It was an interesting week. We met in India because the Church of South India spans the Anglican-Reformed spectrum in its own life – and we were glad to have observers from CSI with us.
This was a ‘first’ for me. Those who know me well know that I have always stayed away from formal ecumenical structures. I don’t have the temperament for the ‘patient inching forward’ which these processes demand. Yet strangely I quite enjoyed this one. Partly it was the pleasure of working with people who have theological minds much more supple and elegant than mine. Partly it was that there swam into view the possibility of saying something about Communion which might assist the Anglican Communion at the moment. I was left with the feeling that both Communions may have appropriated the word without fully exploring the meaning. So there are opportunities for growth all round.
On a more prosaic level, I have now had three trips to India without Delhi belly. Obviously even to say such a thing is to beg and plead for trouble. Nemesis may arrive as soon as three weeks on Sunday when a group from our diocese travels to Kolkata for the celebrations to mark the end of the 200th Anniversary of the diocese.