 Lang avoided continuation of the Prayer Book controversy of 1928 by allowing the parliamentary process to lapse . He then authorised a statement permitting use of the rejected Book locally if the parochial church council gave approval . The issue remained dormant for the rest of Lang 's tenure at Canterbury . He led the 1930 Lambeth Conference , where further progress was made in improving relations with the Orthodox Churches and the Old Catholics , although again no agreement could be reached with the non @-@ episcopal Free Churches . On an issue of greater concern to ordinary people , the Conference gave limited approval , for the first time , to the use of contraceptive devices , an issue in which Lang had no interest . Through the 1930s Lang continued to work for Church unity . In 1933 the Church of England assembly formed a Council on Foreign Relations and , in the following years , numerous exchange visits with Orthodox delegations took place , a process only halted by the outbreak of war . Lang 's 1939 visit to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is regarded as the high point of his ecumenical record . George Bell , Bishop of Chichester , maintained that no one in the Anglican Communion did more than Lang to promote the unity movement . 
