Category: Blog Entry

Living Sacrifices

After the statement from the Archbishop of Sudan yesterday, things seemed rather more bracing here. So I found myself for the first time in eight days reaching for my Pectoral Cross this morning – the black, Fermanagh bog oak since you ask. Dress expresses mood.

So first I went into our completely remarkable Bible Study Group and suggested that we might take the opportunity which the study of scripture offered us this morning to explore some of the issues raised. Since the study was about the woman taken in adultery and issues of judgement, it seemed completely appropriate. So we did. Bible Study in this company is like Nigel Kennedy playing Bach. It’s all in the spaces.

Then I reflect on the experience of the rest of the day. Alison and I compared notes and found that throughout the day we had been exposed to heroic stories of bishops and their spouses – completely humbling stories of commitment and sacrifice .. stories from spouses of families left behind, of careers sacrificed and of extraordinary labour on behalf of the poor and the voiceless. What is common to many of these stories is how important it is to be members of the Anglican Communion.

I spent an hour with Archbishop Stephen of Myanmar who has links with our congregation in Kirkcaldy and came and had a meal with us last year. I suspect he shared with me but a fraction of the story of his ministry and his people. I simply give thanks that he is where he is.

We then went down to the Cathedral to meet the young people of our Provincial Youth Network who are taking responsibility for the Labyrinth in the Crypt. They represent faith, commitment and good humour. We shared a meal with them afterwards.

And finally .. We went to the evening visit to the Cathedral. Empty of visitors, long shadows in the Crypt. It reminded me of Susan Howatch’s description of the great Cathedral at Starbridge glowing in the evening light. We ended by standing in a circle by candlelight around the shrine of Beckett high at the east end of the Cathedral. Misty-eyed again, I’m afraid, as I began to link in my mind the martyrdom of Beckett with those extraordinary stories of obedient, resolute and joyful sacrifice which I had been hearing all day.

That is the Anglican Communion – precious beyond imagining.

So tomorrow, like all good pussy cats, we’re off to London to visit the Queen. It’s cassocks only. Apparently the Spanish-speaking bishops are engaged in energetic discussion as to whether this means what it says. I think they should wait for a reading of both temperature and wind strength. Of which more tomorrow.

Good Sermon Vicar!

How many really good sermons have you heard in your life? Not all that many, I suspect. I added one to my list this morning at the Eucharist when James, Bishop of Southern Malawi, preached on the reading from John – Jesus explaining the feeding of the 5000 – a nightmare for preachers. He wove a spell of reflection on people’s appetite for Wonder Bread and their desire for signs – and drew it back to the possibility that we ourselves might be the sign … ‘Kiss this frog and you may find your Prince Charming’

If I can say so without being patronising, I think the revelation of this Conference for me has been the quality of the new generation of leadership emerging in the African Churches. They are sophisticated, clear and powerful – clearly have leadership to offer to the whole Communion.

Which brings me back to the session last night on Models for Evangelism from Brian McLaren – polished communication and thought-provoking too. It seemed to me compelling to suggest that some at least of the success of the church in Africa is to do with the move from pre-modern to modern society. He suggested that people cannot bring their old religion with them – Christianity suits modern society exceptionally well. But it can’t cope so easily with the move from modern to post-modern society.

I’ve also been looking at diocesan links and have signed up for some kind of Communion-wide dating agency. Listening to people describing long term and successful links, it seemed to me that the challenge is to get beyond ecclesiastical tourism. The best have been exploring shared training and evangelism and approach it all in a very strategic and intentional way. I have promised not to come back with a link fixed up – rather to try at best to gather up a number of possibilities which we might subsequently explore. Yes – the bishop-to-bishop chemistry does matter. But these are diocesan links above all.

And finally … still early days for the Indaba Groups. That’s the diffused talking process through which the Conference is trying to get to grips with ‘the issues.’ Yes we have to commit ourselves to this – plenaries simply marginalise the centre ground. But …

But … I think that it is difficult to see the roadmap which will lead us towards a conclusion. I am part of an Indaba Group which contains some of the most respected and skilled thinkers in the whole Anglican Communion. But the process is at best undemanding. It certainly is not drawing out the resources in the group which are there for the benefit of all. I think that, to use the dreadful phrase, we need to be sure by the end of this week that it is ‘fit for purpose’

Ordinary Day 1

We’ve been experiencing what the Lambeth Conference Programme enticingly calls ‘Ordinary Day 1’  This is without prejudice to the fact that we arrived here last Tuesday and will not leave until Sunday week.  Ordinary Day 1 has been long.

For me, even if nothing else happened here, it would be worth it for the Bible Study Group.  As we get to know one another better, we edge closer to the difficult stuff.  Given that we have another two weeks, I look forwardwith anticipation to where we may get to.

The press – not that I have time to read it – seems to have been treating the Conference fairly harshly.  Inside the wire, it remains an extraordinary meeting place of the world church.  And as bishops and their spouses begin to loom up in front of one for the second or third time, the conversations become more substantial.  I made a particular effort today to talk to one or two traditionalist bishops from The Episcopal Church [that means the USA]  We talked about dioceses seeking to move themselves to affiliate to other provinces and the difficulties which this creates.  For them the issue of Gene Robinson is merely symptomatic of a whole range of issues – most of which are about theological formulations.  ‘If people cross theological boundaries, the result is that others will have to cross physical boundaries.’

Themes wrap around one another.  Eucharist this morning was led by the South Koreans – the Gospel about frightened disciples in the boat in the storm seeing Jesus walking on the water.  The Korean Archbishop preached about experiencing fear as ‘the absence of God.’  They invited the Japanese Primate to say prayers of reconciliation.  Our Bible Study pondered the fact that the disciples were in one boat – like the gospel book carried in a boat by the Melanesian Dancers in the Cathedral on Sunday.  They didn’t try to throw each other out ..

Today also saw the start of the Indaba Groups – groups of about 40 in which we shall attempt to deal with ‘the issues’.  Doubters?  Yes – probably most of us on some levels.  But, as Rowan Williams said, the former ways of doing things weren’t notably successful either.

But in the end, the extraordinary thing about this Conference is that – even though 200 bishops have stayed away – it is all here.  Everywhere one goes, the Anglican Communion and its issues are there in microcosm.   I sat in the Cathedral just across from the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church and the Bishop of Pittsburg and tried to wrap my prayers around them.  All over the Cathedral, I am sure the same thing was happening.

Saying of the day?  An American bishop who described the low-church culture of some of the congregations in his diocese as ‘snake-belly low.’

Another Day

I’ve been enjoying Dave Walker’s drawings at Cartoon Church.  You need to laugh here.

Meanwhile today saw the Opening Service in the Cathedral.  The logistics of moving nearly 700 bishops and their spouses down to the Cathedral are pretty daunting

Here it is.  I’m on the right, by the way.  The Archdeacon of Canterbury, who is a notable Brompton rider, is at the far end on the left.  She did not process with the Brompton.  I thought the Sermon – from the Bishop of Colombo – was excellent.  A classic and very clear statement of Anglicanism.

So there are only fourteen days to go.  And you can feel that we’re already sort of ‘into it’.  I have to say that I’m rather looking forward to  trying to deal with the issues – particularly as they arise in the Bible Study.

Meanwhile, the Management has been silent on the sleeping arrangements.  Maybe they are a Monday to Friday operation.

The Conference wot I am attending

This programme is what some call packly tight.  So I haven’t had more than a moment to find out from the blogs and websites about the Conference which I am supposed to be experiencing.

It seems to me that the atmosphere is warm and friendly.  I can do gregarious when I need to.  But by the end of yesterday, I was contemplating the tee-shirt which said, ‘No more networking today.’   The encounters are fascinating.  The journalists who are looking for stories could stop almost any participant here at random and find that they have an extraordinary story to tell.  I have a feeling that the spouses may well be even more diverse and interesting than the bishops.  After all, they chose a partner but perhaps not this extraordinary way of life.  Yes there clearly is a need to ensure that the Conference addresses difficult issues – but most conferences are a sprint.  This is a marathon.

I look at the bishops – out of their context and, in many cases, casually dressed.  I wonder if I can discern something which this strange breed of people has in common.  They are all hard workers.  Many of them are tired.  They are idealists but they spend a lot of time managing conflicting demands with limited resources.  In many cases, they face extraordinary and dangerous situations.  They can be isolated to the point of lonely.

But they are not the area managers of some global conglomerate coming to Head Office for a pep talk.  They are faith leaders of autonomous churches.  And that is why this Conference is beginning by investing time in the inward spiritual journey and in relationships.  What we need to do demands more than politics and votes.

Two other things ..

The Lord’s Prayer said by each in their own language is unbearably moving.

The bedroom furniture situation continues to be a matter of some interest.  We have now received two billets doux on our pillows from the management.  The beds may have moved but they are unmoved.

Dream Ticket

Today has been training for being a Bible Study Group leader.  So we did a ‘dry run’ with a group of bishops all trying hard not to say the obvious thing about the passage we were studying.  The contacts are fascinating.
Bible Study is 75 minutes most mornings for the next two weeks – so this is a big slice of the way in which we hope to get to know one another.  I got a quick look at the composition of the group that I am expected to facilitate.  It confirmed my worst fears. No – my worst fears would be a bunch of academics.  Just my second-worst fears.

Anyway, I fell to thinking about the compostion of my ideal Bible Study Group.  Martin Luther King, I think.  St Patrick, of course, Tutu, Bonhoeffer ..

They’ve announced a friendly meeting for episcopal bloggers tomorrow.  Maybe ‘they’ have something to say to us.  But it will be good to meet.

Take up your bed

Kimberly of course wants too much information.  But since she asks … the obvious answer to this single room stuff is a discreet rearrangement of the furniture.  So we now have a sitting/IT room and a bedroom.  Anglican Connubial Bliss is safe for now.

The news hounds who are sniffing around here won’t find much to excite.  I’ve been here today for pre-Conference training as a Bible Study Group leader.  It’s great news that each group will work in three languages with interpreters.  It gives the group leader time to think.

Initial impressions?  I wandered around today and talked to all sorts of people.  Two impressions.  First that this is not a gathering of extremists.  No doubt there are passionate convictions around.  But people who deal with people in all their variety and complexity have a sort of innate moderation about them.  And many of the people I met today are priests who spent long years in pastoral  ministry before becoming bishops.  It makes a difference.

Sole purpose

Like the pilgrims of old, we’re heading for Canterbury.  We have the tent with us in case we have a Sentamu moment which calls for an act of witness – or if the Anglican Communion’s failure to uphold heterosexual marriage by putting us all in single rooms just becomes too much.

Meanwhile, we’ve all received – or I have anyway – an attitude survey purporting to be on behalf of the Times.  I spent some time looking at it and pondering whether it was ‘for real’ or not.  I shan’t be completing it.  I was reminded of Peter Ustinov’s response when asked on entry to the USA, ‘Do you intend to subvert the Constitution of the United States of America?’  To which he claimed to have replied, ‘Sole Purpose of Visit’.  The questions include, ‘Has the Church done enough to help the people of Zimbabwe?’ and ‘Are liberals taking control of the Church of England?’

I really see very little point in exercises which seem to want to ‘line up’ participants on either side of a series of complex and interwoven issues.  I’ve been appreciating some of the articles by George Pitcher of the Daily Telegraph – particularly this one which describes Archbishop Rowan Williams’ approach to the leadership challenges which face him.  For me it comes down to this.  You can line people up on either side of various issues.  But what really matters is the spirituality of the task which faces us.  That task is not primarily to hold the Anglican Communion together.  Rather it is to deal with people and issues – to work out how and to what extent we can with integrity and faithfulness deal with diversity.  And through it all runs what I think is one of the great challenges of any leadership in the church – that of holding deep personal conviction while enabling the whole church to live, move and find unity in Christ.

I’m a Nigerian ..

My heart sank, I have to confess. This was not a card-carrying Nigerian Anglican. Just what my children would call a random Nigerian sitting in the foyer of Jury’s Hotel in Dublin. He finished talking to a random Irishman and turned his beatific smile on me. He had been hearing about how wonderful Ireland was in the past, how safe at night .. did I not agree that it was now so different because people had lost the fear of God? Having just come off the early morning flight and attempting to shake off the fear of Ryanair and the faulty Dublin airport radar, I decided that ‘No, I didn’t agree.’ And I heard myself moving into a rant about how this wonderful Ireland of the past exported its best and brightest young people because there was neither work nor dignity for them… the women trapped in loveless and violent marriages because of the constitutional prohibition on divorce .. and while I’m at it … Time for coffee.

Anyway, the consecration of Trevor as Bishop of Limerick was great. I did my usual misty-eyed thing at ordinations – is this a sign of age? But it did me the power of good anyway. I shared the peace with Madam President .. who subsequently received communion .. and the preacher was Dom Mark-Ephrem of the Rostrevor Benedictines with whom I went on retreat last year. And there were copes and mitres and candles and we don’t seem to need to be as defensively protestant as we were in that wonderful Ireland of the past when John Charles McQuaide was Catholic Archbishop of Dublin. Oh .. and I didn’t mention the funeral of the first President of the Republic, Douglas Hyde – a member of the Church of Ireland – and the inglorious way in which members of the Government sat outside the Cathedral during his funeral.  So it looks as if this new Ireland – cosmopolitan, wealthy, unequal, secular, restless  – might just be more tolerantly close to the Kingdom?  Of which more some other time.

Sewing on the Name Tapes

We’re packing.  How many Bibles does one bring – or is the one on my Palm enough?  Slight feel of school about it all.  Will I be bullied in the playground?  Have I packed enough socks?  And the more the blogosphere works itself up, the less motivated I become about blogging or anything else.  I suppose I am just gathering myself for the greatest blogfest of all.

Meanwhile a quick trip to Dublin tomorrow for the consecration of my old friend, Trevor Williams, as Bishop of Limerick and everywhere else in the south west of Ireland.  It’s a good choice – Trevor is a former leader of the Corrymeela Community of Reconciliation.  So he’ll be at Lambeth and, if I remember right, his link diocese is New Hampshire.  The only problem now is the failure of the radar which controls landings at Dublin Airport ..