Rumours of our death...

Don’t think for a second that because it’s been a week since my last blog entry that nothing worth mentioning has been going on at the Lambeth Conference. If you’ve been keeping up with the media accounts, you’ll know that’s certainly not the case. However, as someone experiencing this conference from the “inside” and who used to be a reporter, I can say some of those accounts bear rather little resemblance to what most of us are experiencing here. To further abuse an overused Mark Twain quote, rumours of the Anglican Communion’s death are greatly exaggerated.

That’s not to say there isn’t debate and, yes, disagreement among the bishops, especially over The Issue. That notwithstanding, this place is more often permeated with a real sense of Christian community, a profound believe that the Anglican Communion is a gift of God worth preserving, and a earnest desire to do what it takes to preserve it. At least that’s the vibe I’m picking up. One couldn’t help but be awed by a sense of our Communion’s catholicity in seeing the 670 bishops lined up rank on rank and row on row, in all their unity and diversity, for the official group photo (above).

The week ahead will be particularly important in the life of this conference, since the first formal engagements with the human sexuality question will begin, as well as more intensified discussions on the ecclesiology of and authority in the Communion (i.e. the Windsor Report and the proposed Anglican Covenant).

I’m afraid this is going to be a rather brief entry, and I’m rather embarrassed if folks who’d hoped this blog would be a more prolific source of “insider” Lambeth reflections are disappointed. The rapporteur job does keep us hopping, often day and night. In fact, I’ve got a report due tomorrow morning waiting for me as I type this. I suppose I should say for the record that I literally had tea with the Queen at Buckingham Palace on Thursday. Granted, it was with 1,000+ other people involved with the Lambeth Conference, as part of the mid-conference day off in London.

Perhaps just another short note to express what a privilege it is to be here. I was pinching myself the other day as I found myself in the middle of rather small seminar discussion on Anglican ecclesiology between Archbishop Rowan Williams, Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia, and Bishop Brian Farrell of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, among others.

The person I owe for this privilege is Dame Mary Tanner (centre), a noted biblical theologian, eminent Anglican ecumenist, and just plain lovely lady. I met her at Bossey earlier this, while she was at the institute for a World Council of Churches gathering, and then again a couple of months later at another ecumenical meeting at the château. During that second encounter she asked me if I was busy during the month of July—and the rest, as they say, is history. Father Jamie Hawkey (right) is a fellow rapporteur and a newly ordained priest of the Diocese of Portsmouth in the Church of England. He’s become a fast friend and, like me, possesses an ecumenical spirit and owes his presence at Lambeth to Mary.

Speaking of which, technically I’m here to write reports, not blog entries, so I’d better get back to rapporteuring. Sorry again for the few-and-far-between postings, though frequent visitors to this site will be accustomed to that. Do keep checking in, and I’ll hope to have more soon.

Down to business

After the bishops’ three-day retreat, the Lambeth Conference today shifted gears. The day began with a grandiose, uplifting, and moving celebration of the eucharist at Canterbury Cathedral. Only official photographers were allowed to take pictures inside the cathedral, so the credit for the one above goes to the hardworking folks at the Anglican Communion News Service.

The first of what will be one of the few plenary sessions of the conference took place this afternoon. The highlight was the archbishop of Canterbury’s excellent presidential address, during which he told his fellow bishops that the greatest need in the Anglican Communion right now is for transformed relationships: “We need to get beyond the reciprocal impatience that shows itself in the ways in which both liberals and traditionalists are ready—almost eager at times, it appears—to assume that the other is not actually listening to Jesus.”

One way in which the conference’s designers hope to encourage better dialogue and relationships among the bishops is through “indaba,” a Zulu word meaning gathering for purposeful discussion. Instead of gigantic (and potentially adversarial) plenary sessions where a relatively few articulate and verbose bishops line up at microphones, the bishops at this Lambeth Conference will instead gather daily in indaba groups of about 50 and discuss less formally a variety of issues confronting the Anglican Communion and humankind as a whole. Central to the idea of indaba is that everyone’s voice is heard, something that was impossible under the old model.

Each indaba group is assigned a rapporteur, and it’s our job to be “active observers,” to interpret and record the bishops’ discussions each day and produce a concise reflection that go into the mix of a larger reflection document that will emerge at the conference’s conclusion. The conference designers are keen to stress that this document will not be a communiqué, encyclical letter, declaration, collection of resolutions, etc. It will instead be an attempt to gather into one the overall reflections of the bishops over these two weeks.

We’re 16 rapporteurs in all, and we reflect the diversity of the communion, coming from Congo, Kenya, El Salvador, South Africa, England, Australia, the United States, Cuba, and Canada. It’s almost like being back at Bossey. The archbishop of Canterbury himself stopped in during one of our training sessions to personally thank us for the work we’ll be doing, and to impress up on us its importance to the overall reflection process of the conference. “An early church father one said that bishops are the glue that holds the church together,” Archbishop Rowan told us. “Well, you rapporteurs may be the glue that holds the bishops together.”

The first meeting of our indaba groups is tomorrow, and it promises to be rather hectic, so don’t be surprised if a day goes by without an update. I might be rather tied up trying to make some bishops more adhesive.

Lambeth: not just for Anglicans

In addition to the approximately 670 bishops and dozens of other Anglican hangers-on (such as myself) attending the Lambeth Conference, there are more than 70 ecumenical participants, as well as representatives from churches with which some provinces of the Anglican Communion are in full communion. They were all officially welcomed to the conference today within the context of an ecumenical service of evening prayer. The archbishop of Canterbury preached a fine homily, focussing on the very ecumenical notion that in drawing closer to one another we draw closer to God, and vice-versa. And so in that same vein, here are some photos of Anglicans and Christians from other traditions drawing closer to one another today at the Lambeth Conference.

Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, and Bishop Susan Johnson, national bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada

Dr. Sam Kobia, General Secretary of the World Council of Churches

A bishop of the Mar Thoma Church of India chatting with Archbishop and Mrs. Williams

Monsignor Don Bolen, a native of Saskatchewan, who’s on the staff of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity

Two of the most ecumenical Canadian Anglicans around: Canon John Gibaut, a priest of the Diocese of Ottawa who’s currently the director of the World Council of Churches’ Commission on Faith and Order, and Canon Alyson Barnett-Cowan, director of the Anglican Church of Canada’s Department of Faith, Worship and Ministry

Bishops in retreat

I must admit that seeing 600+ bishops in the same place at the same time is both impressive and, to be honest, a little unnerving. What’s fun is that they come in all colours, shapes, sizes, and genders. The diversity of our Anglican Communion is very much made manifest when you get all our bishops together under one roof.

The roof under which they are currently spending most of their time is that of Canterbury Cathedral. The bishops are still in the midst of their three-day retreat led by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Each day begins on the university campus with morning prayer (at 6:30 a.m.), followed by eucharist, breakfast, and Bible study. Then the bishops are respectfully herded onto busses which take them into town and Christ Church Cathedral, where they hear a couple of reflections from Archbishop Williams, and then have some time for their own reflection and prayer. A couple of the cathedral’s many smaller chapels have even been made available to bishops who wish to make their confession while they’re here.

The retreat is for bishops only, and the entire cathedral precincts have been pretty well reserved for them these three days, so as to allow them as quiet, reflective, and prayerful a beginning to the Lambeth Conference as possible. This is the first time Lambeth has begun with a spiritual retreat, and most of the bishops I’ve spoken with are grateful that they’re beginning the conference with Bible study and prayer, rather than diving head first into business. Bishop Sue Moxley of Nova Scotia and PEI (left) and Bishop Linda Nicholls of the Trent-Durham region of the Diocese of Toronto are particularly grateful for the fact the conference begins with a time of relative quiet. As Bishop Nicholls told the Anglican Journal, the retreat “is going to be a really important piece of helping us to be ready for what comes next in terms of conversation and dialogue.”

The conference has only just begun, and it’s already been a great opportunity to catch up with some old acquaintances and to make some new ones, too. During the summer of 2003, I served an international internship in the Diocese of Grahamstown, in South Africa. About six weeks of that time was spent in the rugged and rural northern region of the diocese, working closely with the newly consecrated suffragan bishop at the time, Thabo Makogba. He was a young and brand new bishop at the time (and at 48, he’s not exactly old now), but already very wise and pastoral, and many already had him pegged for great things. Sure enough, earlier this year he was enthroned as the archbishop of Cape Town and primate of Southern Africa. Thabo was also on the Lambeth Conference’s design team. It’s been great reuniting with him and his wonderful wife, Lungi, and we’re hoping to find some more time during the conference to catch up.

While the bishops were on their lunch break, I bumped into Pierre Whalon (right), who is the Episcopal Church (USA) bishop based in Paris, and who has jurisdiction for American churches in Europe, like Emmanuel Church in Geneva, where I occasionally take services. As such, he’s my bishop while I’m in Switzerland. He was out for a lunchtime stroll with the bishop of Los Angeles, Jon Bruno, and they invited me for a coffee at the Starbucks which is literally right next door to the cathedral. Bishop Bruno is one of those larger than life type of people. Before being ordained a priest, he was a police officer in Burbank, California, and before that played center for the Denver Broncos. Cool.

This evening, I start getting down to business in the role I’m actually here to play: rapporteur. There are about a dozen of us, and we’ll attend our first training session tonight, so afterward I’ll probably have a little more to say about what it is I’ll be up to.

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.

My Canterbury tale begins

As promised, some news from Canterbury, where I arrived yesterday. While not exactly quiet, things here at the Lambeth Conference are still in preparatory mode. The bishops really don’t start arriving until tomorrow, and even then their program begins with a pretty low-key, three-day retreat led by the Archbishop of Canterbury (who I actually just bumped into strolling across campus a few minutes ago).

The main venue for the conference is the campus of the University of Kent, which is on the outskirts of Canterbury. That can occasionally seem a little inconvenient, but on the bright side, its location does afford one of the best views around of the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Christ (a.k.a. Canterbury Cathedral). On a sunny day it’s rather spectacular, although as you can see above, we’re getting some typically grey English weather at the moment.

Sizeable though it is, even the university’s largest space can’t accommodate the hundreds of people who will be gathered in one place for some of the conference’s bigger events, like worship and plenary sessions. So conference organizers have erected a large tent to accommodate the conference’s larger gatherings. The tent is officially known as “The Big Top” (above). You can insert your own crack here.

While the bishops are in retreat, many of us with particular tasks at the conference will be getting more familiar with what exactly those tasks entail. I’m here as one of about a dozen “rapporteurs” who will serve as kind of recording secretaries for the bishops as they gather regularly into groups of about 50 to discuss everything from evangelism, social injustice, mission, the environment, interfaith relations and, yes, human sexuality. What we record from our group’s deliberations will, it is the organizers’ hope, eventually form a coherent message that can be transmitted to the wider conference and beyond. As our job description puts it, we rapporteurs have “a unique privilege and a unique responsibility.” Indeed.

But that particular work doesn’t begin for a few more days. In the meantime, I’m able to spend some time getting reacquainted with Canterbury, where I spent a month in 2002 participating in a course for seminarians offered by the cathedral’s International Study Centre. Part of that reacquainting was attending evensong at the cathedral yesterday, where I bumped into no fewer than three fellow Canadian Anglicans: the Rt. Rev. Victoria Matthews, former bishop of Edmonton and bishop-elect of Christchurch, New Zealand; the Ven. Paul Feheley, principal secretary to the primate of Canada; and the Rev. Mia Anderson, rector of St. Michael, Sillery, in my own Diocese of Quebec. Who knew cathedral evensong was the place to see and be seen?

In fact, there promises to be a respectable Canadian contingent here at Lambeth: 30+ bishops, about a half-dozen staff, volunteers, and more. Perhaps I’ll try and introduce you to some of them in the days ahead.