THE Archbishop of Canterbury has expressed his belief that the Lambeth Conference was a success.

Writing in the Church Times this week, Archbishop Welby says that a key lesson at the Conference, which finished in Canterbury on 7 August, was that the Church is built “first and foremost on the grace of God, expressed in honest relationships”.

In the atmosphere, the expected crisis over sexuality and marriage became “a moment of transformation”, he says. “We honestly admitted that there is deep disagreement and a plurality of views across Anglican Provinces — but we remained committed to listening and walking together to the maximum possible degree despite these deep disagreements.”

He acknowledges the “profound disagreement” that remains over these issues, but puts it in the context of the whole Conference: “There was one paragraph in one out of ten Calls, and it took up about 90 minutes in total of the plenary sessions over 11 days.”

He writes of two types of renewal apparent in Canterbury. The first was ecclesiological: it was an integral part of Anglican identity that it was an “incomplete” part God’s Church. The second was the values that were agreed implicitly: solidarity, subsidiarity, and global justice.
 

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