Recommendations of Lambeth Commission Shape Agenda

The primates’ meeting that may well chart the future course of the Anglican Communion will be held in February in Northern Ireland, the chairman of the Lambeth Commission on Communion [LCC], Archbishop Robin Eames, has announced.

The Rev. Brian Parker, Archbishop Eames’ press officer, told The Living Church the primates will gather in Northern Ireland, though the exact date and venue for the February meeting had yet to be decided.

The Belfast Telegraph reported on July 15 the primates’ meeting will be held at the seaside resort of Newcastle, County Down, some 30 miles south of Belfast.

The Lambeth Commission is “on target for publication in October,” Mr. Parker said. The report will be delivered to Archbishop Williams and will receive its first airing at the primates’ standing committee meeting Oct. 15 in London.

Copies of the report will then be distributed to the primates and to the Anglican Consultative Council. The February meeting will be the first occasion for the primates to deliberate together the report’s recommendations.

Although a number of primates and provinces have called for discipline or even the expulsion of the Episcopal Church from the Anglican Communion, the confederated structure of the Anglican Communion does not allow for immediate or unilateral action. Any decision reached by the primates in February will be forwarded to the provinces for implementation and to the Anglican Consultative Council’s August meeting.

The General Convention of the Episcopal Church is the only entity capable of altering the internal structure of the U.S. province under the current system.