At a time when the great depression had come upon western countries and independent Anglican provinces existed in India, Japan and China, the 1930 Lambeth Conference took time to reflect on the nature of the Anglican Communion. Touched with political and economic uncertainties, the bishops nonetheless reflect the cautious optimism of the growing ecumenical movement in looking towards the unification of all churches. In that mood the report sees the Anglican Communion in somewhat transitional terms, but not altogether transitional. It envisages that distant future when if ‘a council of the whole Church were to be called together, it would be assembled on a plan of autonomy and fellowship similar to that which is the basis of our Conference to-day’. Earlier in this report the bishops had said that the principle which underlies the church – that is, the Anglican churches – was very clear: