wfn.org | Text of Presidential Address, Lambeth 1998 [Part 1]

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ACNS LC024 - 20 July 1998

Presidential Address by the Archbishop of Canterbury to the 13th
Lambeth Conference

Transformation and renewal

After all the planning of the last few years it was wonderful for
me to stand in the Cathedral yesterday morning and to be able to
say with you all 'Yes, our 13th Lambeth Conference is now under
way'. I am frequently asked: 'What is the point of it'? and you
will recall that the very first Lambeth Conference began with
that kind of question and criticism. There was a certain coolness
within the Church of England when Archbishop Longley first
broached the subject. A number of senior bishops declared their
opposition and the Archbishop even felt the cold shoulder of
Westminster Abbey when Dean Stanley would not allow the
Conference to have the final service in the Abbey. 

Outside the Church there were those who couldn't see the point of
it. The Times' comment was: 'This sort of ecclesiastical tea
party at which some 70-year-old gentlemen would indulge in a mild
chat about religious politics . . . was . . . frittering away
their time and energy on impractical dreams'. Punch had a cartoon
of bishops washing their dirty linen in public. The Daily
Telegraph read the Pastoral Letter with 'respectful melancholy'.

So you see some things like criticism never change. Although I
guess many whose views were so negative after the first
Conference would be astounded to see us gathered today for the
13th Lambeth Conference. So many bishops from different parts of
the world; so many spouses, who will share their own separate
Programme. Such is the growth of our Communion. They would also
be surprised to see women bishops among that number for the first
time. And I want to say as president how glad I am to welcome
them. 

As we gather, then, I want to share with you my personal hope and
longing that all of us may be led into a more radical
discipleship shaped by God's transforming power through the
renewal of our lives.

For many months now there has been only one biblical image in my
mind that I have wanted to share with you. It is the one in the
penultimate chapter of the Revelation of St John where St. John
describes the Christian vision of God. A glorious picture of the
city of God-Alpha and Omega-in the midst of his people with the
triumphant cry: 'Behold, I make all things new!'

And there is an extraordinary irony about it, isn't there, that
we can all recognise and appreciate. There is John on the island
of Patmos, surrounded by an uncrossable sea-

at least for him, in enforced exile-given such visions of the
grandeur and holiness of God with the fierce denunciations of all
that opposes the rule and reign of God. No doubt, as with us,
there was much to encourage him, God was at work in the world,
the Church was growing, the faithfulness of people was
extraordinary and the grace of God at times almost palpably
present. But there were also discouragements and disappointments.
He was in prison, after all. He knew all about the discouragement
of persecution, the disappointment when people let you down, and
when at times God himself seems at times remote.

And we can identify with this theme of blessing and
disappointment. Since we met 10 years ago there have been many
blessings we can recount. Who could have forecast in 1988 that
within eighteen months European Communism as a great ideological
power would come crashing down with the toppling of the Berlin
Wall? Who could have foreseen then that within a few years the
political reality of apartheid in South Africa would cease,
without civil war? Who would have believed that even now, amidst
all that still threatens us today, that we could be on the verge
of peace in Northern Ireland? Who would have believed that one of
the results of the last Conference, the call to make the 90's a
'Decade of Evangelism,' could in so many Provinces have been so
effective? We have been blessed and we have been surprised by thegoodness
and generosity of God.

Yet, there have been many disappointments as well. We have seen
the country of Rwanda broken through bitter racial conflict and
our own Church there sadly torn in two. Though we are delighted
that our Church in Rwanda is now whole, we mourn the fact that
over 800,000 were murdered in that genocide. The war in the Sudan
continues to rage and as a result the land of Sudan has too many
widows and too many orphans. We are glad to note the ceasefire
which was agreed last week to allow aid to reach the suffering
people of Bakr El Gazel. But what is required is an end to the
war and a lasting peace based on justice and freedom for all. I
hope our Conference will send a strong message to the Sudanese
Government and to the SPLA.

Poverty and starvation stalk too many of the lands where
Anglicans serve; the AIDS virus is a curse in too many countries;
it blights the lives of millions. Ignorance and lack of
educational opportunities hold back millions of young people. We
are told by the President of the World Bank who will join us on
Friday that 'three billion people live under two dollars a day.
One billion three hundred million live on under one dollar a day.
One hundred million go hungry every day. One hundred and fifty
million never get the chance to go to school'. They are the
terrible, awful statistics behind the issue of the relief of the
burden of unpayable debt which will focus as a major element in
this Conference.

And this is our world. This is the world in which we work and and
live, the world in which we are called to serve and witness. 

And who has not known discouragement and disappointment not only
in the world in which we work, but in doing the tasks we have
been set? Even when our circumstances are undramatic, so often we
seem to see so little for our toil. We can feel marginalised,
especially if our declaration of the love and sovereignty of God
is ignored or brushed aside.

These experiences are ones that all Christians of every
generation must in honesty wrestle with. None of us is immune
from them and to those who have come to this Conference worn out,
clapped out, physically, mentally or spiritually, may I encourage
you to use this time for personal refreshment through worship,
through silence, through conversations and through prayer. Don't
spend too much of your time rushing from one activity to
another-or queuing for food for that matter-that you miss out on
what God wants most to give you. Spiritual health, my brothers
and sisters, is just as vital to seek as physical health.

Yet, if the experience of disappointment and discouragement is
part of our Christian vocation and one which I hope we will
honestly share one with the other, woe betide us if we confine
ourselves over the next three weeks to self pity or mere
introspection. Even when evil seems to prevail in so many places,
and in so many ways, the challenge before us is to bring to the
world an authoritative vision of the God of love and justice who
is the beginning and end of all things. The God who declares:
'Behold, I make all things new,' is the same Lord who called an
earnest, searching rabbi called Saul, to say after his conversion
to the Roman Christians after his conversion: 'Be transformed by
the renewal of your mind'. He is the same Lord, too, who is the
unseen President of our Conference and who calls us to be
transformed people with a vision for renewal.

So what might this mean in practical terms for those of us
gathered here? May I suggest there are four main areas on which
we need to focus: The Renewal of our Vision, our Church, our
Mission and our Vocation as Bishops.

First is required a renewal of our vision. Irenaeus, the great
second-century bishop and theologian, had a wonderful vision of
God and his activity in the world. It is one we should foster
too. For him Christ had redeemed all things. All things were
reaching forward to their consummation when 'God will be all in
all.' That is a breathtaking vision when one recalls that
Irenaeus was the Bishop of tiny Christian congregations in what
is now southern France, in the midst of great hostility and, at
times, persecution. Faced with such trials, Irenaeus' response
was not to surrender to despair or disappointment but rather to
go deeper into an understanding of God whose will it is to
'gather all things in heaven and on earth up into Christ'.
Irenaeus' ministry, in spite of the truly awful context in which
it was set, is a challenge to us in our own day, with its
unmistakable optimism in God. He wrote: 

For just as God is always the same, so the human being who is
found in God always progresses towards God. Nor shall God at any
time cease from bestowing benefits and riches on humankind; nor
shall humankind cease from receiving these benefits and from
being enriched by God. For the human being which is grateful to
its creator is the vessel of his goodness and the instrument of
his glorification. (AH IV. 11.1-2) 

What a mind-stretching vision of God's generosity and goodness!
And in it he gives us a key to how we, in this Conference, a
family of Christian leaders, may be transformed in our ministry
together and in our ministry individually. That key is a
heartfelt, simple gratitude to our God: gratitude practised
daily, gratitude practised hourly; gratitude which makes us
vessels of living praise. For it makes useven us! - 'vessels of
God's goodness' and 'instruments' by which God will be glorified.
That is the first - wonderful - task of this Conference: to be a
place of transformation and of renewed vision, for the sake both
of God's Church and, still more importantly, of the world.

It is all too easy to lose the big picture in the detail of busy
ministries. In one of Alec Vidler's books he comments: 'Men
connect the church, not with the disturbing and renewing
encounter of a Holy God, but, as someone has said, with
"unattractive services, tedious homilies, the smell of hymn
books, the petty round of ecclesiastical functions, the
collection bag, an oppression due to lack of oxygen and memories
of Sunday school"'.

And, so often, that narrow kind of experience has cut people off
from the powerful reality of the Christian faith. Here in this
Conference, we have the opportunity to bring and share with each
other all the distresses, as well as the joys, of the cultures
from which we come; all the different understandings, and
divisions of the Anglican Communion, as well as all that unites
us. All these we can bring to be transformed by the power of the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which we celebrate in
gratitude; gratitude to our Sovereign God who makes of it all
something quite new, something which declares his goodness.

So, it is my hope that we too will talk about our theology as
much as the issues that confront us because solutions will only
emerge from a real encounter in gratitude with our living God.

And isn't this a particular challenge for Section One with its
gaze on 'Being fully Human?' This Section will have a
particularly busy time with so many controversial issues: the
environment, freedom, and international debt-to say nothing of
human sexuality! 

I hope, of course, that we will see real progress being made over
the three weeks as we seek to listen carefully to what the Spirit
is saying to the Churches. The danger may be, however, of a too
rapid immersion in the issues with the result that the true scale
of divine reality is forgotten as we focus on the detail. May I
urge us all to spend as much time on a truly grand theology of
the awesome beauty, might and wonder of God as we will on the
relatively minor questions we constantly ask about the way that
we should behave in relation to his glory and goodness. The many
world problems we face will be discovered in their true
perspective only if we look at them steadily in the context of
our grateful certainty of God's sovereign love; the God who can
transform what is deathly and death-dealing within us; the God
who is 'working his purposes out as year succeeds to year'.

Which leads me to my second point. For as well as a renewal of
our vision we must determine to seek a renewal of our Church.
Here we need, I believe, to begin with a glad acknowledgement of,
and deep gratitude for, the goodness of the Church and the grace
of God brought to us through her. The missionary to India, E.
Stanley Jones, used to say: 'I love my mother in spite of her
wrinkles!' And we love the Church because through her we found
faith in Christ, hope, blessing and renewal. We must not number
ourselves among those who despise her, denigrate her or speak ill
of her. I am sometimes very sad when fellow Anglicans mock our
Church, publicly and criticise her unfairly. When we do so we are
not following our Lord who 'loved the Church and gave himself for
her'. She is indeed, 'that stretched magnificence' in Edwin
Muir's tribute to the Church through the centuries.

And from that context of love for God's Church and through our
theological wrestling, working with those of different traditions
to our own, we shall, I believe, discover new and unexpected
riches. It was Archibald Tait, the Bishop of London and later
Archbishop of Canterbury, who commented ironically just over a
century ago in the midst of the disputes surrounding the
publication of a book entitled Essays and Reviews: 'The great
evil is that the liberals are deficient in religion, and the
religious are deficient in liberality. Let us pray for an
outpouring of the very spirit of truth.'

And let us also pray for the renewal of the Church through an
outpouring of that same Spirit. In a world where so many people
talk in extreme terms, and claim that their perception of the
truth is the only one that counts, let us remember that we have
always been a Communion where diversity and difference has been
cherished and, indeed, celebrated. Brian Davis, formerly
Archbishop of New Zealand, who died just a few weeks ago, and is
greatly missed by us all, wrote these splendid words in his book
The Way Ahead: 'The Anglican Church, whilst not claiming to be
the definitive form of Christianity, has the advantage of
maintaining the faith and order of the ancient Catholic
tradition, as well as the freedom and evangelical spirit of the
Protestant tradition. The Anglican via media, or middle way, has
encouraged the growth of tolerance, freedom and generosity of
spirit. We are not a coercive institution but depend on friendly
persuasion. Within our decision-making structures we know, most
of the time, how to argue and fight fairly. We are also an
inclusive church, welcoming those whose faith is fragile and
uncertain, as well as those whose faith is strong and heroic'
(204). 

But, lest I should be misunderstood, I am not arguing for some
kind of Anglican comprehensiveness that is vague and woolly or is
uncertain about the foundations of our faith. Indeed not. We have
a firm hold on a historic credal faith, earthed in Holy
Scripture. This is primary and pivotal and there are boundaries
to our faith and morals which we cross at our peril. In the
splendid words of our Virginia Report: 'Anglicans affirm the
sovereign authority of the Holy Scriptures as the medium through
which God by the Holy Spirit communicates his word in the Church
and thus enables people to respond with understanding and faith.
The scriptures are 'uniquely inspired witness to divine
revelation' and 'the primary norm for Christian faith and life.'

But it is important to go on to the next section of the Virginia
Report: 'The scriptures, however, must be translated, read, and
understood, and their meaning grasped through a continuing
process of interpretation. Since the 17th century Anglicans have
held that scripture is to be understood and read in the light
afforded by the twin contexts of 'tradition' and 'reason.'

And, of course, that doesn't mean that we use terms like
'tradition' and 'reason' as 'cop- outs' to do whatever we want!
What it does mean is that there is an interplay of bible,
tradition and reason which never undermines the primacy and
authority of scripture.

As Bishop Rowan Williams said in his address this morning: 'The
rock is Christ and we dig deeply into that rock.' A theology
which wrestles with the text of scripture in the light of the
faith of the Church through the ages, the scrutiny of reason and
the experience of Christians in the Church and world today is
what I believe we should be working at over these next three
weeks. And wherever those discussions may take us, let us never
forget that it is people, our brothers and sisters in Christ, who
will be deeply affected by whatever stance we take.

Now, I have said already that there are boundaries beyond which
we cannot stray if we are to be true to all we have received and
to ourselves as Anglicans today. But, saying that is to invite
the question: 'If the Anglican Communion is a family of
interdependent churches, and the Lambeth Conference has no
binding doctrinal force, in what sense can we speak of the
Anglican Communion?'.

And here we will need to face head on both the strength and the
weakness of our form of ecclesial structure. Its perceived
weakness in the eyes of some is that it is not a hierarchical,
monarchical form of 'top down' authority. In the absence of any
universal structures of collegiality that could determine how
each Province should act there are those consequently who want to
give the Archbishop of Canterbury a more 'monarchical' role. Now,
not only has our Communion rejected this option firmly, but so
has every Archbishop of Canterbury in recent years! But if we shy
away from such centralising authority in the See of Canterbury,
we also tend to shy away from the empowering of the other bonds
of unity-the Anglican Consultative Council, the Primates Meeting
and the Lambeth Conference. In them we place structures for
consultation but not for making juridical decisions that are
binding on the Communion as a whole. 

Thus, if we meet as a fellowship of self-governing, national
churches, in what realistic form can we claim to be a
'Communion'? 

The answer is found, I believe, in what we share and hold in
common. A common heritage of doctrine, faith, liturgy and
spirituality; an understanding of authority as expressed through
a 'dispersed,' rather than centralised authority; episcopal
leadership exercised in conjunction with synodical government. We
make no apology for this form of polity which has real strengths
because the conciliar forms of consultation are strong and rich. 

In the closing words of his excellent book Unashamed Anglicanism,
Bishop Stephen Sykes states that: 'The natural mode of (Anglican)
ecclesiology is to allow debate, disagreement, and conflict as a
normal part of its life. It will provide a structure for the
God-given gift of insight and leadership and for understanding
and consent; and that structure will be appropriate to differing
patterns of authority in different cultures at various times.'

Yes, this is open to the charge of 'untidiness' and
'incoherence.' Nevertheless we can defend our position proudly
because the alternatives remain authoritarianism and the stifling
of individual conscience. And if, as John Henry Newman once
remarked, 'every organisation seemed to start with a prophet and
end up with a policeman,' it seems we have successfully avoided
this criticism.

Nonetheless, we need to treasure our Communion as a gift from God
and also to pay attention to the tension between the 'local' and
the 'universal.' To be in communion means that the 'local church'
both expresses and encompasses the faith of the universal church.
Indeed, that is exactly what it means to be 'catholic.' And for
Dioceses, Provinces and the Communion itself, it means to keep in
step; to maintain unity at all times. To quote Dr Paul Avis in
the current edition of Theology: 'To practice the grace of
walking together without coercive constraints is the special
vocation of Anglicanism in our pluralistic world'.

In the light of these reflections there are many practical
questions we need to address if we are to be open to God's
renewing Spirit. How may we stay together when difficult
decisions threaten to divide us? How may we be more effective
leaders of our Provinces, Dioceses and Churches? Again, the
Virginia Report asks searching theological and practical
questions about our structures that I trust this Conference will
address properly and responsibly.

As we do so, we need to remind ourselves that Anglicanism has
never regarded itself as a final form of Christianity. As with
many Churches, we look ahead to God's promise of a transformed
and renewed Church when we shall all be, visibly, One, Holy,
Catholic and Apostolic. That destiny beckons us on even if we
cannot yet see the character of that unity and the programme it
will take. Over the last 10 years much progress has been made
both in our theological conversations with other churches and in
the deepening of lived relationships. The Resolution in 1988 to
deepen our dialogue with the Lutheran Churches has led to the
Porvoo Agreement between the Lutheran Churches of the Nordic and
Baltic region and the Anglican churches of these islands. We
thank God for that and are so pleased to have a number of
Lutheran bishops from those Churches with us. We rejoice too at
the continuing theological dialogue between ECUSA and the
Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and we are pleased to note
as well the movements towards unity between Lutherans and
Anglicans in Africa and Canada. Indeed, whether one looks
internationally to our relationships with the Roman Catholic
Church and the Orthodox or, in this country, to those with the
Moravians and the Methodists, there is much to celebrate in the
ecumenical journey of closer co-operation, deepening friendship,
frank consultations and creative theological dialogue and
convergence. Much needs to be done, but none can deny the
progress we have made together. It is a mark of the power of
God's Spirit at work among us.

But, and this is my third main point, there also needs to be a
renewal of our mission. Ten years ago, this Conference issued the
invitation to make the 90's a decade of evangelism. It was an
inspiring and necessary call in the main directed by our African
brothers. Now as I travel the Communion it is clear that many
Provinces have responded to that invitation brilliantly, with
energy and enthusiasm and we can chalk up some significant
successes as we have opened ourselves to a process of renewal.

For instance, we have at last put an end to the puzzling divide
espoused by some of forcing a choice between 'mission or
evangelism.' We are clear now there is no 'or.' It is mission and
evangelism. We are called to proclaim Christ and we exist for
mission. The narrower task of making disciples and leading them
to baptism is well and truly placed within the task of sharing
God's mission to the entire world. How my heart was moved three
years ago by one of the Sudanese bishops here with us today, who
spoke of the problem of preaching the Gospel in the refugee camps
outside Khartoum, which my wife and I were visiting with him:
'You see, Archbishop,' he said hesitantly, 'We have a saying
'empty stomachs have no ears.' That kind of compassion is central
to any vision of the mission of a transformed church. People need
to be fed physically as well as spiritually, and a Church that
exists for God in his world must be prepared not only to spread
the Gospel but also to press for action on the great issues
confronting our world, whether they are to do with International
Debt or the Environment. That is part of what it is to be
involved in God's mission and it is something we neglect at our
peril. 

But evangelism must not to be avoided either, even if, as
Anglicans, we have often found it quite difficult in the past. We
are called to be evangelists in the line of Augustine, the first
Archbishop of Canterbury who came to this country in such fear
and humility 1400 years ago. Our apostolic message, in the words
of Paul in 2 Corinthians is to say to all people: 'Be reconciled
to God.'

So too we have been learning that it is love that is the most
important ingredient if we wish to be effective missionaries and
evangelists. There are techniques of evangelism, to be sure, but
the 'charism' of love is the main channel through which the
majority of converts will come. They will come through the
devotion of worship; through the love and graciousness we offer
those searching hesitantly for faith. As the former Primate of
Canada, Ted Scott, wrote: 'Nothing is really true unless love is
involved in it'. Words echoed by the Welsh Anglican poet, R.S.
Thomas, who, reflecting on the dangers of loveless evangelism,
wrote: 

'They listened to me preaching the unique Gospel

Of love, but our eyes never met'.

Aggressive, insensitive evangelism or prosyletism has never been
our style, and God forbid that we should ever adopt it; but love
for others is surely where true discipling begins. And if we are
hesitant evangelists, then let us begin with loving the world for
Christ's sake, and let that lead us to sharing what that love
means in a world hungry for it.

Let me also this stress the importance of 'the local' in the task
of mission and evangelism. I want to affirm and encourage
Provinces in continuing to develop their own traditions and
express worship and faith in their own culture. I have often
said, jokingly of course, to those Provinces influenced by the
English Church in the last century: 'Be less English! Be more
African or Asian or South American. Let your own traditions,
music, and ways of devotion enrich your life!' And I am so
delighted that this is happening and we, here in the more
established parts of the world where Christianity first took
root, are beginning to learn from your experiences, as we see
your faith, your joy and your love for our Lord. By empowering
and celebrating the local we enrich the whole.

I believe that we are also beginning to learn as a Communion that
evangelism and dialogue belong together. For the first time in
the history of Lambeth Conferences there will be a plenary
specifically given over to our relations with Islam and I was
delighted that representatives of other faiths were present at
our Opening Service. There can be no doubting the importance of
inter-faith dialogue and co-operation, for the peace and
well-being of the World. It is important, too, as a number here
will remind us from their own experience, for those Provinces
where Christians are in a minority and where, sometimes, to be a
Christian is to face persecution. 

But dialogue, co-operation and friendship with those of other
faiths need not deaden the nerve of mission. My personal journey
in inter-faith relations in recent years has yielded a rich
harvest of appreciation of what we have in common with people of
other faiths. I count many of them as friends. But this does not
compromise the specificity of the Christian revelation. We hold
Jesus Christ as the one Saviour of the world and we invite all to
honour him as Lord for it is a faith given to us to share with
all. We are called to be unapologetic about the claims of Christ.
That is our message and that is the transforming heart of the
Church's teaching. 

Of course, the way we witness to our Lord is very dependent on
the context we are in, but fundamental to all contexts must be an
invitation to consider the claims of Christ and it means in turn
respect and dialogue with those with whom we disagree. 

There will be no transformed Church and no renewed Mission if to
echo R.S. Thomas once again: eyes do not meet in friendship,
welcome, understanding and kindness. Indeed, it did not escape
several of the early Church Fathers that 'Chrestos'-kindness-was
but a vowel difference from 'Christos', Christ, the anointed one.
Respect, courtesy, kindness and gentleness are part of the true
structures of faith through which the grace of God comes shining
through. 

But my fourth and final point is this. As people called by God to
hold a particular office in his Church we must seek the renewal
of our Vocation. For as leaders, we can function either as a
barrier or as a channel. If we are not transformed, corporately
and individually, through that constant practice of gratitude for
a loving, sovereign Lord, his vision for his Church and his
people will never become a reality. Ten days ago I had the
immense privilege of unveiling the statues of ten 20th Century
Martyrs which now form part of the West Front of Westminster
Abbey. Some like Janani Luwum, Martin Luther King and Oscar
Romero exercised leadership on behalf of many. Others like Esther
John, Manche Masemola, Wang Zhiming or Lucian Tapiedi are little
known outside their own countries and churches. Yet all died a
martyr's death, and all knew what it was to be a servant of
Christ and an effective channel for his Spirit.

[continued...]