OUR GIFT FOR A
DIVIDED WORLD THIS FEATURE WAS WRITTEN BEFORE THE LAMBETH CONFERENCE WAS POSTPONED.
One senior figure is convinced the Church has something unique to offer to an increasingly divided world - and it’s not just the gospel. ‘The Communion is a collection of churches trying to model what it is to live together with difference,’ says Archbishop Linda Nicholls, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada. ‘I think that is one of our gifts. And we have that gift to share. We don’t agree on everything, but we recognise family in each other, and truly at this point in the life of the world, we desperately need some recognition of that.’ This chimes with the Archbishop of Canterbury’s prayer for Lambeth – that it would reinvigorate the Communion to bring the transforming love of Jesus to every level of society across the world. More than one thousand bishops would have travelled to the UK for the 15th Lambeth Conference. The event was open to every eligible bishop and their spouse from the more than 165 countries which make up the Communion. Each was personally invited by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. The theme was to be “God’s Church for God’s World: walking, listening and witnessing together”.
