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08/24/2008
Lambeth conference reflections
by Neff Powell
DEAR FRIENDS IN CHRIST:
The Lambeth Conference is the once-a-decade meeting of Anglican bishops from throughout the world. The Archbishop of Canterbury issues the invitations and hosts the meeting.
With very rare exceptions, all Anglican bishops are invited.
Two small pre-conferences, one in Salisbury and one in Bradford, focused on Sudan and helped set the stage for Dorothy and me. Almost all of the Bishops of Sudan were present with their wives in Salisbury. The Diocese of Salisbury has a long-standing relationship with the Episcopal Church of Sudan, as do we. Representatives from The Episcopal Church, various US dioceses, including the Diocese of Virginia, and American Friends of the Episcopal Church of Sudan (AFRECS) were also present, in addition to representatives from Bradford and several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in England. The Rev. Dr. Ellen Hanckel and her husband, Scott Derks, from Christ Church, Martinsville, represented our diocesan Companions for Mission committee.
The pre-Lambeth time in Bradford followed the Salisbury meeting and involved the bishops from the four dioceses in Northern Sudan and their wives. Bradford focuses on Northern Sudan. While Southwestern Virginia has had a relationship with the entire Province of Sudan for almost thirty years, in reality most of our focus has been on the South. These two meetings provided the most time we have ever had with the Sudanese bishops. For me, the meetings built on last summer’s “Walking to Emmaus” conference in Spain, funded by Trinity Church, Wall Street. That conference brought together American bishops with bishops from throughout Africa, not just Sudan.
Three kinds of activities formed the heart of the Lambeth Conference: Bible study groups of six to eight bishops; Indaba groups, each one composed of five Bible study groups; and worship, reflecting the Books of Common Prayer from around the world. Personal stories of faith and courage infused all three types of experiences.
Each day in Bible study we considered the great “I am” passages from St. John’s Gospel. We shared a commentary written specifically for the Lambeth Conference, but the questions were in a sense universal. Our discussions focused us on our common ministries as bishops.
I shared a Bible study group with two English bishops, four Tanzanian bishops, and one Sudanese bishop. We found that we share many issues in common, even across vast differences of culture. As the time passed, we found ourselves drawn closer together as pilgrims on journeys of faith together.
At our last meeting, one bishop said, “Before I came to this conference, I thought that the Americans must be reading a different Bible than we read. Now I see that’s not true.” Another said, “You really speak from the heart.”
One of the stories I heard in my Indaba group continues to haunt me, that of the Dalit people in India, “outcastes” known as the Untouchables. The four official castes in Hindu culture, ranging from top to bottom in status, are: Brahmins (priests and teachers), Ksatriyas (warriors and rulers), vaisyas (farmers, merchants, artisans, etc.), and Sudras (servants and manual laborers). The Dalit, though bound by the rules of the caste system, are deemed too low even to be counted as a caste. Considered to be polluted laborers, Dalit are not allowed to enter Hindu temples or even to hear the Hindu scriptures read aloud.
The Dalit are traditionally required to clean out the human waste in the sewer systems by hand. Many restrictions against the Dalit remain today despite the fact that the caste system has been officially abolished in India. A number of the bishops from India come from the Dalit. These bishops implored us to use our influence as what they called “G8 Christians,” that is, Christians from the most powerful nations, to bring pressure on the government of India to change this discrimination. I believe the House of Bishops will begin working on this challenge.
Every day different Provinces led worship using selections from their own Books of Common Prayer. Holy Communion was celebrated each morning at 7:15. I was pleasantly surprised to notice pieces of the familiar liturgy of our 1979 BCP occurring throughout services taken from other Prayer Books. For example, “Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again,” from our Eucharistic Prayer A, was present in most of the liturgies. Whenever we prayed the Lord’s Prayer, we were asked to say the words in our own language. In these moments I always felt as if I were present at Pentecost, as the many languages blended together into one prayer.
We spent a good deal of time considering the proposed Anglican Covenant. The Archbishop of Canterbury seems determined to have an Anglican Covenant to define the limits of Anglicanism. He speaks of a covenant with enforcement powers. I am cautious about this idea, as I believe it has the potential to strike at the very heart of Anglicanism which has always lived with ambiguity and resisted central authority. We are composed of autonomous Provinces bound together by common history, common worship, and common ministry within bonds of affection. It seems to me that the proposed Covenant would risk destroying these features that have always defined Anglicanism.
At the conclusion of the Conference, our Presiding Bishop wrote: “Many bishops came to this gathering in fear and trembling, expecting either a distasteful encounter between those of vastly different opinions, or the cold shoulder from those who disagree. The overwhelming reality has been just the opposite. We have prayed, cried, learned, and laughed together, and discovered something deeper about the body of Christ.”
Grace and Peace from the Lambeth Conference,
Neff
P.S. You all are in my prayers as you begin the season of your fall church programs, especially the new beginnings of your Sunday schools. Let us all hold in our prayers those who teach and those who learn.
Two small pre-conferences, one in Salisbury and one in Bradford, focused on Sudan and helped set the stage for Dorothy and me. Almost all of the Bishops of Sudan were present with their wives in Salisbury. The Diocese of Salisbury has a long-standing relationship with the Episcopal Church of Sudan, as do we. Representatives from The Episcopal Church, various US dioceses, including the Diocese of Virginia, and American Friends of the Episcopal Church of Sudan (AFRECS) were also present, in addition to representatives from Bradford and several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in England. The Rev. Dr. Ellen Hanckel and her husband, Scott Derks, from Christ Church, Martinsville, represented our diocesan Companions for Mission committee.
The pre-Lambeth time in Bradford followed the Salisbury meeting and involved the bishops from the four dioceses in Northern Sudan and their wives. Bradford focuses on Northern Sudan. While Southwestern Virginia has had a relationship with the entire Province of Sudan for almost thirty years, in reality most of our focus has been on the South. These two meetings provided the most time we have ever had with the Sudanese bishops. For me, the meetings built on last summer’s “Walking to Emmaus” conference in Spain, funded by Trinity Church, Wall Street. That conference brought together American bishops with bishops from throughout Africa, not just Sudan.
Three kinds of activities formed the heart of the Lambeth Conference: Bible study groups of six to eight bishops; Indaba groups, each one composed of five Bible study groups; and worship, reflecting the Books of Common Prayer from around the world. Personal stories of faith and courage infused all three types of experiences.
Each day in Bible study we considered the great “I am” passages from St. John’s Gospel. We shared a commentary written specifically for the Lambeth Conference, but the questions were in a sense universal. Our discussions focused us on our common ministries as bishops.
I shared a Bible study group with two English bishops, four Tanzanian bishops, and one Sudanese bishop. We found that we share many issues in common, even across vast differences of culture. As the time passed, we found ourselves drawn closer together as pilgrims on journeys of faith together.
At our last meeting, one bishop said, “Before I came to this conference, I thought that the Americans must be reading a different Bible than we read. Now I see that’s not true.” Another said, “You really speak from the heart.”
One of the stories I heard in my Indaba group continues to haunt me, that of the Dalit people in India, “outcastes” known as the Untouchables. The four official castes in Hindu culture, ranging from top to bottom in status, are: Brahmins (priests and teachers), Ksatriyas (warriors and rulers), vaisyas (farmers, merchants, artisans, etc.), and Sudras (servants and manual laborers). The Dalit, though bound by the rules of the caste system, are deemed too low even to be counted as a caste. Considered to be polluted laborers, Dalit are not allowed to enter Hindu temples or even to hear the Hindu scriptures read aloud.
The Dalit are traditionally required to clean out the human waste in the sewer systems by hand. Many restrictions against the Dalit remain today despite the fact that the caste system has been officially abolished in India. A number of the bishops from India come from the Dalit. These bishops implored us to use our influence as what they called “G8 Christians,” that is, Christians from the most powerful nations, to bring pressure on the government of India to change this discrimination. I believe the House of Bishops will begin working on this challenge.
Every day different Provinces led worship using selections from their own Books of Common Prayer. Holy Communion was celebrated each morning at 7:15. I was pleasantly surprised to notice pieces of the familiar liturgy of our 1979 BCP occurring throughout services taken from other Prayer Books. For example, “Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again,” from our Eucharistic Prayer A, was present in most of the liturgies. Whenever we prayed the Lord’s Prayer, we were asked to say the words in our own language. In these moments I always felt as if I were present at Pentecost, as the many languages blended together into one prayer.
We spent a good deal of time considering the proposed Anglican Covenant. The Archbishop of Canterbury seems determined to have an Anglican Covenant to define the limits of Anglicanism. He speaks of a covenant with enforcement powers. I am cautious about this idea, as I believe it has the potential to strike at the very heart of Anglicanism which has always lived with ambiguity and resisted central authority. We are composed of autonomous Provinces bound together by common history, common worship, and common ministry within bonds of affection. It seems to me that the proposed Covenant would risk destroying these features that have always defined Anglicanism.
At the conclusion of the Conference, our Presiding Bishop wrote: “Many bishops came to this gathering in fear and trembling, expecting either a distasteful encounter between those of vastly different opinions, or the cold shoulder from those who disagree. The overwhelming reality has been just the opposite. We have prayed, cried, learned, and laughed together, and discovered something deeper about the body of Christ.”
Grace and Peace from the Lambeth Conference,
Neff
P.S. You all are in my prayers as you begin the season of your fall church programs, especially the new beginnings of your Sunday schools. Let us all hold in our prayers those who teach and those who learn.
