The Lambeth Conference which is set to take place from 26 July to 6 August, last met with all Anglican bishops in attendance in 1998 – 24 years ago.
The 1998 conference was due to receive the report of the Decade of Evangelism from its secretary, Cyril Okorocha of Nigeria. This was shelved and Canon Okorocha stood down in favour of pressure from some bishops to discuss the issue of homosexual unions. The outcome of the 1998 conference was a resolution, Lambeth 1.10, which ‘while rejecting homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture, calls on all our people to minister pastorally and sensitively to all irrespective of sexual orientation and to condemn irrational fear of homosexuals’.
A senior Nigerian bishop recently told me that Nigerians are still concerned that no apology had yet been received for their treatment at the conference by some other bishops due to their advocacy of Lambeth 1.10 which was attributed to their being the beneficiaries of ‘chicken dinners’.
