Princeton Theological Seminary President Iain Torrance shares in this week’s edition his own reflections on the Lambeth Conference (see p. 8). Some 670-plus bishops from around the world gathered for the three-week-long, once-a-decade meeting. Did these leaders stave off an impending split of their 77-million member fellowship? Did they offer something to help keep on board the 200 other bishops who boycotted the event? It’s too early to tell, but they made great progress.
They chose dialogue over debate. Instead of convening a business meeting, they talked with one another and with God.
The conversations with God were most important. True to their tradition — where theology and liturgy are inextricably interweaved (we Reformed Christians have much to learn from them on this count) — they began with a three-day retreat for worship and prayer. Then they weaved worship, Bible study, and theological reflection through all their days’ work. They determined to hear from God, and it appears that God was not silent.
The conversations with one another were critical, too. In small groups, then larger Indaba (Zulu for “purposeful discussion”) groups, in plenary sessions and into a writing group, they began to grasp each others’ depth of passion on varying topics and amid differing perspectives; they dispelled misconceptions of what they had heard the “others” believe; and they discovered far more unity of faith than they had imagined possible.
In the end they wrote the Lambeth Indaba, a collection of reflections that emerged in those conversations. “Our time together has indeed demonstrated to us the breadth and richness of the Communion. … we have found ourselves profoundly connected with one another and committed to God’s mission” (p. 4).
Indeed, they summarized, “Whatever the popular perception, the options before us are not irreparable schism or forced assimilation.” (p. 6)
What holds them together? Repeatedly the document affirms biblical faith and recommits these colleagues to evangelism that “is the cutting edge of mission in the proclamation of the Good News of Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour by word and deed” (p. 9). It elevates the social mission “to the poor and to the outcasts … ” (p. 10). It emphasizes that mission produces “the renewal of society under the Reign of God; the ending of injustice and the restoration of right relationship with God and between human beings and between humanity and creation” (p. 14).
It also acknowledges the need to do mission in context-specific ways, recognizing that an effective act of service in one place may backfire in another.
It recommits the Anglicans to broader Christian unity noting, “Ecumenism is a meeting in truth in Christ” (p. 22).
And it tackles the matter of same-sex relationships, acknowledging a unity in sincerity — each other’s determination to follow God’s leading, even though that endeavor has been pursued in differing and even contrary directions. “As bishops we need to repent of the ways in which our hardness of heart toward each other may have contributed to the brokenness of our Communion at this present time” (p. 31). It then lists a collection of possible ways forward, landing on no simple, summary conclusion. In the meantime, it does call for the observance of a moratorium from taking any more of the provocative actions that launched and fueled the conflicts between them.
Finally it outlines a shared desire to form a covenant that could “provide historical continuity with the past, creativity in the present and lead us into the future … delighting in unity and diversity, rather than imposing uniformity and conformity.” The document adds, “A covenant may help heal present wounds and prevent new ones” (p. 38).
I still prefer elders and deacons, but you’ve got to like those Anglicans bishops. We have a few things to learn from them.
— JHH
