wfn.org | Youth, church effectiveness on agenda for Lambeth Conference

["Lambeth98" <storm@indigo.ie>]

ACNS LC070 - 30 July 1998

Youth, church effectiveness on agenda for
Lambeth Conference sections

by E.J. Malone Jr. & Allan Reeder

Lambeth Conference Communications

The Lambeth Conference section considering mission and evangelism
may suggest that the world's Anglican bishops be challenged to
meet with a set number of young people who do not go to church.

Bishops leading the working groups on Section Two (Called to Live
and Proclaim the Good News) and Section Three (Called to be a
Faithful Church in a Plural World) outlined the major themes
emerging from their discussions at a press conference Thursday.
Other current topics include suggestions for an expanded role for
the Archbishop of Canterbury and for improved effectiveness of
the church in urban areas.

The challenge of urban ministry

"The urban crisis and how the church is to respond" is a key
issue for Section Two, according to Bishop Rowan Williams of
Monmouth (Wales). "We've heard a lot of success stories but these
tend to come from areas that are fairly rural," Bishop Williams
said. 

The Anglican Church's "Decade of Evangelism," begun at the
Lambeth conference in 1988, has "not been a success in the north
as it has in the south" for a range of complex reasons, Bishop
Williams told journalists. "The gospel seems to be most vividly
heard where there are the least material possessions around."

Bishop Williams said the church in developed urban nations has
been slow to think strategically about how to respond to new
patterns of ministry.

Practical suggestions to keep Anglican bishops in touch with the
younger generation are also emerging as possible resolutions from
the Lambeth conference.

Bishop Williams said that one suggestion has been to challenge
every bishop "to meet with a concrete number of young people in
their own diocese, . . . and also to meet with the unchurched
young." 

He added that "however difficult and embarrassing, it is
important for the bishop to be in touch with youth, communicating
and sharing."

New role suggested for Anglicans' international head 

The growth of the international role of the Archbishop of
Canterbury is also under discussion as bishops work on the
international structures which form the framework of the Anglican
church. 

"The Archbishop of Canterbury is not the Pope of the Anglican
Communion, but his role as spokesman has grown greatly in the
last two or three decades," said Los Angeles' Bishop Frederick
Borsch (USA), the chair of the group dealing with pluralism.
Increased ease of air travel has made the archbishop a more
familiar figure, Bishop Borsch said.

According to discussion amongst the bishops, feeling is also
growing in support of a stronger decision-making role for the
primates, the national heads of the 37 Anglican provinces
worldwide. 

 "There is thought to give them more authority in matters of
common interest and that they might be the body that has the
flexibility to meet more often," Bishop Borsch said.

Addressing a plural world

"Christianity was born into a plural world. Today Christianity
seeks to be part of the culture in which it finds itself. The
gospel has to be heard in more than just the language of the
people, it has to be interpreted into the entire culture of a
people," he said. "But at the same time Christianity is by its
nature going to be counter-culture, to be opposed to things in
the culture such as unbridled capitalism and extreme nationalism,
that it considers wrong."

Responding to a question from a reporter, Bishop Borsch said that
his section "did discuss" the topic of lay presidency, the
practice where lay people preside at Communion services. "The
feeling of the section is not to recommend it," he said.

For further information, contact:

   Lambeth Conference Communications
   Canterbury Business School
   University of Kent at Canterbury
   Telephone: 01227 827348/9
   Fax: 01227 828085
   Mobile: 0374 800212

   http://www.lambethconference.org