|TOP|The Archbishop of Canterbury has set out the provisional agenda for the 2008 Lambeth Conference in a letter to the 38 Primates of the Anglican Communion and Moderators of the United Churches.

In the letter, Dr Williams outlined the initial priorities to be addressed by the Bishops of the Communion at the Lambeth Conference with a particular focus on theological formation.

“The main focus ... will, I hope, be on ‘equipping the people of God’, a theme that has emerged very strongly from the work of the Lambeth Conference Design Group,” read the letter.

“Lambeth 2008 will offer a unique opportunity for us to think together as bishops about what we need to equip us for building up the Body of Christ for really effective, truthful and prayerful mission.”

Archbishop Williams called on the Primates and Moderators to use the period of Lent to reflect on their own faith and the many challenges facing the worldwide Anglican Communion.

“The season of Lent is about penitence, and penitence always requires us to see ourselves more clearly in the light of God’s holiness and justice,” said Dr Williams.

|AD|“Each of us must begin again at the foot of the Cross....Lent is our best opportunity to let God move more deeply and permanently into the areas of our lives that still resist his grace.”

In the letter, Dr Rowan Williams also stressed to the leaders that the major conference was not intended as an opportunity to return to Resolution 1.10 passed at Lambeth 1998.

Resolution 1.10 affirmed that the official position of the Anglican Communion was that homosexual behaviour is incompatible with the teachings of the Bible, although it also called on Anglicans to listen to those with different points of view.

“I do not hear much enthusiasm for revisiting in 2008 the last Lambeth Conference’s resolution on this matter. In my judgement, we cannot properly or usefully reopen the discussion as if Resolution 1.10 of Lambeth 1998 did not continue to represent the general mind of the Communion.”

He did say, however, that time would be given for presentations on the work currently being done in the Provinces across the Communion with regards homosexuality.

“The controversies of recent years have spotlighted the difficulties we have as a Communion of making decisions in a corporate way,” he said. “The Windsor Report raised this as a major question, and we shall need time to think about the Report’s theological principles and its practical suggestions, particularly the idea of a ‘Covenant’ for our Provinces, expressing our responsibility to and for each other.”

Dr Williams concluded: “We must pray together that Lambeth 2008 will be a time for God to give his gifts abundantly to every bishop and every church represented, so that we are more and more eager to share the Easter Gospel in a world of suffering and sin.”