Bishop Ralph Spence of the Hamilton, Ont.-based diocese of Niagara will be heading across the Atlantic for a new adventure after he retires on Feb. 29, 2008. He will move to London for several months at the invitation of the Archbish-op of Canterbury to help organize the Lambeth Conference, the decennial meeting of the world’s Anglican bishops, scheduled to take place July 16-Aug. 4, 2008.
“I’m going to be chaplain to all the workers, about 1,000 people,” he said in an interview. In addition, he said, he will be “helping out with disciplinary matters” during the conference. “If somebody needs to be straightened out on their conduct or behaves inappropriately, I’ll be helping them understand what the appropriate conduct will be,” he said.
The invitation resulted from work Bishop Spence performed in 2002 at the Anglican Communion office, putting records in order from the 1998 Lambeth Conference. The diocese has scheduled an episcopal election for June 2, 2007 to choose Bishop Spence’s successor.