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.