THE Archbishop of Canterbury has asked people to pray for the forthcoming Lambeth Conference, which meets for 12 days in Canterbury, starting on 26 July.

During this, the 15th conference (delayed for two years by the pandemic), bishops from around the Anglican Communion will meet to pray and discuss key issues for the global Church, including mission and evangelism, peace and reconciliation, the environment and sustainable development, discipleship, and interfaith relations. Archbishop Welby has said that he does not want sexuality to dominate the agenda (News, 1 April).

On Thursday, Archbishop Welby invited people to pray for the conference. “The Lambeth Conference theme of ‘God’s Church for God’s World’, reminds us that we are called upon as Christians to pray for the needs of the world,” he said. “There are many calls upon our prayers at this time: world peace, the global climate crisis, the effects of the pandemic — to name but a few.

“I invite you to call all those in your care to pray for the Lambeth Conference. Please pray that as we meet and consider our shared mission and ministry, we may hear the call from God. In turn, that we might add our voices to call others to make a difference for Christ in the world.”

Anglicans are invited to devote a day to prayer on Trinity Sunday, 12 June.

The Minister General of the Society of St Francis, Brother Christopher John SSF, is part of the Lambeth Conference chaplaincy team. He has created a prayer guide for the gathering to be used by Anglican communities around the world. The guide has a different prayer for each day of the conference.

He said: “This prayer guide has contributions from religious communities in Europe, Africa, Oceania, the Americas, and Asia. Through the prayer guide we hope that the prayers we share here will encourage all who use it to unite in prayer for the bishops gathered in the Lambeth Conference.”

The prayer guide can be downloaded here.