For the first time since its foundation, the Anglican Centre in Rome has been actively present at a Lambeth Conference. Since 2020, the Director has been in attendance upon the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury at the Primates Meeting held in Jordan in 2020 and in London in 2022. It has greatly helped in promoting the work of this Ecumenical Institution to the world-wide Anglican Communion.  It was therefore important that, at this important gathering of bishops of our Communion, the Anglican Centre be present. It had a stall at the Resource Centre of the Lambeth Conference and to our pleasant surprise, it attracted a great number of visitors. The booth was pleasantly designed by Kamla Ernest and visitors were welcomed by Nicoletta Rambelli, the Centre Manager and Joris Burmann, an intern from the Episcopal Church working at the ACR.

 

The Director had the role of Dean to our Ecumenical participants, together with a team constituted of Venerable Dr. Will Adam, the Revd. Dr. Jeremy Morris, Revd. Neil Vigers

Angeline Leung, from Lambeth Palace and Myriam Weibie, from the Episcopal Church of Scotland, he had the responsibility of facilitating the stay of our guests and to help them to be fully integrated in the life of this important assembly of Anglican bishops and of their spouses.

 

From the very start, an atmosphere of mutual respect and affection was felt and many of them stayed until the end of the Conference. Some of them participated in the Bible Study groups with other bishops and others attended the group reserved for the Ecumenical participants. The Director acted as the facilitator to this group. With a diverse group of participants coming from the Roman Catholic, Greek, Armenian, Syrian Orthodox Churches, the Lutheran Church from Germany, Finland, Norway, the Pentecostal and the Methodist Churches, discussions on the First Letter of Peter were rich in content as they expressed a number of interpretations of the text grounded in the experience lived in their own contexts. It therefore, highlighted the need for us to be more engaged with each other as we Christians have the potential to transform and heal our broken world with the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

They also took part in the Plenary Sessions and in the Lambeth Calls. Their voices and opinions were heard and considered by this assembly as they brought fresh insights and audacious perspectives as the Anglican Communion aims at keeping its unity within its diversity. Our Ecumenical guests participated at a Plenary session on Christian Unity and the speakers for the occasion were: Father Anthony Currer, standing in for Cardinal Kurt Koch form the Roman Catholic Church, Archbishop Nikitas, from the Greek Orthodox Church, Bishop Marinez Basssoto from the Anglican Church of Brazil, Pastor David Wells from the Pentescotal World Fellowship and Revd. Anne Burghardt , from the Lutheran World Federation.

 

We rejoice that the Anglican Centre in Rome is now better known in the Anglican Communion. We hope and pray that the established contacts will develop in constructive relationships that are crucial to the common witness of Christians in God’s world.   The 2022 Lambeth Conference has reaffirmed our commitment to be connected to the wider Church through prayer and action across the world. Whatever differences of opinion our Communion and the Church might hold, all are gathered in the Mission entrusted to us: to work for the reconciliation of all people with God and with one another. The Anglican Centre is thus prepared to support the Lambeth Calls and act upon them with an emphasis on Ecumenical collaboration so that we affirm ourselves as “God’s Church for God’s World.”