04.08.2022
Lambeth 2022 Day 9: Christian Unity and Inter Faith Relations
The Lambeth Conference is currently taking place with Anglican bishops from throughout the Anglican Communion gathering in Canterbury. The once in a decade conference brings together bishops from across the globe for prayer and reflection, fellowship, and dialogue on church and world affairs. Archbishop Michael Jackson is attending and will report back to Dublin & Glendalough. Below is his report from Day 9 of Lambeth 2022.
Following a full day in Lambeth Palace, members of the Conference settled back into considering long standing matters of ecclesiastical and episcopal concern: Ecumenical and Inter Faith matters. The day began with a celebration of holy communion celebrated by The Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East.
A range of speakers from different traditions took different aspects of ecumenism with the matter of our world view coming through as central to the interpretation of ecumenical understanding and unity; the issues came across as very different if you took a pre–modern or a post–modern perspective and also on the basis of how positively you viewed Anglicanism as a Reformed tradition. Inevitably the speakers referred to 1920 when Lambeth pledged the Anglican Communion to full visible unity and this call was taken up in the official Calls.
The Inter Faith plenary heard a quite remarkable address by Bishop Guli Francis–Dehqani, Bishop of Chelmsford. It combined the most painful personal and family memories with a confident invitation to Christians in situations of intense persecution to witness to Christ in faith and hospitality. The bishop of Chelmsford spoke of how hospitality and generosity can address suffering and injustice and how we can push the boundaries of hospitality in 1Peter 4 to extend them to a wider world.
The day concluded with the two Calls on Christian Unity and Inter Faith Relations.
