A Lambeth degree is an academic degree conferred by the Archbishop of Canterbury under the authority of the Ecclesiastical Licences Act 1533 as successor of the papal legate in England. The degrees conferred most commonly are DD (Doctor of Divinity), DCL (Doctor of Civil Law), DLitt (Doctor of Letters), DMus (Doctor of Music), DM (Doctor of Medicine), BD (Bachelor of Divinity) and MA (Master of Arts). The relatively modern degree of MLitt (Master of Letters) has been conferred in recent years, and the MPhil (Master of Philosophy) and PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) are now available.
Nature of the degrees
The continued authority of the archbishop to confer degrees is recognised in accordance with section 216(1) of the Education Reform Act 1988 by the Education (Recognised Bodies) (England) Order 2013. There are two types of degrees awarded: those for the recognition of service to the church and those for which an examination is required.
Lambeth degrees are legally substantive degrees, awarded only to those individuals deemed to have met the requirements for the degree in some way. They are awarded in recognition of prior learning or experience, but also serve as a form of church honours system.
The first two PhDs were awarded in 2012, to the Reverend Canon Les Oglesby and the Reverend Canon Robert Reiss. Canon Oglesby's thesis was titled "God's involvement with evil: a dialogue between psychology and theology constructed from the works of Carl Gustav Jung and Hans Urs von Balthasar". Canon Reiss's thesis title was "The testing of vocation: the twentieth century history of the Central Advisory Council for the Training of the Ministry and its successors".
The Archbishop's Examination in Theology is run by a committee, and the key office holders are the Reverend Jeremy Morris (director), the Reverend Canon Les Oglesby (academic registrar) and the Reverend Cortland Fransella (Lambeth awards officer).
In March 2016 on the third anniversary of his installation, the Archbishop of Canterbury announced a new set of non-academic Lambeth Awards, to be made annually, to recognise outstanding service in various fields. The new suite of awards consist of three existing Lambeth Awards – the Lambeth Cross, the Canterbury Cross and the Cross of St Augustine – and six new awards named after previous holders of the office of Archbishop of Canterbury. Each recognises outstanding service in different fields, including those of the archbishop’s ministry priorities: prayer and the religious life; reconciliation; and evangelism and witness. In view of these awards and the establishment of the AET, the current archbishop does not plan to award Lambeth degrees in the short term, so such nominations are not currently invited.
Academic dress
As with many degrees from elsewhere, holders of a Lambeth degree are entitled to wear academic dress. However, the academic dress worn is not unique, original or exclusive. The tradition is to wear the academic dress of the institution from which the archbishop graduated, which has always been either Oxford or Cambridge except for George Carey and Sarah Mullally. The reasoning was that Oxford and Cambridge were the only universities in existence at the time the powers to award degrees where given to the AoC, so they were sort of 'degrees of the realm'.
Carey, a graduate of the University of London, followed tradition and chose Oxford dress. The then Vice-Chancellor of the University of London, Graham Zellick, attempted to see if London academic dress could be used but his attempt proved fruitless. It is uncertain whether robes from a university other than Oxford or Cambridge can be used when the archbishop is not an Oxford or Cambridge graduate.
There has been talk of whether holders of Lambeth degrees should have distinctive academic dress and some Lambeth degree holders have designed their own dress to wear, for example, Dr Turpin who commissioned an Oxford and Cambridge hybrid DMus robe.
However, the Lambeth STh Diploma has a distinctive academic dress. The hood is of black stuff of full Cambridge shape with the lining divided horizontally. The lower half is of light blue silk and the upper half is of white silk, so that the lining appears white over blue when worn. This is an unusual pattern for academic hoods in the UK so some STh hoods have been made of black stuff of full Cambridge shape, lined with mid-blue silk, and the cowl faced with eight inches of white silk. The gown is of the London BA pattern but with blue cords and buttons on the sleeves.
See also
- Holders of a Lambeth degree