Tim Stevens, Bishop of Leicester

Do the bishops of the Anglican Communion have something of real significance to say to a troubled and divided world? That seems to me to be the crucial question. Global warming, rising food and fuel costs, significant shortages driving millions towards famine and the oppression of dictatorships in Africa and Asia are the critical issues. My hope is that the Anglican Communion can find a voice as a worldwide Christian community speaking into these issues and offering vision about how the world can become a safer and fairer place especially for the poor. The last Lambeth conference had much to say about remitting Third World debt, about Christian mission at the interface with Islam, but these messages were drowned out by our internal disputes. No wonder the world is disinclined to listen to us. My hope is that the Anglican Communion will rise to the challenge to look beyond its internal turmoil, and recover a sense of responsibility for others. Then we might get some of our disputes into proportion and find the humility to work out a message that addresses the world’s suffering rather than amplifying our own arguments. I go to Canterbury in the hope we can take ourselves by surprise.

Peter Beckwith, Episcopal Bishop of Springfield, Illinois

My hope is that those in attendance will recognise the seriousness of the crisis which has been allowed to envelop the Anglican Communion, and deal with the elephant dominating our living room. The Global Anglican Future conference has described the situation for most Anglicans worldwide and addressed it. What it has said, and with which I concur, is that faithful, orthodox Anglicans will not continue to abide any further the current agenda set by the Episcopal Church (TEC) and the Anglican Church of Canada and supported by the Archbishop of Canterbury through what many see as his acquiescence and benign leadership. I do not expect much to come of the conference. The process model appears very similar to what TEC’s House of Bishops has used for years which has fostered dysfunctional inefficiency, chaos, non-productivity and spiritual bankruptcy.

The history of the Lambeth Conference

Our historical guide traces the origins and issues that dominated the agenda at past Lambeth conferences

From the Times Archive, 1867

The first Lambeth Conference had its issues, but participants hoped future meetings would evoke the same fraternal spirit

• 1920 Conference: Birth Control

• 1958 Conference: Family Planning

• 1978 Conference: Ordination Of Women

Multimedia

• Full coverage of Lambeth Conference 2008

• Articles of faith: Ruth Gledhill's blog

• Video: Archbishop of Canterbury on Lambeth 2008

Related Links

• Lambeth voices: a panel of Anglican bishops share their views with Faith Online

I believe if the first Lambeth conference had the same proposed agenda and process as projected for 2008, there very well might not have been a second Lambeth conference or even an Anglican Communion today.

Daniel Deng Bul, Primate of the Episcopal Church of Sudan

My expectation of Lambeth is that we have to unite the Anglican Communion. The Lord wants all the children in the Anglican Communion under His wing. If it doesn’t happen it will be a weakness for the Anglican world. I pray that the Anglican Communion will be mature enough so that we are able to iron out our differences.

John Bryson Chane, Bishop of Washington, DC

Lambeth is an unique opportunity to clear the air in the Anglican Communion. For too long we have let our divisions impede our efforts on behalf of God’s Church and God’s poor. My greatest hope is that out of the earshot of the media, liberated from the temptation to play for political advantage, we may speak frankly, express grievances, explore our disagreements and seek reconciliation. Sixty of us began this difficult process at a meeting of North American and African bishops last summer in Spain. There we confronted the legacy of colonialism, age-old misunderstandings and significant theological differences. The conversations were sometimes wrenching, but always fruitful. Archbishop Williams has modelled Lambeth on Spain, and I find that profoundly encouraging. Our Communion will not be saved by legislation, nor by a covenant, but by affection, forbearance and mutual support.

Carlos Touché Porter, Anglican Archbishop of Mexico

Many of us pray for a conference radically different from that ten years ago. But no one, neither God nor the Archbishop of Canterbury, will make it different if we, the participants, do not set our minds on the things of the spirit, if we do not attend with an open mind, more willing to listen than to speak, more willing to learn than to teach and more willing to question ourselves than to question others. In Mexico we say that if we do the same things we will have the same results and if we come to Lambeth with the same attitude as ten years ago, we will have the same results: nothing but anger and bitterness, nothing pain and sorrow in the heart of God. May we all this time journey to Lambeth as true brothers and sisters in the episcopate.

Dr Idris Jones, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church