The Lambeth Conference and Authority in the Anglican Communion

Since 1867, every ten years the Archbishop of Canterbury hosts the Lambeth Conference, a meeting of all the Anglican bishops in the world. His Grace, the 102nd Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev'd Dr. George Carey, is the head of the Church of England. Owing to that traditional leadership role, he is the "first among equals" of the primate bishops of the Anglican provinces. The Archbishop is not an Anglican pope. He has no control over Anglicans outside the Church of England. In place of that authority, the Lambeth Conference exists as a body of Anglican bishops with advisory powers. The resolutions passed at Lambeth are not legislative and are not binding in any practical way; they are meant to be a signal for the whole body Anglican of the mind of our episcopate.

The most recent Lambeth Conference was held last summer at Oxford in Kent, England. Several important issues were debated there for the very first time, among them third-world debt and homosexuality. These became key debates because the majority of Anglicans today are Africans in third-world countries, and the issues of homosexual ordination and same-sex unions have been raging in the U.S., Britain and Canada. The bishops passed resolutions calling on world leaders to examine the third-world debt crisis, and took a particularly controversial stance on homosexuality.

Important to understanding the resolutions that were passed and their significance is the fact that Lambeth has no authority over the individual churches. The bishops go home at the end of the conference and continue to run their churches as they see fit, doing so even if some of what they do is contrary to Lambeth. This is an example of the unique quality of Anglicanism. Authority is centered in the individual diocesan bishops, and in the legislative bodies of the individual churches. In the U.S., we have a bicameral instrument called the General Convention, consisting of the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies. General Convention is held every three years, and its resolutions are binding on the Episcopal Church in the U.S. It is led by the President of the House of Deputies, Dr. Pamela Chinnis, and the Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold, formerly the 10th Bishop of the Diocese of Chicago.

Interesting to the Episcopal Church, there is no authority that controls the actions of individual diocesan bishops. They are a power unto themselves and have the freedom to uphold or disregard church teachings and practice as they see fit. As bishops of the Episcopal Church they are expected to adhere to the canons of the church, but there are instances of renegade bishops who ignore church teaching. Examples include the five diocesan bishops who refuse to ordain women and who do not allow women to serve as priests in their dioceses. The only way a bishop can be deposed is through the action of a heresy trial. The Court for the Trial of a Bishop is a standing commission of the General Convention, comprised of bishops, and has the authority to hear an episcopal heresy trial. The Episcopal Church has not seen a heresy trial in over 100 years. The action taken by the Court against a heretic bishop is excommunication. Several years ago, the retired bishop of Iowa, the Rt. Rev. Walter Righter, was charged by ten bishops with heresy for knowingly ordaining a non-celibate gay man to the diaconate. The Court declared there was not enough evidence to hold a trial.

Go To Page: 1 2

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic