FiF International News
Lambeth Conference - 6
Jul 25, 2008

From the Lambeth Conference
Canterbury:   July 24th, 2008

“Bearing False Witness”

Today is the day the Lambeth bishops go to Buckingham Palace for tea, as the guests of Her Majesty, the Queen.

Millenium Development Goals

But in a sense, the tea party will be anticlimactic:  for at this Lambeth, the bishops – joined by politicians, diplomats, and leaders of other British faith communities – will first have marched from Whitehall to Lambeth Palace in support of the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs).
 
Archbishop Williams and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke at the rally in Lambeth Palace gardens.  During that rally, the Archbishop presented a letter to the Prime Minister, addressed to him but also through him, to the leaders of the First World.

In his letter, Dr. Williams speaks of the MDGs as a promise that has been made to the world, and states the Lambeth bishops belief that failing to fulfill them “amounts to bearing false witness not only to our neighbors, but to ourselves and to our God”.

Noting the British government’s leadership, the Archbishop commends the progress which has been made toward halving extreme poverty by the year 2015, the end which the MDG’s are intended to attain.  But “regrettably”, he says, “...these goals will not be met for millions of people for whom we have pastoral care”.  That pastoral care, Archbp. Williams writes, extends beyond prayer and advocacy to the provision of direct services, including education, health care, emergency relief, and counselling.

It is because of this direct involvement that the bishops recognize and “pay tribute to the inspiring lives lived by countless people as they seek to know and love God amidst the cruelties of poverty...”.

But “Christian pastors and other faith leaders”, the Archbishop writes, “cannot stand by while promises are not kept, when nations are tempted by the easier path of preserving their own wealth at the cost of other people’s poverty”.  The problem, he asserts, is not a lack of resources, “but a lack of global political will”.

On behalf of the bishops of the Anglican Communion, representing millions of people in 75 nations, the Archbishop of Canterbury therefore calls on the political leaders who will gather at the United Nations headquarters in New York City on September 25th to:

• make a “greater political commitment to addressing poverty and inequality”;
• adopt “a timetable for achieving the MDGs by 2015".
• invest in and strengthen “partnerships with the Church worldwide” to make full use of its extensive delivery network, and those of other faith communities.

Human Sexuality

But the Bishops of one of the Communion’s neediest Provinces, one wracked by starvation, poverty, displacement and homelessness and violence, and thus likely to benefit more than most from their fulfillment, chose to issue a statement, not on the MDGs, but on human sexuality.
 
“We reject homosexual practice as contrary to biblical teaching”, the Bishops of the Episcopal Church of the Sudan (ECS) wrote in an undated statement issued over their Primate’s signature, “and can accept no place for it within ECS”.  Affirming that human sexuality is rightly ordered “only when expressed within the life-long commitment of marriage between one man and one woman”, the Bishops state that they “require all those in the ministry of the Church to live according to this standard and cannot accept church leaders whose practice is contrary to this”.

The contradictory developments in the US and Canadian churches, the bishops state, “has not only caused deep divisions within the Anglican Communion but it has seriously harmed the Church’s witness in Africa and elsewhere, opening the church to ridicult and damaging its credibility in a multi-religious environment”.

The Bishops express the importance of the “precious unity” of the Anglican Communion (witnessed in their decision to attend the Conference), and their commitment to uphold its four instruments of communion.  They call upon all Provinces to act in such a way as to uphold “the unity and well-being of the Church”.

But for the sake of this unity they “appeal to the Anglican Church in the USA and Canada, to demonstrate real commitment to the requests arising from the Windsor process”, by taking the following steps:

• “To refrain from ordaining practicing homosexuals as bishops or priests;
• “To refrain from approving rites of blessing for same-sex relationships;
• “To cease court actions with immediate effect;
• “To comply with resolution 1.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference;
• “To respect the authority of the Bible.”

Tomorrow’s theme will be ecumenism – “The Bishop and Other Churches”.  Archbp. Rowan Williams and some of the ecumenical participants at the Conference are scheduled to speak at the daily press conference.