July 30, 2008 When I last left you, Jeannie and I were out the door heading for the Archbishop of Canterbury’s second Presidential Address to the Conference. This took place last night in “the big top” where we hold our combined plenary sessions. Prior to his address, we joined in a moving worship service led by our friends from Myanmar (Burma). This worship was particularly poignant given the fact that the three bishops who officiated are in my daily Bible study group. In all, a group of about a dozen bishops and spouses from the region offered sacred music from their homeland, and it is a homeland that needs to sing in order not to weep. The service was punctuated by a DVD of the destruction from the recent killer cyclone. It was so reminiscent of the Katrina footage we had grown to see with unshielded eyes. However, I must say that the raw nature of the destruction in Myanmar was not sanitized as was the powerful pictures we saw of Katrina’s aftermath. Bodies of people and animals were indiscriminately scattered like fallen dolls across the landscape of destruction. That these dear souls could sing in the face of what they had lost is itself a tribute to their faith.
Following worship, the Archbishop spoke and did a masterful job in saying, in my own words, the following: Dear Not so Traditional brothers and sisters gathered here at Lambeth, I want you to hear my concerns when you make your decisions. He spelled these out in a fair and comprehensive way. Then he reversed field and did the same for the “Dear Traditional brothers and sisters.” By doing so, I think he began to put to rest the need for those most concerned to be heard that they no longer had to jump up and down on the sidelines and shout back and forth their claims of being misunderstood. It is my hope that this contribution of noting what we have heard from one another will free us now to say, having been heard, what can we do to stay in communion while staying faithful as Christ has led us.
Following the presentation, my ongoing back home support and education group decided we would enjoy an evening of one another’s company. Off we went to Canterbury to a lovely Belgium restaurant. Having our own Presiding Bishop and her husband as part of our dinner party added to the festivities.
Having noted all this, I finally arrive at Wednesday, July 30. It was a profound day for me. I have the sense that the Conference is beginning to be in a new place, having done the slow and sometimes tedious work of first building relationships. Our theme for the day was “Living under Scripture: The Bishop and the Bible in Mission.” Our Bible study was on Jesus’ claim to be the way, the truth and the life. We all saw the unique claim of Jesus in this passage, and our Bible group was quite animated in engaging the text from as many different points of view as there were members present. Ten different readings and variations on the same theme seemed to ring particularly “Anglican.”
Following the Bible study, we finally got to the “big topic” many had been waiting to engage: human sexuality. The traditional Christian perspectives regarding marriage as being between a man and a woman were clearly recorded. Other voices spoke strongly in favor of loving all God’s children without regard for their sexual orientation, and yet not being able to accept the blessing of relationships between any other than heterosexual persons. For others, the sexual orientation and the blessing issues were less problematic and should not be a reason to break communion. I was particularly listening for this voice from other than the Episcopal Church and Canada, and it was to be heard not infrequently. This let me know that whatever the outcome of this Conference with regard to these matters, the issues under consideration are going to go on a long time. It is as if waves are stacking up to hit the shore. In some parts of the world, the waves are so far off they have not even been heard much less seen. In others, they have already crashed against the sand and are withdrawing for their next re-formation in the future. Overall, however, I think it accurate to report that the traditional interpretation of marriage as being between a man and a woman was the strongest perspective presented. Within this context, consistent affirmation of "loving all people who come to Christ" was often stated. Yet this voice was clear that it did not see gay and lesbian Christians as appropriate leadership models for Christian ministry. The reasons for this were biblical, cultural, political and evangelical.
Many dioceses desire to have partnerships established in formal and informal ways. I have been privileged to have conversations with a number of bishops from Tanzania, one from Sudan, one from Northern India and our bible study group of bishops from Myanmar. Their needs are great and their faith stories are a witness to their love of God in Christ. I will continue to be in touch with these and a number of other bishops with whom I have met in hope of finding ways to stay connected across the miles and cultural differences. Staying in touch is a good metaphor for my hopes for this conference. We in our different settings are more and more aware of how much alike and how very different we are. Our differences are not in our humanity but in our understanding of how to live it out humanely in our respective settings. My prayer for now is that we find a way to stay in touch as a visible symbol of our love for one another in Christ and in the service of God’s witness to his all-embracing love.
July 31, 2008 We are drawing to a close at this Lambeth Conference. Your generosity as a diocese has made it possible for Jeannie and for me to attend. We are grateful. Truth be told, what we put aside was not sufficient to cover the actual cost given the exchange rate of pounds to US dollars. I want to thank Jim McGehee who generously offered to make up the difference. It was a great time and an experience that has expanded my horizons as a bishop of the Anglican Communion. I will be sharing with you in more detail what this has meant to me. I hope you will see it as a good investment of your resources as well.
Regarding the complexity of the issues we face across the Communion, it has driven some to a concern that we will not have a clear and measurable statement of what the Anglican Communion requires for “sufficient” membership before we leave this place. The tension between the desire for clarity and the desire for grace (itself a false dichotomy but one that seems to be operating here none the less) is evident throughout our conversations today. Our theme is “Fostering our Common Life: the Bishop, the Anglican Covenant and the Windsor Process.” The day’s conversation was as convoluted as the theme. Nonetheless, I found the conversation, the listening and speaking to be nuanced, inspirational and greatly desirous of finding a way forward together that is authentic. There is also a desire that I understand to have a Covenant, if we are going to have one, that will have enough teeth so that those who do not abide by it will be, by their own decision, separating themselves from affiliation from the Anglican Communion as it is presently constituted. We shall see.
Our Bible study focused today on Jesus as the “vine”. This particularly speaks to me given the fact that it was this verse from John 15 that I chose to be emblematic of the bishopric to which I felt called among you. My pectoral cross, bishop’s ring and crozier all have on them the theme of the vine who is Christ inscribed. Discussions regarding the meaning of being engrafted into the Vine of Christ’s life permeated all of the afternoon discussions.
Both in the Bible study and in the Indaba group, we discussed how we could be in the vine together while at the same time bearing different fruit on the vine given our many different settings for ministry. This was a wide-ranging discussion that moved us beyond sexuality issues to those other issues that define for us what it means to be a responsive Church within a communion of churches who each seek to offer God’s love where we have been planted.
The evening ended with a final plenary session that sought to review comments gathered from the two Indaba groups for today. For three hours we discussed matters related to the possibility of developing an “Anglican Covenant.” I anticipate that while this process has many positive things to commend it that we can affirm as the things we hold in common, the document draft as it is currently prepared will in fact cause more division than the unity it is intended to accomplish.
At the end of the day, Jeannie and I went back to the Thomas Becket Inn with a couple of friends with whom we had not had the opportunity to visit in depth until this evening. Good food and drink, serious opportunities for sharing, and a great way to end a full, challenging and tiring day was provided.
August 1, 2008 Today our theme was “Fostering our Common Life: the Bishop, the Anglican Covenant and the Windsor Report.” First a disclaimer: we never got to the Windsor Report as such. Our time was spent on the Covenant. I also spoke but it was to a more general issue we were facing back home after the conference was finished. My hope was that we should have as our agreed upon statement something to the effect that while the Archbishop of Canterbury affirmed that “the basic unit” of the Church is the diocese, the basic unit of the “Communion” is the Province. If this is picked up and recorded in our report, I will be somewhat surprised but, at the same time, very encouraged. If not, such a statement about the basic unit of the Church being the diocese leaves much to be debated as to the significance of this statement. Luckily, this is a decision the drafting group will have to address, and I do not.
We spent some three hours in Indaba, an hour and a half in Bible study, and an additional hour and a half in the hearings for those who wished to say what they would about the latest proposed text we seek to sign off on at this Conference (as highly unlikely as this is at the present moment.) Following worship by the Province of South East Asia, Jeannie and I went out to dinner with friends in Canterbury. It was a good time to visit.
+ Don
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