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Lambeth Cathedral hosts service for all bishops attending conference
A group of Church of Ireland bishops and Archbishops attending the service in Lambeth Cathedral.
Bishops attending the Lambeth Conference joined today for the first group service at Lambeth Cathedral.
More than 600 bishops representing around 165 countries, joined in the Lord’s Prayer in their own language during a moving service formally opening the 15th Lambeth Conference.
Music, prayers and readings were also heard in Maori, Bengali, Zulu, Cantonese and Shona as well as French, Spanish and English in a service live-streamed to a global audience.
The Bishop of Lesotho, The Right Revd Dr Vicentia Kgabe, delivering the sermon, spoke of how the Anglican Communion is “called to practice hospitality and to serve” in a world experiencing “serious pain and strife.”
She said: “So how do we as the church, the Anglican church, demonstrate hospitality in a world that is going through and experiencing some serious pain and strife?
“We do this by following the model that has been set for us by our saviour, and this model is not self-centered nor inward-looking. It calls us not to be navel-gazing but it calls us to first seek God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, and all the things that we wish for, that we yearn for, that we call for that we hope for will be given to us, but first we seek the Kingdom.
“As the Anglican communion we can and we have it in us to heal and serve the world, we do this by sharing what we have freely without the fear that we will run empty.'
During the service, a new primatial cross was presented by the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Archbishop of Alexandria and Bishop of Egypt, the Most Revd Samy Shehata, in the presence of His Eminence Archbishop Angaelos, Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of London, one of the ecumenical guests at the service. The Episcopal / Anglican Province of Alexandria was inaugurated as the 41st Province of the Anglican Communion during 2020.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, prayed at the start of the service that the Lambeth Conference would bring the bishops into deeper understanding of one another and deeper love for the world.
He said: “Let us pray earnestly for God’s blessing upon those who are gathered here, that through our discussion and our walking together we may grow into deeper understanding of one another and deeper love for the world Jesus Christ came to save.”
Yesterday, the Archbishop of Canterbury gave a keynote address and bishops also gathered for the official group photograph.
A group of bishops from the Church of Ireland.
Hundreds of bishops arriving for the group photograph.