wfn.org | Lambeth Conference endorses talks with Methodists

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Aug. 7, 1998	Contact: Linda Bloom*(212) 870-3803*New York       {468}

 By United Methodist News Service

The Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops, meeting July 18-Aug. 9 in
Canterbury, England, has endorsed continuing dialogue between Anglicans
and Methodists in various regions of the world.

The endorsement came with the conference's unanimous acceptance of a
1996 document, "Sharing in the Apostolic Communion," which previously
had been adopted by the World Methodist Council. That document grew from
an international Methodist-Anglican dialogue prompted by the 1988
Lambeth Conference.

According to an Aug. 6 statement, the Lambeth Conference recommended
establishing an international joint working group with the World
Methodist Council as soon as possible. The group would "promote,
encourage and monitor regional developments" regarding dialogues.

It also would prepare guidelines "for moving beyond acknowledgement to
the reconciliation of churches and, within that, the reconciliation of
ordained ministries and structures for common decision-making."

 Releasing the statement were United Methodist Bishop William Oden of
Dallas, who served as co-chairman of the Anglican-Methodist
International Commission; the Rt. Rev. Rupert Hoare, Bishop of Dudley, a
commission member and chairman of the Lambeth Conference's subsection on
Anglican-Methodist relations; and the Rev. Geoffrey Wainwright, chairman
of the World Methodist Council's Standing Committee on Ecumenism.

The establishment of regional dialogues would follow the pattern of
Anglican relations with other Christian communions, according to the
statement. Mutual agreements might acknowledge that each church "belongs
to the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church of Jesus Christ," that
each preaches the authentic word of God and that both communions "share
in the common confession and heritage of the apostolic faith."

The Lambeth Conference recommended the joint working group should
"encourage action in each place leading to full, visible unity."

While noting that differing views on evangelization contributed to the
original separation between Methodists and Anglicans, the statement said
"the urgency of the missionary task in the contemporary world helps to
drive the two communions towards the restoration of that unity."

Oden and Wainwright, a professor at Duke University, attended the
Lambeth Conference as ecumenical participants.

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