Since its a pretty core belief of mine that we should understand where things came from as a background to discussing them, here's the potted history of the way the Anglican Communion, and the Lambeth Conference, developed. This comes from my book The Essential History of Christianity (SPCK, 2012) - more specifically, from Chapter 10, 'Globalising Christianity: c.1500-1900'.
"The British Empire expanded across much of the
globe in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, superseding the earlier
dominance of Spain, Portugal and the Dutch Republic. The work of the missionary
societies ensured that the Christianity of the Church of England spread
worldwide with it. At first, all colonial churches were under the jurisdiction
of the Bishop of London, but this rapidly became unsustainable and colonial
bishops began to be appointed in the late eighteenth century. The first Church
of England bishop outside of England was the Bishop of Nova Scotia, appointed
in 1787. In 1814, there was an Anglican Bishop of Calcutta; in 1824, a Bishop
of the West Indies; and in 1836, a Bishop of Australia. The pace of
establishment of colonial dioceses quickly increased, and in 1841 a Colonial
Bishoprics Council was established.
In some colonies initially the Church of
England was the established church, but this was never universal. In 1861 it
was ruled that (except where it was specifically established) the Church of
England had the same legal position as all other denominations in the colonies.
Thereafter, Anglican churches abroad were in a very different position to the
Church of England, and evolved differently and independently. Generally
speaking both the mission agencies and the Church of England bishops believed
that local leadership was a good thing and was to be encouraged as soon as
possible, and in time local bishops began to be appointed. As dioceses spread
they became naturally grouped into provinces, under archbishops, and national
synods began to legislate independently. The examples of America, Canada and
Nigeria illustrate the very different histories of some of this family of
churches.
In America, after the War of Independence
(1775-83) the Church naturally had to become independent of crown control. The
Episcopal Church was therefore established to replace the Church of England,
headed by the British monarch, with an alternative ecclesiastical structure.
The first Anglican bishop in North America was Samuel Seabury, who secured his
consecration from the Scottish Episcopal Church in 1784. Anglicanism was never,
except in a few areas of New England, the established church; and even where it
was the official religion, it was in practice only the religion of the elite.
The proliferation of denominations in the Great Awakening meant that the
American religious landscape was from very early on characterised by
variety,diversity and choice.
After the War of Independence many of the
defeated loyalists fled to Canada, and Anglicans were numerous among these. As
a result, the Church of England became synonymous with the Church in Canada,
despite the fact that Canada was not strictly speaking British territory. The
first Church of England bishop outside England was one of these refugees,
Charles Inglis, who was consecrated as Bishop of Nova Scotia in 1787. The
anomalous position of the Church of England in Canada caused considerable unrest
from members of other denominations, particularly over land privileges given to
Anglican clergy. As a result, the Church in Canada was disestablished in the
1850s, giving all denominations equal civil rights. Until 1955, however, the
Anglican Church of Canada was officially titled ‘The Church of England in the
Dominion of Canada’.
In Nigeria, the first Church of England mission
arrived in 1842, and a local church was quickly established. Henry Venn,
Secretary of the Church Mission Society, was convinced of value of indigenous
leadership, and championed the ministry of Samuel Crowther, a Yoruba freed
slave who was already studying for ordination in London at the time. In 1864 hewas
consecrated Bishop of the Niger. Crowther’s ministry was by all accounts a
great success, but problems began when a different group of missionaries
arrived in 1887 and began to evangelise in competition with the existing
diocesan structures. These new missionaries were convinced that Crowther’s
patient and gentle missionary work and dialogue with Islam were a disgrace, and
after his death they campaigned hard (and successfully) for him not to be
replaced by another African. When a European bishop was appointed, some Yoruba
Christians were so incensed by CMS’s backtracking on its earlier commitment to
local leadership that they formed independent churches; only in the 1950s was
another African bishop appointed. Perhaps as a result of this in-fighting and
loss of nerve, the church grew only slowly: in 1900, it is estimated that there
were around 35,000 Christians in Nigeria, perhaps 0.2% of the population. In
the last decades of the twentieth century, however, the church in Nigeria has
become the fastest growing church in the Anglican communion, accounting for
around 18% of the population in 2000.
As new dioceses and provinces began to be
established, and to develop increasingly independently from the middle of the
nineteenth century, the question of what held the churches together began to be
asked.
The only parameters of Anglican identity were the use of the Book of
Common Prayer, and the 39 Articles, whilst the Archbishop of Canterbury was
looked to for leadership effectively by default.
The first Lambeth conference
was held, in 1867, in the context of a widespread desire to condemn Bishop
Colenso of Natal for his unorthodoxy. Colenso had been appointed bishop of the
new diocese of Natal in 1852, a diocese that had been financed by fundraising
by Bishop Gray, the first Bishop of Cape Town, and SPG. Bishop Gray was
therefore horrified to discover that he had appointed someone he came to view
as a heretic. Colenso threw himself into mission to the Zulu people, and was
innovative in working to inculturate Christianity. He was assisted by a number
of native speakers, especially William Ngidi, and was criticised for allowing
Ngidi’s questions to shape his thinking. But most controversial was his
commentary on Romans, which went beyond the bounds of accepted orthodoxy on sin
and justification. In 1863 the Church in South Africa declared him a heretic,
but Colenso appealed to the British courts arguing that his was a crown
appointment not Bishop Gray’s. He won his case and remained in post, to the
chagrin of Bishop Gray.
The case of Colenso raised questions not only
of orthodoxy, but of provincial autonomy. The Church of Canada, which had taken
a lead in condemning Colenso, led calls for a meeting which would give
definitive leadership. However, some bishops were reluctant to attend, fearing
that it would become a legislative body and compromise their local autonomy. A
commitment was made by the Archbishop of Canterbury, therefore, that the
conference would be only consultative, and that any resolutions would be simply
advisory. The Lambeth conference met again in 1888, and at that meeting made
its most enduring statement, the Lambeth Quadrilateral. This set out the four
bases of Anglican identity (the Bible, the creeds, the two sacraments of
baptism and communion, and the historic episcopate, and was originally intended
to provide a basis for discussions with the Roman Catholic and Orthodox
churches. Incidentally, it established the most widely accepted parameters of
Anglican identity."
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