The bishops of the Anglican Communion gathered at the Lambeth Conference, 2008, at a time when some constituent provinces and dioceses had already crossed the threshold of discontent, deciding not to attend the gathering, and when further division loomed ahead. This article examines the challenges of living into a generous diversity while holding fast to the historic Christian faith. The author reveals a cautious hope rooted in Jesus’ prayer for unity and the mystery of the Pascha, Christ’s death and resurrection. As the Communion drifts into greater autonomy, she calls for a disposition of reconciliation, paving the way for reunification in the future.

The article seeks to reflect on the Lambeth Conference of 2008 and, in particular, the use of the indaba method of engagement, in the context of the Anglican Communion’s fractured history and its need for inner reconciliation. It proposes that theological and pastoral work is required in the areas of conflict resolution and communication.

The following article was prepared before the TEC (The Episcopal Church) General Convention of 2009, and does not take account of its decisions.

The question of the authority, use and relevance of Scripture in today’s Anglican Communion needs to be addressed more thoroughly. All authority is God’s authority, and the question of Scripture’s authority needs to be reframed in that light: God is not merely providing information and instruction, but taking forward his Kingdom-project, and Scripture is not merely a witness to that but also a necessary agent, equipping God’s people for their tasks. Various questions then emerge in a new light: we need an integrated, layered, and nuanced vision of the whole Scripture, foregrounding the gospel challenge of new creation and recognizing the inadequacy of some standard slogans such as Jesus’ supposed slackening of the law. In particular, the biblical basis of ‘covenant’ needs further exploration, and the whole communion should embrace a much richer practice of Scripture reading and study to face the challenges of tomorrow’s world.

The Anglican Communion has been tested by difficult theological tensions that have painfully affected mission in different contexts. The troubled question is: ‘Who is Jesus Christ for Anglicans?’ This paper suggests that, as the spiritual centre has already shifted to the church in the Majority World, the reflections and insights of Africans concerning Jesus Christ should be taken into account in any Christological reflections. African Christology is more holistic as it integrates the person and the work of Christ, which apply to the whole of African life.

Jesus, the Lord of cultures and the Healer, is alive today. He has overcome death so that God’s transforming power may heal our deeply wounded souls and our broken communities. The Anglican Communion should recognize the healing power of the Lord Jesus, and continually re-affirm the salvation in Christ, forgiveness of sins, transformation of life and incorporation into the holy fellowship of the church. The world needs the credible witness of Christians who live in the world, but are not of the world.

Recent tensions within Anglicanism have brought about an intense re-visiting of some of the debates that surrounded its emergence as a worldwide Communion in the nineteenth century. Then, as now, there were a number of suggestions for stronger structures at the centre. With Lambeth 2008 and the recent ACC 14 (Anglican Consultative Council 14), the Anglican Communion has effectively reaffirmed its commitment to a voluntarist, relational way of being together; dealing with differences through mutual self-limiting rather than by central control. Beyond specific proposals, such as that for an Anglican Covenant, this continued commitment to a ‘polity of persuasion’ will require time and patience as well as a quality of ongoing engagement to succeed. What is at stake is more than Anglican unity. It is the capacity for Anglicanism to witness with integrity to the world about living under God in community, sharing power, and co-existing interdependently on a tiny and increasingly conflicted planet.

This article reflects not only on the 2008 Lambeth Conference itself, but also on some of the deeper issues that were both revealed and concealed there and at the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) meeting that preceded it. I do this as the General Secretary of one of the Communion’s oldest mission agencies, finding common ground between the challenges we face and those that confront the Communion, in three respects. First, the need to move beyond the colonial inheritance to recognize both the independence of partners and the need for new patterns of inter-dependence. Secondly, the challenge to traditional understandings of belonging from a more self-select culture, most obvious in the consumerism of the North but also increasingly in global relationships. Thirdly, the danger of new colonialisms, in the kind of partnerships favoured by non-governmental organizations, from both conservatives and liberals in North America, but also emerging from some newly found powers in the South.

How the Nippon Sei Ko Kai (NSKK), the Anglican Church in Japan, can respond to the discussion at the Lambeth Conference 2008? The NSKK celebrates its 150th anniversary of its missionary, beginning this year (2009). The NSKK is a diverse church where high and low, broad and liberal co-existed from the beginning, which in a way represented the epitome of the Anglican Communion. The NSKK officially expressed its position regarding the ‘Anglican Covenant’, at an early stage when the Windsor Report 2004 was issued; owning a binding force as in ‘Anglican Covenant’ does not match the spirit of Anglicanism which values the unity of diversity and autonomy of each province and diocese, and ‘Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral’ is enough for a guideline for the unity of Anglican Identity. The NSKK is a church, which values the principles of the consensus fidelium in the Anglicanism and focuses on the Anglican Consultative Council as the center.

The Bishops of the Anglican Communion met on the campus of the University of Kent at Canterbury, England, for the Lambeth Conference in July 2008. The Conference took place at a time when the Anglican Communion was going through turbulence over the issue of human sexuality. Accordingly, there was much expectation that the Conference would inter alia discuss and come up with the way forward on the issue of homosexuality. Prudently, the Conference’s focus rested on the real Mission of the Church, epitomized by the Walk of Witness on July 24, 2009 from Whitehall and Westminster to Lambeth Palace. There, Archbishop Rowan Williams spoke of the Communion’s commitment to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It is within this context that this article seeks to discuss the issue of the MDGs in the context of the Lambeth Conference, from the perspective of Botswana. It is my intention to show that the Anglican Communion should be focused on the life and death issues of eradicating abject poverty, HIV and AIDS, malaria, bad governance, unjust trade policies and environment, rather than wasting valuable spiritual energy on the ‘luxury’ of human sexuality which is a non-issue for the poor.