“Call to Prayer” issued to UK evangelical Anglicans ahead of 2022 Lambeth Conference
Press Release from EFAC:
THE RESOURCE Group supporting evangelical Archbishops and bishops from the Global South attending the Lambeth Conference (26JUL-8AUG) have issued a ‘Call To Prayer’’ to all UK evangelicals.
The invitation from Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, to bishops in the Anglican Communion has caused great pain amongst orthodox leaders, for the Archbishop has also invited Bishops in same sex relationships, and those seeking to persuade their own province/diocese, and others, to accept ‘gay marriage’. Bishops who hold firm to the Bible’s traditional teaching on marriage and sexuality have had to decide whether to attend, or boycott the gathering.
Some senior Archbishops, such as those of Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya have chosen not to go, whilst others from the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (representing around 75% of the Communion’s worshippers) are attending but have made it very clear they fully support those who have not.
The Global South delegates have issued the ‘Call To Prayer’ to ask God to give them “wisdom, faithfulness to scripture, winsomeness and grace” as they gather at a conference which has been designed to limit conversation on controversial topics dividing the Communion. The Archbishop of Canterbury has so far refused the formal request by Global South leaders to give delegates an opportunity to ‘reaffirm the 1998 Lambeth Resolution1.10’, the former historic Lambeth Conference Resolution setting out the Communion’s official biblical understand on marriage and sexuality. This week, the archbishop went even further, unilaterally doing away with formal conference ‘Resolutions’, instead, Lambeth will circulate ‘Calls’ from the delegates to provinces, asking each to discuss, and make of it what they will.
Global South delegates have therefore called on all UK evangelicals to join them in prayer, each day at 9am, 12 noon, 3pm and 6pm, symbolically representing orthodox provinces and delegates from north, east, south and west of the Anglican Communion. It is hoped that a ‘wall of prayer’ surrounding the Conference will be built by prayer, starting Sunday 26 June, and ending on Sunday 14 August as delegates arrive back home and preach in local churches.
The majority of bishops from the Global South attending will be doing so for the first time, the last conference being in 2008. To support them, the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches, and the Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion (GSFA/EFAC) has set up a ‘Global South Resource Group’ to support delegates, especially in relation to media relations.
Bishop Henry Scriven, Hon General Secretary of EFAC, and a member of the Resource Group said: “For all its challenges, the Anglican Communion represents a wonderful fellowship of believers from every corner of the globe. Therefore, this ‘call to prayer’, symbolically recognising the world-wide nature of its witness for Jesus Christ, is vital.
“The conference programme has been tightly designed to prevent formal discussion on marriage and sexuality, or gender identity. This, despite the latter being ‘the issue’ the West is facing, and the one the ’spirit of this age’ is using, challenging identity, marriage and relationships.
“The current challenge to biblical orthodoxy by modern culture in the West should be regarded by the Church as a unique opportunity to answer these deep and fundamental questions – pointing people to God, not encouraging them, in their confusion, to try secularist ideas, philosophies and hormonal and medical treatments which will never meet their deeper longings. Only a personal relationship with Christ will.
“We hope that every Christian in the UK will pray for all GS delegates, that the Spirit of God will give them wisdom, faithfulness to scripture, winsomeness and grace to focus the Communion on Jesus, and Scripture.
Information for prayer will shortly be available on social media under the [tag/heading] ‘Lambeth Conference Global South News’, as well as links to press releases, and resources which individuals and churches will find helpful to use and circulate for prayer.
More on Lambeth below:
Lambeth Conference will issue no resolutions, says Welby. Instead there will be ‘Calls’, by Ed Thornton, Church Times:
The Conference is “not there to order people about”, says Archbishop Justin Welby.
Lambeth Conference: going from ‘resolutions’ to ‘calls’, by Andrew Goddard, Psephizo:
This “risks effectively evacuating the Communion of agreed teaching and shared doctrine, diminishing the moral authority traditionally recognised as inherent in the resolutions of bishops at the Lambeth Conference, and creating a much looser form of communion among the provinces.”
On Opal Fruits, Starburst and Lambeth 2022, by Martin Davie:
Changing ‘resolutions’ to ‘calls’ is not ‘A hugely exciting development’ but merely a name change like Opal Fruits becoming Starburst. Has this been done to downplay the authority of previous resolutions eg Lambeth I:10 1998? Is it significant that issues of Western secularism and sex and gender are not up for discussion at the conference?
Who is going to Lambeth? Where is Lambeth going? by Andrew Goddard, Psephizo:
AG begins with concern about “homophobia” in African countries, but then explains why Canterbury has failed to address the genuine concerns of those proposing to boycott Lambeth; this will result in the conference being “massively unrepresentative and biased towards the Global North.”
ACNA Archbishop says ‘sinful relationships’ preclude Lambeth appearance, by David Virtue, Virtueonline
“We cannot endorse this behavior by our participation,” Foley Beach told delegates to the ACNA 2022 Provincial Assembly.