Abstract
This collection of articles (yes, there are 39 of them, surely a coincidence?) might be subtitled ‘Lambeth through the keyhole’: it gives often tantalizing glimpses into what went on at the 2022 conference, but it is of necessity limited in scope and perspective. Some of the pieces are simply factual accounts of process: what happened when, where, involving whom. Archdeacon Robert Jones’s report on Daily Worship, for instance, outlines the timetable of the services succinctly and accurately, but offers no commentary or personal reflection, which is a pity because he is a profoundly reflective and astute observer.
While this compilation does not shrink from reporting on the controversies and tensions in the Anglican Communion, the editor has no intention of prolonging or provoking them. Instead, he offers something of an eirenicon to those who attended, to those they represent, and to those who refused to attend (in one keynote address, Archbishop Justin Welby names ‘the Nigerians, the Ugandans and the Rwandans’ to say how he misses them from the conference).
There is abundant evidence to support the contention that ‘that which unites us is far greater than that which divides’. It is often said that nothing unites like a common enemy, and the sense of solidarity among the bishops and their spouses is most palpable in the face of such enemies as the climate emergency, slavery, poverty and other denials of human dignity, and the abuse of power. These concepts may be abstract, but in these pages there are powerful testimonies of the real people of God engaging, often riskily and self-sacrificially, in real life and death situations. To borrow a phrase Rowan Williams once used following a visit to the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, to hear these stories made me want to be a Christian.
A common enemy may be a unifier, but for Christians, a far more powerful unifying force is the Holy Spirit. Even the limited keyhole view allows the reader to recognize the respect, friendliness and Christian love that characterized so many of the gatherings. Clearly a report such as this is never going to cover the ‘down’ times, but I can attest that the informal conversations at breaks and other moments were marked by warmth and laughter and a clear desire to engage together in mission.
The final section on the Lambeth Calls is a practical workbook for facilitating discussion at parish and diocesan level in every corner of the Anglican Communion. So there is an invitation here for those who were not at Lambeth to become not an observer but a participant in being God’s Church for God’s world.