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Lambeth Conference shortfall plugged by Church charities

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 17 Sep 2008

The Archbishops Council of the Church of England and the Board of Governors of the Church Commission have stepped in to plug a £1.2m deficit left after this year’s Lambeth Conference in Kent.

After a meeting on Monday morning, August 11, the Board of Governors agreed to match the August 8 offer made by the Archbishops’ Council of up to £600,000 in interest-free loans to the Lambeth Conference Company, the part of the Anglican Communion responsible for the running of the conference.

In a statement, the Church of England said that the Company had given assurances that it would continue to seek support from the Anglican Communion to cover the debts, but that “it cannot, however, be confident that these [efforts] will generate funds sufficiently quickly for it to meet all of its obligations as they fall due over the coming weeks and months”.

The Lambeth Conference Company has accepted the loan.

Media reports of US fundraising

Prior to Monday’s offer, the Archbishops’ Council’s lone offer sparked media speculation that it had called upon its US congregations to raise the remaining funds and that the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams (pictured) was to be sent to personally rally funds at American churches and institutions.

Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the USA, the Most Rev Katharine Jefferts Schori, was quoted as saying: “I believe the Archbishop of Canterbury has expressed a desire to come to the United States and do some fundraising work.”

However, the Anglican Communion’s director of finance and administration Andrew Franklin ruled out the possibility of the Archbishop carrying out such work in the US but confirmed that it would be looking initially to the US to help raise funds to repay the amount underwritten by the Church of England.

Conference marred by boycott

This year’s Lambeth Conference was marred by a boycott by over 200 bishops from conservative diocese across the world who opposed the Church’s stance towards the ordination of homosexual bishops and same-sex marriages.

Franklin denied that this year’s shortfall was a result of the boycott, as some media organisations had reported.

In contrast to the significant debt left at the end of the 2008 conference, which wrapped up on August 3, the previous Lambeth Conference, in 1998, had run a surplus of £1m.

The Church of England was careful to stress, in announcing its rescue package, that it had already been generous in supporting the Lambeth Conference with donations coming from parishes and diocese towards the transport and care of visiting bishops and their spouses and the conference organising staff.

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