Lambeth '98
The Most Representative Conference of the Twentieth Century
Chris Sugden
October 1, 1998
Back in 1988, Anglican bishops left their decennial Lambeth Conference with the resolve to make the 1990s a decade of evangelism. The initiative for this resolve had come from the 130 African bishops in attendance. And indeed, at the 1998 Lambeth Conference 228 African bishops were present, a testimony of Africans' faithfulness to their earlier resolution. And so it came as no surprise to those who knew the evolving nature of the Anglican Communion that African bishops exercised immense influence, conserving the Church's orthodoxy on issues such as homosexuality. Yet the manner in which the Africans exerted their influence, and the reasons they exerted influence, still have not been clearly understood in the Western press. The average American reader would assume that the African bishops arrived at Lambeth with an agenda to foil any liberal advances regarding homosexuality. On the contrary, these bishops brought other, more pressing concerns, including responding to their countries' poverty and competing with Islam for the hearts of their people. It was only when some North Americans infused the 1998 Lambeth Conference with homosexual debate that the African bishops, out of necessity, as well as conviction, rose up to lead the debate. International debt was clearly an important agenda for the Two-Thirds-World bishops, but not necessarily in the way it was presented at the conference. The public program of the conference on this issue was presented by the Jubilee 2000 campaign, which focuses on having many of the debts of Two-Thirds World countries cancelled in the year 2000. But this was not the Two-Third-World bishops' highest priority. Even if these debts were cancelled, their people would still be without work. Job creation ...
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