By Nan Cobbey
Lambeth Conference Communications

Rapidly expanding Pentecostal "emerging churches" are in the spotlight of ecumenical discussions at the Lambeth Conference.

"I want to underline the significance of this," said Bishop Stephen Sykes of Ely (England), vice chairman of the conference section focussed on dialogue with other churches.

"For the very first time [the Lambeth conference is] taking seriously the vast quantity of Christian people who assemble in new churches and independent Christian groups," said Bishop Sykes. According to key research, Bishop Sykes said, "there are 480 million people who belong to Pentecostal churches or are associated with charismatic churches in the world."

In the latest of a series of briefings this week on emerging issues at the conference, Bishop Sykes said that for the first time Anglicans from all parts of the Communion wanted "to evaluate this vast phenomenon . . . and what [it] signifies for world Christianity."

He said the bishops in the conference subsection looking at the growth of Pentecostalism and its ramifications "have taken a generally positive view of our relationship with them. They have a lot to teach us," he said. "And we have a reason to be penitent for our failure to be more responsive to the needs of men and women across the world."

At the same time, said Bishop Sykes, "we want to find ways of entering into constructive dialogue with them without dismantling our heritage."

Maintaining other ties

The new directions will not lead to a drift away from the Roman Catholic church, the press conference heard. A reporter asked if the growing emphasis on dialogue with Pentecostals, Lutherans and other Protestants meant Anglicans are "going to lose more and more the catholic side of your history?" "No!" was the immediate, forceful reply from Bishop Christopher Hill of Stafford (England), editor of the subsection draft report.

"There is a very long dialogue between the papacy and the Pentecostal churches, from the 1970s onwards," Bishop Sykes added. "So the fact that we are taking this group very seriously means that we are following the example of the papacy."

Questioned about the impact of the conference's discussion on homosexuality for inter-church dialogue, Bishop Jabez Bryce of Polynesia, chair of Section Three, had an immediate and precise answer: "The section wants to make it very clear that no province of the Anglican Communion has changed its standing on this matter. They still endorse the marriage between a man and a woman. They have not changed that at all and we want to reaffirm that in our section."