Lambeth Conference

Lambeth Conference convocation at Lambeth Palace, London, that brings together all the bishops in the Anglican Communion . It meets about every 10 years at the invitation of the archbishop of Canterbury and is the principal instrument of international Anglican life, although it has no legislative authority over the national churches. The first convocation was held in 1867, the thirteenth in 1991.

Bibliography: See A. Stephenson, Anglicanism and the Lambeth Conferences (1978).

Lambeth Conferences. Assemblies of the bishops of the whole Anglican Communion held about once every ten years under the presidency of the archbishop of Canterbury (whose London residence is Lambeth Palace). The first one was convened in 1867.

The ‘Lambeth Quadrilateral’, approved at the conference of 1888, remains the Anglican statement of the fourfold essential basis for a reunited Church: (i) the Bible as the ultimate rule of faith, (ii) the Apostles' and Nicene creeds, (iii) the sacraments of baptism and Lord's supper, and (iv) the ‘historic episcopate’.

Lambeth Conferences. Assemblies of the bishops of the Anglican Communion held about every ten years under the presidency of the Abp. of Canterbury, originally in Lambeth Palace, but since 1978 in the University of Kent at Canterbury. The first Conference was held in 1867, in response to a request from the Synod of the Anglican Church in Canada, which was concerned about the unsettling effects of the case of Bp. J. W. Colenso and the publication of Essays and Reviews. The idea of a Council authorized to define doctrine was abandoned, and the resolutions of Lambeth Conferences, though significant expressions of the opinions of the Anglican episcopate, are not binding. The Conference of 1920 issued an important ‘Appeal to All Christian People’ for reunion, which was sent to the leaders of Christian communities throughout the world. That of 1958 gave guarded approval to family planning. The 1978 Conference accepted the de facto ordination of women in some Provinces; that of 1998 affirmed the legitimacy of the position of those who did not accept the ordination of women, and it issued an important statement on homosexuality (q.v.).