posted on the Anglican Diocese of Edmonton website
Dear friends
I am sending you another update from Lambeth, I am sure for many of you there may be a feeling that you are not quite sure what is happening here as the press reports are many and varied.
There are many wonderful things, moments when I am sure that we have seen glimpses of Christ in our midst. The walk to support the Millennium Development Goals was one such moment, as were the addresses from Brian MacLaren on Evangelism, and from Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sachs on Covenant. I will try to bring both back to share with you as they become available. There have been great smaller group sessions on MDGs, on being Bishops as Biblical Missionaries – from N.T. Wright, to name only two. I wish I could express to you the power of the Primate of Japan apologizing publicly to the Church of Korea for the way they had treated them and his call for Christians to be peacemakers; or the sheer joy of the Polynesian singing.
A candlelit pilgrimage around the cathedral provided an oasis of stillness and time to reflect on the many conversations. I think that the main theme of the conference on ‘equipping the bishops for ministry’ has been well addressed in many ways and there is a great richness and depth of experience I will bring home, so thank you to all of you as a Diocese who sent me here. The stories from around the Communion have been overwhelming in both drawing us together as one body in Christ but also, in making us realize the incredible suffering of our brothers and sisters around the world and of the great discrepancy in the distribution of wealth and power. In addition, hearing from dioceses in Africa over and over again of harvests not reaped and crops not sown because of rains that do not come, well that knowledge takes on a new life in our call to prayer and action. Tim and I will never be the same.
This is a conference of paradoxes; we swing from hope to concern every day topic after topic. Yet through it all there is this great thread of worship, the daily offices, Eucharist, Bible study, an incredible prayer team and times for healing. Not one conversation takes place outside that framework.
It feels as though we keep, as a group of bishops, coming close to saying something with one voice on poverty, on ecology and stewardship of creation, I hope that this will surface as a critical voice from this conference. There are 80 million Anglicans in the world, surely if 80 million voices could be called upon to speak together out of the gospel imperative at least one voice would be heard.
And on the issues of Communion and Covenant, what of those? Well the conversations have been intense, respectful and different voices are being heard to some extent. I have not been avoiding talking about these issues with you, we have not come to these topics in our Indaba groups until now, so the conversation is in process. I do not think anyone can predict the outcome. The frustration is not knowing if we will be able to agree in these next few days on the course for the days ahead. We are in a process that is not the usual parliamentary system we are so used to in the West, we are in conversation seeking the Spirit’s leading and waiting on God’s grace. As you can imagine for many of us the process is new and the temptation to pop a resolution on the end because we know how to do that, is tempting but not true to the Indaba process to which we committed.
We understand as a group much better I think, how decisions in one part of the body affect others across a world not just in the Anglican Church but outside it also, affecting interfaith and ecumenical relationships, places of persecution. We have shared one another’s tears and hold up a shared responsibility for all our actions – not just in the area of human sexuality but in our whole life in Christ. Is there any way to come out of this believing that all are trying to be faithful to what they believe they find in the gospel? Can we leave the winners and losers mentality behind? I don’t know.
Please, please pray for us as we continue to struggle. I have not met one single person who has not come prepared to listen to the other – whoever they perceive the other to be. Can we see one another as followers of Christ? How much diversity can the communion tolerate, not just on this issue but on many others?
Archbishop Rowan did a good job of trying to reflect back to us the opposing voices on the rift in the fabric of our communion. He has asked every single one of us to think what it means if this Lambeth is to speak from the centre – not the midpoint between two extremes - but from the heart of our identity as Anglicans aware of living in and as, the body of Christ. As a communion we have to think how much confidence and authority we will place in the communion’s decisions. A covenant approach to our future calls for an expression of mutual and intelligent generosity born of Jesus Christ, the one unique centre. The costs of such generosity may be great for all of us, but can we continue to offer one another and the church life?
…if I am lost tell them I will be found by love (St. John of the Cross)
On Sunday we will add the names of the murdered Melanesian brothers to the roll of Saints and Martyrs of our time in Canterbury Cathedral, please remember them in your prayers.
Robin Lindsay
Francis Tofi
Tony Sirihi
Alfred Hill
Patteson Gatu
Ini Paratabatu
Nathaniel Sado
Pray for us all so that tiredness does not overtake us, the work days are intense and very long often 6.30AM to 10PM. Pray that we might stay focused on the tasks before us.
God of redeeming love
Enfold us in your arms
And meet us in the naked embrace
Of prayerful self-offering;
Touch us, enliven us
And make us whole AMEN
(collect from the Eucharist led by the Anglican church of Burundi)
As I close, I say my night prayers tonight to the sound of the Indian Bishops singing their hymns from the window of the block opposite, one Lord, one faith, one baptism indeed.
I miss you all
Good night.
+Jane
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