Canada comes to Canterbury

In the space of a day, Canterbury has gone from relatively quiet to positively bustling. The majority of bishops and spouses arrived today, including a large contingent of Canadians. As the saying goes, you can’t swing a dead cat in Canterbury these days without hitting a bishop. I bumped into several fellow Canucks on campus today, and thought Anglicans back home might like some photographic evidence that our bishops and spouses are, indeed, attending the Lambeth Conference and not working on their tans on some Caribbean beach. Among the first I encountered today was none other than our primate, Archbishop Fred Hiltz, looking relatively refreshed after spending several hours on a long-delayed bus from Scotland and arriving at about 3:30 a.m.

Blanche and Archbishop Terry Buckle (Yukon) and Jacqueline Plante and Bishop Rodney Andrews (Saskatoon)

Mary Atagotaaluk (Arctic), Bishop Barry Clarke (Montreal), Suffragan Bishop Ben Arreak and Diocesan Bishop Andrew Atagotaaluk (Arctic)

Barb Liotscos and Bishop Gordon Light (Central Interior)

Monica Coffin (Western Newfoundland), Diana Stavert (Quebec), Sharon Miller (Fredericton), and Clavera Pie (Bujumbura, Burundi)

Suffragan Bishop Robert Bennett and Kathy Bennett (Huron), Bishop Barry Clarke (Montreal), Bernadette Njegovan and Bishop Jim Njegovan (Brandon)

Coadjutor Bishop Dennis Drainville (Quebec), Angelina Leggo (a Drainville family friend visiting England from Gaspé), Aurora Drainville, Cynthia Patterson (Quebec), Bishop James Cowan and Annette Cowan (British Columbia)

That’s certainly not the entire Canadian contingent, but some of the ones I came across today. The conference begins in earnest tomorrow, with the starting of a three-day retreat for the bishops led by the Archbishop of Canterbury.