Archbishops from around the Anglican Communion have been giving their views on the importance of the Lambeth Conference. Every bishop in the Anglican Communion will be invited to Canterbury, England, for the Lambeth Conference 2020. Two years ahead of the event, planning is gathering momentum and anticipation is mounting. The Anglican Communion News Service (ACNS) has been speaking to Archbishops around the world to ask their views on the Lambeth Conference, and will be publishing a series of short videos in the coming weeks.

The chief executive of the Lambeth Conference, Phil George, said today that the planning for the event was going “extremely well”. He told ACNS: “There is a lot to do and the staff team is now being built up. We are very, very excited that we will have it all ready for the summer of 2020.”

The first of the video vignettes is published today, and features Archbishop Albert Chama, Bishop of Northern Zambia, Archbishop and Primate of Central Africa, and Chair of the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa (CAPA). It – along with some of the other vignettes – was filmed last month in Nairobi during a recent meeting of Anglican Primates from CAPA.

“From the look of things and from what I am hearing from my bishops, is that everyone is looking forward to the Lambeth Conference because this one, they think is going to make us as a Communion to come out with something tangible,” Archbishop Albert said.

“For example, we have got issues that are cross-cutting the Communion. We have got gender-based violence: our women have been treated badly – and not only in the secular communities but even in the Church you find that people are violently treated; and issues of discipleship, and also issues of economic empowerment, issues of how can we get that strong determination to preach the Gospel to the world.

“I am excited because even in the just ended CAPA meeting, the Primates were all affirming these . . . as things we want to be on the agenda at Lambeth 2020.”

He said that he was looking forward to “sharing these concerns with my other brothers in Christ coming from different situations or contexts and also sharing their stories. And out of that we will come together and come up with something that will help the church to be effective in its ministry.

“Our bishops in the Province of Central Africa, we are all geared up. We are all geared up and are looking forward to that.”

Archbishop Albert also spoke about last year’s Primates’ Meeting that took place at Canterbury Cathedral in October. “The way the discussions went – for me, there was a lot of charity,” he said, “a lot of give and take, and also, we were mostly discussing issues that were so much affecting people on the ground; and those are issues that people would think the Church would worry about . . . for example: environmental issues, discipleship, how do we walk together in the preaching of the gospel in spite of our differences. So, for me, that meeting was really good.”

More vignettes will be published here over the coming days.