What is the Lambeth Conference?
It is the meeting of the archbishops and bishops of the Anglican Communion. The Anglican Communion is a family of churches around the world. Most bishops within the communion look after a diocese, or a region of parishes. If every such bishop attends the Lambeth Conference, it is as if every diocese in the Anglican Communion is meeting with every other. (Dioceses are grouped into provinces, which are overseen by Archbishops. A list of all Anglican provinces, is available here). The conference is one of the ‘instruments of communion’ , which means that it is one of the ways in which churches in the Anglican Communion relate to one another and are held together. The first Lambeth Conference was held in 1867 at Lambeth Palace (hence the name), the Archbishop of Canterbury’s residence in London. One takes place approximately every ten years.
