More than 600 Anglican bishops began winging their way home across the globe after the once-a-decade international gathering ended with a Closing Eucharist on 3 August.

“I feel (the conference) worked out very much as I had hoped and prayed,” Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams told reporters at a final press conference just before the service. “The Anglican Communion needed to know how deep the commitment was... to staying together,” he said. “I think we’ve got a bit of an answer to that.”

The conference format initially faced criticism for not allowing formal debate and decisionmaking on the difficult dilemmas threatening the international fabric of the Anglican Communion.

However, for Rowan Williams the small-group format known as ‘indaba’ 1. which characterised the conference has generated signs of an ongoing commitment to deal with the church’s problems. This year’s Lambeth Conference “hasn’t evaded the difficult questions, even if it hasn’t answered them in the way some people would have liked,” he said. “The conference has never been an executive body that can simply make those sorts of quick-fix decisions.”

“I’ve actually been surprised by how much energy there’s been growing in the indaba groups to continue the process of encounter.” Breaking new ground, instead of a series of motions and decisions, a 44-page ‘Reflections’ document, compiled as a summary of the smallgroup discussion was released at the end of the conference.

1. A Zulu/Xhosa word for a meeting, but with significant structural and procedural differences to western patterns of conferencing.

Perth’s Archbishop Roger Herft chaired the document’s writing committee, describing it as the story of “our lived experience and the open and honest discussions we have had together”. “This document is not the primary outcome of this conference,” Roger Herft wrote in its introduction.

“Written words can never adequately describe the life-changing nature of our time together. We have gained a deeper appreciation of the worldwide Anglican Communion and of our common calling as disciples of Christ.”

However, alongside balanced and nuanced arguments about a range of topics, under the sexuality heading the Reflections document indicates a general agreement was reached among the bishops calling for a series of moratoria or open-ended bans on the ordinations of people living in a same-gender union to the episcopate; the blessing of same-sex unions; and cross-border incursions by bishops.

We want the indaba
to continue

The document concedes the moratoria “will be difficult to uphold” and that “there are questions to be clarified in relation to how long the moratoria are intended to serve”. A timetable has been set down to pick up the threads of the conference.

Archbishop Williams said he is also planning to write a pastoral letter to the Anglican Communion and also to the bishops who boycotted the Lambeth Conference, asking them “how far (did the conference) go to meeting concerns, how far does this provide a basis for co-operation?”

There were mixed views too on calls for an Anglican covenant.

“Even where people may not want to sign up to formal agreements nonetheless they have felt that the exchanges they have had have been nourishing, valuable and,” Archbishop Williams said, “we want the indaba to continue”.

Allan Reeder is Editor of MarketPlace Online at www.marketplaceonline.com.au