They therefore requested him to call a "national synod of the bishopsof the Anglican Church at home and abroad," to meet under his leadership. After consulting both houses of the Convocation of Canterbury, Archbishop Longley assented, and convened all the bishops of the Anglican Communion (then 144 in number) to meet at Lambeth in 1867.
So far as the organization of the Anglican Church is concerned, the most important outcome of the conference was the reconstruction of the Central Consultative Body on representative lines (54-56); this body to consist of the archbishop of Canterbury and seventeen bishops appointed by the various Churches of the Anglican Communion throughout the world.
The new archbishop, without being one of the English divines who have made notable contributions to theological learning, already had a great reputation for ecclesiastical statesmanship; and in subsequent years his diplomatic abilities found ample scope in dealing not only with the difficulties caused in the church by doctrinal questions, but pre-eminently with the education crisis, and with the new problems arising in the enlarged Anglican Communion.
With the others churches of the Anglican Communion the archbishop's relations were cordial in the extreme and grew closer as time went on.
In 1674 Ken paid a visit to Rome in company with young Izaak Walton, and this journey seems mainly to have resulted in confirming his regard for the Anglican communion.
