The Lambeth Conference is less than a month away. The once-a-decade gathering of all bishops in the Anglican Communion will run from July 16 to Aug. 3 in Canterbury, Eng. Canadian Anglicans can keep up with Lambeth’s controversies, history, and up-to-date news through the website of the Anglican Journal, the church’s editorially independent newspaper. In the meantime, here’s a quick run-down of who’s going to the Lambeth Conference from the General Synod national office.
Archdeacon Paul Feheley, the Primate’s principal secretary is one of the General Synod staff seconded to work at Lambeth, specifically in external communications. “I’m wonderfully excited,” he said. “I’ll get a better perspective of the communion and hopefully bring that learning back into this position.” Already Archdeacon Feheley has travelled to England to meet and plan with other communications staff.
Another Canadian staff recruited to Lambeth is the Rev. Dr. Alyson Barnett-Cowan, director of Faith, Worship, and Ministry, who will organize Lambeth’s ecumenical agenda. There will be more than 50 ecumenical guests, and there is an “ecumenical day” when bishops are focusing on ecumenical relations.
Of course there are also episcopal delegates. Both the Primate, Archbishop Fred Hiltz, and the National Indigenous Anglican Bishop, Mark MacDonald, will participate in the daily life of Lambeth: the Bible studies, indaba (mid-sized discussion) groups, self-select sessions, and worship. Around 40 other Canadian bishops will also be there, accompanied by their spouses, who will attend the parallel Lambeth Spouses’ Conference.
On July 25, Archbishop Hiltz will also help lead a self-select session on global Anglican-Lutheran relations with National Bishop Susan Johnson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.
Two other staff from the Faith, Worship, and Ministry department will be at Lambeth to facilitate specific conversations. Dr. Eileen Scully will be leading discussions of the latest draft of the proposed Anglican Covenant, a document that seeks to define the relationships between the provinces of the Anglican Communion. Ms. Scully, a member of the Covenant Design Group, will help collect bishop’s responses to the Covenant, and then distil these comments into summaries, to be presented at the end of Lambeth.
The Rev. Dr. Kawuki Mukasa, Coordinator for Dialogue, will be leading an event for African and Canadian bishops. The reception is part of an ongoing conversation between certain Canadian and African bishops, which was initiated three years ago by Bishop Colin Johnson of Toronto and Mr. Mukasa.
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