Playing host to Bishops

Bishops from Sudan and South Sudan will be staying both in Salisbury and with families in deaneries around our Diocese, who have offered to play host to the Bishops and their wives in their homes during the week before the Conference.

'Lambeth 2020 in Salisbury' is part of an England-wide hospitality programme that will see many dioceses hosting bishops and spouses in the week or so before the international Anglican conference starts.

The hospitality week is designed to give the visitors a chance to rest after travel, and also join in with church life in their host diocese.

While the exact numbers are still to be finalised - and visas will need to be granted for the Bishops who will travel to the UK for July 16th - planning is well underway for the visit of the Sudanese and South Sudanese Bishops and Archbishops and their spouses to our Diocese.

The Lambeth Conference is a gathering of all active bishops of member churches of the Anglican Communion. It takes place approximately every 10 years at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury and enables senior Anglican leaders to meet, pray together, discuss common concerns and, in prayer, to seek a common mind. The Lambeth Conference 2020 runs from the 23rd July until the 2nd August.

The theme for 2020 is 'God’s Church for God’s World: walking, listening and witnessing together'. In his letter of invitation to the bishops and their spouses, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said: "It is my fervent hope and prayer that this will be a significant moment in the history of our extraordinary global family as we witness to our shared love in Jesus Christ, attentive to the call of the Spirit, and prayerfully seek God’s direction for an Anglican Communion equipped for the 21st century."

Bishop Nicholas extended a formal invitation to visit us in his Christmas message to all the Sudanese and South Sudanese bishops.

Whilst some of our visitors will remain throughout their stay with their Salisbury hosts, others will be accommodated by hosts in deaneries that they have links with, and these deaneries will be organising their own programme of visits and services for the Bishops and their wives staying with them.

It is expected that the bishops from Sudan will visit Salisbury, before spending time in their other link Diocese, Leeds.

The Lambeth Conference hospitality programme has launched the "Big Hello" as part of the event's hospitality programme.