Dreading Lambeth’s Outcome, and for Good Reason

Andrew Carey
Stand Firm
July 25, 2008

Having spent what seems like years of my life at Anglican conferences I dread them these days. On a spiritual level they are deeply depressing. I found at one point, particularly in the late 1990s and early years of this century that I was swapping my faith and family life for an unhealthy adrenaline addiction to Anglican conflict. The 1998 Lambeth Conference, in particular, was both a high and a low point in my life.

At the beginning of the conference my wife, Helen, and I received an appointment date to attend King’s College Hospital Assisted Conception Unit, to investigate further our childlessness. This felt like something final to us and left us both with a feeling of deep despair. Yet in the final week of the conference we attended the Unit. We were both taken aback when during the first procedure tears came to the eyes of the nurse, and she left the room to get a second opinion from a colleague. We were then told that Helen was in fact pregnant. the rest