Church of England gives £600,000 to bail out Lambeth Conference

August 20, 2008
George Conger

The Church of England has given the Lambeth Conference an emergency loan of £600,000 to cover the estimated £1.2 million shortfall for the July 16 to Aug 3 conference.

On Aug 11, the Board of Governors of the Church Commissioners met with the officers of the Lambeth Conference Company, a corporation set up by the Anglican Consultative Council and Lambeth Palace to manage the conference, to address the cash shortfall.

The Lambeth Conference Company’s officers, who include ACC Secretary General Kenneth Kearon and Lambeth Chief of Staff Chris Smith reported that they were unable to meet the conference’s financial obligations. The Board and the Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England, which met on Aug 7, agreed to extend a temporary interest free loan to the Lambeth Conference while it attempted to raise money to cover the shortfall. the rest