Lambeth Calls – What is going on? A view from Scotland...
This is a rather niche post, but as a bishop attending the Lambeth Conference this week, I have been giving much thought to the publication last week of a document containing text of ‘Lambeth Calls’ https://www.lambethconference.org/programme/preparing-for-the-lambeth-conference-a-lambeth-calls-study-document-is-released/ . These have the stated purpose of guiding the careful discussions at the conference. I’m maybe a cynic, but I was a little suspicious of a process where each ‘Call’ is rooted in ‘ …what the Church Catholic wider teaches on this matter… ’ and then giving ‘ …a summary of what Anglican churches have taught about it… ’ (p.3 of the document). Even that is a nuance of guidance from June 2022 https://www.lambethconference.org/lcalls/ , which said that Calls would contain ‘…a summary on what the Christian Church has always taught about these matters… ’ (my emphasis). This felt like setting up the same old conflict on matters of culture and sexuality. But I was assur