Is the Lambeth Conference a council?
Councils are determined retrospectively by their fruit. There have been “rules” formulated for determining a council’s legitimacy (especially in Western churches, though less so in the East), but these are not in themselves sufficient or even necessary, certainly not always clear (cf. Constantinople I, and various other disputed councils). The Lambeth Conference was not, as we know, initially understood to be a “synod” of juridical authority; nor is it yet so considered in any clear way. The Archbishop of Canterbury recently wrote that the Conference “is not a formal Synod or Council of the bishops of the Communion, which would require us to be absolutely clear about the standing of all the participants”. This statement is technically true, but it is perhaps misleading. What in fact does “formal” mean in a conciliar church where the work of the Holy Spirit itself in the lives of a council’s participants grants a council authority? Does it apply simply to the “regular” aspect of a counc
