A new Anglican Communion position, Bishop for Episcopal Ministry, has been created to support relationships forged at this year’s Lambeth Conference.

Bishop Jo Bailey Wells, currently Bishop of Dorking in the Church of England’s Diocese of Guildford, has been appointed and will begin her new role in January 2023, reports Anglican Communion News Service.

The Lambeth Conference is a once-a-decade gathering to which all bishops in the Anglican Communion are invited. Around 650 bishops from around the world took part in this year’s event.

Lambeth Conference participants and organizers said that relationships across the communion were rejuvenated as a result of the gathering.

One unplanned outcome of the conference was a boost to the communion’s Companion Link program – partnerships between individual dioceses with other dioceses in different parts of the world. More than 200 bishops at the conference expressed the desire to create new formal Companion Links as part of their commitment to “walk together.”

As in past Lambeth Conferences, theological issues such as the place of LGBTQ persons in the church were the source of division among the bishops, but Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby was credited with creating an atmosphere where different views could be respected within the context of church and Scripture.

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