Anglican Executive Officer on Lambeth
Diocesan Press Service. June 5, 1968 [66-8]
What is Lambeth '68? What is its place in the life of the Anglican Communion? Can it be expected in a time of international uncertainty and confusion to arrive at decisions that will have significance for the Christian and non-Christian world? What are its mechanics and who will attend? Because of changed and changing conditions in the Church and in the world will there ever be another Lambeth?
These and other questions are answered in the following interview with the Rt. Rev. Ralph Dean, Bishop of Cariboo, Canada, and the Executive Officer of the Anglican Communion who will serve as episcopal secretary at Lambeth. The interview was conducted by the Rev. Robert Libby, director of the radio-television division of Executive Council during a recent trip to England.
Libby: What is a Lambeth Conference, Bishop?
Dean: Well, it's a meeting of Anglican Bishops held every ten years which began in 1867 and has met at every ten-year period since -- except the period 1930 to 1948 when the Second World War stopped its being held.
L. Who comes for the Lambeth Conference ?
D. Those Bishops who are invited by the Archbishop of Canterbury, whoever he may be. Some Archbishops have invited only Diocesan Bishops and this because the Communion has grown and grown. But the present Archbishop has invited suffragan and assistant and coadjutor Bishops as well.
L. How many Bishops do you expect to come ?
D. In the region of five hundred.
L. When will they meet and where will they meet ?
D. Oh, they will meet from July 26th to August 25th, and they will meet in Church House, Westminster, and the subcommittees will meet in Westminster School which is adjacent to Church House.
L. Will there be anybody else here except Anglican Bishops ?
D. Yes. For the first time, there will be. There will be about 25 consultants. They are experts in various aspects of the agenda and also there will be about 60 observers from many other parts of Christendom. That is to say, other churches than Anglican.
L. Will the findings of the Lambeth Conference in these plenary sessions be binding on the member churches of the Anglican Communion?
D. No, they won't be and they never have been. It's a meeting of brotherly consultation so that the decisions of Lambeth have a considerable moral weight since it's the weight of the total episcopate, but its resolutions are not binding on any branch of the Anglican Communion.
L. Is the Lambeth Conference the Anglican version of Vatican II?
D. Yes, in a sense, except that the Vatican II was, by definition, so to speak dogmatic body that could pronounce. But this is not true of the Lambeth Conference.
L. What do you think the reaction of the Lambeth Conference will be to the findings of Vatican II? This is the first time that Lambeth has met, is it not, since Vatican II and will be their first opportunity to react.
D. Oh, yes, indeed. It's reflected in the agenda because one subcommittee will deal with relations with the Roman Catholic Church. So that it can't behave as though Vatican II had not happened.
L. How will Lambeth tie in with the World Council of Churches meeting that is happening at Uppsala, in Sweden this summer?
D. Well, we've tried to construct an agenda that did not conflict with Uppsala or nearly duplicate it. But we've tried to fashion it in a way that will pick up the results of Uppsala and feed them into Lambeth. After all, quite a number of the Bishops will, themselves, have been in Uppsala. So again, we can't behave as though Uppsala hadn't happened.
L. What do you think Uppsala will say this summer ? Is there any prediction on that ?
D. I think that's terribly difficult and there are over 200 member churches in the World Council and they will all be represented. And since the world of '68 is very different from the time the last World Council Assembly was held, nobody dare predict what they will say. I would think that the so-called younger churches will be much more vocal than they were before because their nations have become independent and this feeling of independence naturally has affected the Christian community too. So I think they'll stand up and say their piece.
L. The whole business of the family emerged from the 1958 Lambeth Conference. What do you anticipate will emerge as the key issues of Lambeth '68 ?
D. Well, I personally think one of the most important issues is what kind of structure our Communion should have. If it is to behave as an Anglican Communion. In fact, it has no structure at the moment. The only so-to-speak "structural person" is the Executive Officer, which is me. This makes me a kind of Anglican pope on paper which nobody wants. Least of all do I want it. But I do, however, want some kind of structure that will represent the whole Communion and which will be able to make decisions which stick for all the parts.
L. What kind of decisions need to be made for the Anglican Communion?
D. Well, the matters of missionary strategy, above all. After all, this is what the Church exists for, and our present method of hit-and-miss as a missionary enterprise doesn't fit the kind of world we live in now. We have all seen too many occasions of the duplication of work. Areas are left uncovered because of this. That's why I think we need some missionary strategy.
L. Wasn't Mutual Responsibility and Interdependence in the Body of Christ the great document that came out of the Anglican Congress in Toronto in '63, supposed to really deal with this ? Do you think it has ? Has it been successful?
D. Well, in some sense it has. But it was unfortunate that the MRI document had one sentence that dealt with money. Which meant that nearly everybody concentrated upon that aspect. And so, it is popular to say that it failed in that it didn't produce the quite arbitrary sum of five million pounds that was suggested. On the other hand, two and a half million pounds is not to be sniffed at. And that's what has resulted even at the financial levels. But quite beyond that, this whole business of trying to look at our work in terms of our obedience to mission in our following after Christ, this has already affected the structures of several notable parts of the Communion, not least the Episcopal Church in the United States, and the Anglican Church of Canada.
L. You use the term "obedience to mission" instead of "missions. " How do you define the mission of the church?
D. Well, mission seems to me the particular point of view of enthusiasts about this particular aspect of the Church's work. Mission, I take to be a description of the Church itself. That is to say the Church is not the kingdom of God. It's meant to be the spearhead of the kingdom. Therefore it doesn't exist except to do exactly what Christ did. Try to reach out to all the people in their need or whatever kind their need may be.
L. Do you anticipate Lambeth will in any way challenge the Roman Catholic Church to take a more realistic position on birth control and in the face of world poverty and population explosions ?
D. No. I shouldn't think it would, particularly, and I don't know if we want at this stage to say challenge the Roman Catholic Church. If only because we are beginning to get on terms at some remove but certainly remarkable, considering what it was ten years ago. So I don't expect it will challenge the Roman Catholic Communion about that particular aspect.
L. What response do you think Lambeth will take to world famine and poverty?
D. Well, it depends on its reaction to what happens at Uppsala which does have a whole section on rich nations and poor nations. And I again can't feel that Lambeth will speak in a way that ignores whatever it is that Uppsala will say about this.
L. About the whole race question?
D. Well, this is again a very warm issue. You as an American will know better than I how warm this is. It would be folly to say that all Episcopalians think alike about this. Or that all Church of England people think alike about this. It's likely to be quite a divisive thing. As for me, I am opposed to any kind of a racialism but then I don't live in Kentucky.
L. We were talking earlier about the ecumenical scene. Do you see the relationship of the Anglican Communion towards the Roman Catholic Church changing?
D. Well, in the sense that now we know more about the Roman Catholic Church than we did. To that degree, I think we may see it to have changed. But I am sufficiently Protestant to have to say that the changing really ought to be done by the Roman Church. And I think we should be open and to move so in the Church.
L. Do you anticipate that within your own lifetime seeing any kind of concordat which would allow intercommunion between Anglicans and Roman Catholics ?
D. Well, in the terms of ordinary human reasoning, I would have said no. But then things have happened so fast in the last ten years, that I would be a rash man to say one way or the other. I would think it unlikely, but with God all things are possible. It could well happen.
L. What is the reaction in England to the proposed intercommunion with the Methodists ?
D. Well, the report itself I gather is approved by nine of the committee members and not approved by four of the committee members. And it raises the whole issue as to where in the Communion it fits. Is this the path to unity? That is to say, is it something which if we did it would lead to unity or is it with something we do when we are united. And this is the age-old question and still a matter of debate. I happen to belong to the first school of thought. On the other hand, I don't want intercommunion simply as an exotic piece of sacramentalism, if by that we mean that having communicated together, we would then go out and work separately again.
L. Bishop Dean, someone has suggested that this may be the last Lambeth Conference. Why did they suggest that and do you agree with that position?
D. Well, they suggest this because if we are serious about our various ecumenical enterprises, in ten years time there ought not to be much left of the Anglican Communion as we know it. I myself belong to the school of thought who think that it may well be the last Lambeth Conference. I personally happen to think it ought to be the last Lambeth Conference. I think the day of the confessional meetings, whether Anglican or Roman or Methodist or whatever, are gone. I say this on the basis of my own experience which has taken me 16 times round the world in three years. And when I see how pitifully small the Christian presence is in different parts of the world, it is utter folly for us to continue our denominational barriers.
L. Then you sort of see the Anglican Communion going out of business.
D. No. I see it doing what the MRI document says. That it may die that it may rise into a fuller life.
L. What would take its place ?
D. That's the $64,000 question. The sure and easy answer which I don't agree with is called the wider Episcopal Fellowship. Now I don't agree with this because it isolates one part of Catholic tradition which is not even a part of the Catholic faith and makes it a touchstone whereby we belong to this new, larger club. You see. What I want to see is regional meetings of the Body of Christ. Christians in India. The Christians in Japan and South America. My experience in the last three years makes me intolerant of denominational differences.
L. Do you see then a World Council of Churches in a sense taking the place of what has been the Lambeth Conference ?
D. No. I don't think it would do. The World Council is set to be the servant of all the churches. It sometimes makes noises as though it were a super Church, you see. I would deprecate that. No. I don't think the World Council will do that, but I think it will continue to be the agency that will bring Churches together. That's what its function is.