The following announcement has been made: The Lambeth Conference reschedules to the summer of 2021.
In recent weeks, the organising teams for the Lambeth Conference have been prayerfully thinking through the impact of coronavirus pandemic on the plans and preparations for this important event.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the Lambeth Conference Company has been monitoring the situation and following advice from public health authorities.
The public health risk of the coronavirus in the United Kingdom has now been assessed as ‘high’ by the UK’s Chief Medical Officers and a wide range of governmental measures are in place to respond to the health crisis.
Following consultation with the Lambeth Conference Design Group, Primates and trustees of the Lambeth Conference Company, The Archbishop of Canterbury has taken the important decision to reschedule the Lambeth Conference to the summer of 2021.
This significant meeting of Anglican bishops and spouses will continue to be planned- with an exciting and engaging programme, being held in the same venue at the University of Kent and Canterbury Cathedral – just one year on.
Prioritising the health and safety of our event attendees
We recognise that this will be a significant disappointment for all those registered to attend. Whether it’s as an event delegate; participating in the hospitality programme; contributing to the conference programme; being part of our Resource Centre or serving as a volunteer or steward at the event. Especially as the Lambeth Conference in 2020 was set to be the largest conference yet.
However, the health and safety of our event attendees is our utmost priority. In addition, the global travel restrictions and quarantine implications will present many people with huge challenges in their travel plans.
We also recognise bishops and spouses attending the Lambeth Conference will be playing a vital leadership and pastoral role in their Provinces and dioceses as together the Anglican Communion seeks to respond to COVID-19 around the globe.
There is also a Frequently Asked Questions page.
Printable (PDF) copies of this announcement in various languages are available here.
The postponement is obviously sensible but I don’t see how the University of Kent can justify accepting the revised booking now that they know same sex spouses are excluded.
Great point.
It’s now a year further away. Good time to say, “On second thought …”
Oddly enough, I was only thinking this morning “they are going to have to postpone the Lambeth Conference, and that means postpone it until at least a year after the launch of Living in Love and Faith”. The refusal to invite same-sex spouses might have been easier to justify (I use “easier” in a very general sense) on the grounds of “unsettled ground, new issues, difficult, LLF will decide”. But now the invitations to the rescheduled event will be issued after LLF is published, and therefore the exclusion will be either much harder to justify (because LLF says “don’t do… Read more »
That is the dilemma that the Church of England (and by extension the Anglican Communion) has made for itself.
Unless of course The inevitable reasons are found to postpone publishing LLF. Just watch it happen…
I agree. This seems extremely likely.
Serves everybody right for all the petty bickering. Let’s get our priorities right first.
Perhaps I am a bit naive about the necessary business of our Communion at Lambeth, however a financial contribution to the restoration efforts for those most in need might be a good substitute for Lambeth 2021 , let 2030 proceed.
Now is not the time for petty point scoring, but for the health of the world. Good decision made.
During the current emergency we will all get much more used to online conferencing. What a pity that the Conference (if it is to happen at all) couldn’t have been replaced by an event conducted online, at the scheduled time.
But then the spouses of bishops in same-sex marriages couldn’t have been excluded in order to virtue-signal.