For a very long time Anglicans have been engaged in ecumenical dialogue and have repeatedly declared their interest in and commitment to unity between the churches and the ecumenical endeavour. In 1888 the Lambeth Conference passed a sequence of resolutions on this theme. What was then called home reunion was to be sought on the basis of four points: scripture, the creeds, the two sacraments and the historic episcopate locally adapted. This came to be known as the ‘Lambeth Quadrilateral’ and has sometimes been used to refer to key markers of Anglican identity. This is a slightly odd use of the Quadrilateral in the context of the 1888 conference since the bishops went on to call for the ‘dissemination of information respecting the standards of doctrine and formularies in use in the Anglican Church’ (LC.1888,13). Clearly the conference did not think that the Quadrilateral contained all that could or should be said about Anglican identity. The conference envisaged ecumenical dialogue with English-speaking churches, though they also refer specifically to Scandinavian churches and the Old Catholics of Holland, Germany and Austria. The wider Communion of Anglican churches is only lightly touched on in these resolutions. Churches are to proceed in concert ‘so far as it may be’.

Similar themes returned in 1920, when the bishops issued their Appeal to all Christian People, which in the resolutions of the conference is set out under the heading of ‘Reunion of Christendom’.