
GSFA has its roots in high-level meetings that began in 1994 and currently has 24 member churches, including the breakaway Anglican Church in North America and its Canadian diocese–The Anglican Network in Canada.
Badi pledged that his Global South colleagues would remain and pursue “repair of the tear” in the Communion. “Let those with revisionist theology go or repent,” he told a press conference. “The West had the gospel and took it to us in Africa. We may have to bring it back.”
Lambeth 2022 approved all ten Lambeth Calls mostly as presented, except for rejecting a proposed fifth Instrument of Communion. The Calls covered: Mission and Evangelism, Safe Church, Anglican Identity, Reconciliation, Human Dignity, Environment and Sustainable Development, Christian Unity, Inter-Faith Relations, Discipleship and Science and Faith.
All Lambeth Calls are collected in a 34-page booklet available at bit.ly/LambethCalls2022.
The GSFA Statement reaffirming Lambeth I:10 can be found on their website at www.thegsfa.org.
The Inclusive Bishops Statement can be found at: www.episcopalchurch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/08/Inclusive-Bishops-Statement-Aug-2nd-2022.pdf
See also ANGLICAN CONGRESS article under “International.” TAP
