Statement at the Lambeth Conference 2008
The statement has been responded to by use of scriptures. I am not very good at this legalistic type stuff but I thought I would give it a try. (This is just what some poor schmuck found. Can you imagine what might happen if a real biblical scholar decided to respond.)
It starts with this:
“This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:5-7).
Lambeth 2008 Statement
We the undersigned Primates, Archbishops and Bishops and our Episcopal colleagues from all over the Communion are gathered together at the Lambeth Conference 2008 to seek the face of God,
and this --
Lambeth 2008 Statement
in particular, “the Pastoral Forum should be empowered to act in the Anglican Communion in a rapid manner to emerging threats to its life, especially through the ministry of its Chair, who should work alongside the Archbishop of Canterbury in the exercise of his ministry. The Forum would be responsible for addressing those anomalies of pastoral care arising in the Communion against the recommendations of the Windsor Report. It could also offer guidance on what response and any diminished standing within the Communion might be appropriate where any of the three moratoria are broken.”
‘What were you arguing about on the road?’ They said nothing because they had been arguing which of them was the greatest. So he sat down, called the Twelve to him and said, ‘If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself last of all and servant of all’. (Mark 9:34-35)
Lambeth 2008 Statement
We are consciously mindful of the absence of our fellow Episcopal colleagues from Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, and elsewhere, who, for principled reasons could not be present at this Lambeth Conference. We thank God for their costly faithfulness and vigilance. We acknowledge the issuing of the Jerusalem Declaration which deserves careful study and consideration. At the same time, we also stand in solidarity with all the faithful Bishops, Clergy and Laity in the United States and Canada and elsewhere who are suffering recrimination and hostility perpetrated upon them by their dioceses and/or national churches which have not unequivocally complied with the specific Windsor proposals required of them in full.
Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem then came to Jesus and said, ‘Why do your disciples break way from the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands when they eat food’. ‘And why do you’ he answered ‘break away from the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said: Do your duty to your father and mother and: Any one who curses father or mother must be put to death. But you say, “If anyone helps his father or mother,: Anything I have that I might have used to help you is dedicated to God”, he is rid of his duty to father or mother. In this way you have made God’s word null and void by means of your tradition. Hypocrites! It was you Isaiah meant when he so rightly prophesied:
This people honors me only with lip-service,
While their hearts are far from me.
The worship they offer me is worthless;
He doctrines they teach are only human regulations. (Matthew 15:1-9)
Lambeth 2008 Statement
4. We gather at a critical time when the Anglican Communion as a communion of ordered churches is at the probable brink of collapse. … 5. We fully affirm the Windsor process in the Anglican Covenant Design Group proposals and the Windsor Continuation Group presentations. We urge the official endorsement of the proposed Anglican Covenant by ACC 14 in May 2009. We further urge this Lambeth Conference to give clear endorsement and immediate implementation of the interim proposals of the Windsor Continuation Group on the swift formation of the Pastoral Forum with the terms of reference as set out: 6. We expect the Lambeth Conference, as a significant instrument of unity of the Communion, to give vital leadership towards resolving the present crisis over faith and order. This should be effected only on the agreed consensus of communion and moral commitments made in resolutions of successive meetings which provide the proper framework and basis towards addressing and resolving the crisis:the Lambeth 1998 Resolution I.10; the respective Communiqués of the Primates’ Meetings of 2003, Dromantine 2005, and most explicitly Dar-es-Salaam 2007: in particular, on the complete cessation of (a) the celebration of blessings for same-sex unions, (b) consecrations of those living in openly gay relationships, and (c) all cross border interventions and inter-provincial claims of jurisdiction, as the Windsor Continuation Group rightly observed.
What is good has been explained to you, man,
This is what Yahweh asks of you:
Only this, to act justly,
To love tenderly
And to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)
Lambeth 2008 Statement
In this, the Holy Scripture – which, as the testimony to God’s work given by the Spirit of God is the written Word of God – is the final authority for Christian belief, teaching, life and conduct.
So always treat others as you would like them to treat you; that is the meaning of the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 7:12)
Lambeth 2008 Statement
In the midst of the current critical crisis in the Communion we strive faithfully and honourably to ensure the Communion remains and continues steadfast in and to the faith once delivered to the saints Authentic traditions of doctrine and practice acknowledge its supremacy. It underpins all bonds of affection, expressions of fellowship and shaping of structures in the Communion.
“The real strength of the ties between the Churches of Britain and Ireland and the Episcopal Church and all those Churches which derive from them lie in the very real personal and continuing bonds of study, friendship, identity, and mutual discipleship which still sustain the life of the Communion. (Gregory Cameron, Hellins Lecture).
Lambeth 2008 Statement
8. However, we greatly rejoice that the Word of God has unleashed its saving power and has breathed life in our churches and peoples. God has preserved for the Communion his saints and testimony of their faith and our forebears throughout the Anglican Communion not least in the southern continents for its common good. We thank our Lord, in the midst of our current crisis, for increasing in us the conviction and confirmation of the prophetic and priestly vocation of the Global South as a precious gift to the Anglican Communion.
‘It is not those who say to me “Lord, Lord”, who enter the kingdom of heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven., When the day comes many will say to me, “Lord, Lord did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, work many miracles in your name?” Then I shall tell them to their faces: I have never known you; away from me you evil men!’
Lambeth 2008 Statement
10. We are committed to work together with one another in the Global South and with all orthodox groups in the United States of America and Canada: to listen together to what Lord Jesus says to his church today, to draw strength and insights from one another, and to take fresh initiatives in upholding and passing on the faith once delivered to the saints.
‘How happy are the poor in spirit;
Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Happy the gentle;
They shall have the earth for their heritage.
Happy those who mourn,
They shall be comforted.
Happy those who hunger and thirst for what is right:
They shall be satisfied.
Happy the merciful:
They shall have mercy shown them.
Happy the pure in heart:
They shall see God.
Happy the peacemakers:
They shall be called sons of God.
Happy those who are persecuted in the cause of right:
Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3-10)
