Committee Recommends 1978 Lambeth Conference
Diocesan Press Service. September 8, 1975 [75304]
LONDON, England -- The Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) has voted unanimously to recommend to the full Council at its meeting in Trinidad in March, 1976, that there be another Lambeth Conference in 1978.
The conference at its last meeting in 1968 asked the ACC to advise the Archbishop of Canterbury "upon the calling of future Conferences and on their time, place, and agenda. " Archbishop Donald Coggan, at the recent General Synod, forecast the possibility of a conference in 1978 or 1979.
The committee members leaned toward England as the place for the meeting, which would last at most for four weeks. Among the agenda items suggested was a discussion of the contemporary role of the episcopate, though the conference has no legislative authority.
By a majority of five to three with one abstention the committee said that the proposed Lambeth Conference should be of bishops only, including all diocesan bishops and a limited number of assistant bishops. The 1978 total would number about 450, compared with the 1968 attendance of 462. The costs would be about 350,000 pounds.
The 1968 Lambeth Conference set up the ACC "to coordinate Anglican thought and action in matters of mission, relations with other Churches, and the organization of the Anglican Communion. " Fifty-one members, consisting of bishops, clergy, and laity, attended the first ACC meeting in Limuru, Kenya, in 1971, and 57 representatives from 34 difference countries attended the Dublin, Ireland meeting in 1973.
The 1968 conference was the tenth in a series which began in 1867 when 67 bishops attended. Except when interrupted by wars, there has been one about every ten years. Until 1968, its meetings have taken place at Lambeth Palace, the London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, since it is he who calls the bishops together. With the invitations extended in 1968 to include suffragan and assistant bishops as well as diocesans, Lambeth Palace was not large enough to hold the conference.
The Anglican Communion, with 38 provinces and 46.7 million affiliated members, is "a fellowship, within the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, of those duly constituted Dioceses, Provinces or Regional Churches in communion with the See of Canterbury." They "uphold and propagate the Catholic and Apostolic faith and order as set forth in the Book of Common Prayer," and are "bound together not by a central legislative and executive authority, but by mutual loyalty sustained through the common counsel of the Bishops in conference."
The nine-member Standing Committee of the ACC is presided over by Mrs. Harold Kelleran of the United States Episcopal Church, who is chairman of the Council. The Rt. Rev. John W.A. Howe is secretary general of the ACC. Representatives of the Episcopal Church are the Rt. Rev. John M. Allin, Presiding Bishop; the Rev. Rustin R. Kimsey, The Dalles, Ore.; and Mrs. Kelleran, Alexandria, Va.