Lambeth, a life-changing experience
Bishop Claude Miller offered preliminary impressions of the Lambeth Conference when he returned from the event. What follows is a more complete and thoughtful reflection on this life-altering experience.
Lambeth was a God-given opportunity to meet my brother and sister
bishops and their spouses. Together we walked, prayed, shared bread, laughed, cried and gave thanks to God for his generosity and abundant grace. The Son of God was truly revealed in that time and place. The Lambeth experience changed me, and many others, forever.
As I reflect on those 23 days on the campus of Kent University in Canterbury, England, I am once again overwhelmed by the intellect present in the community.
For the 680 bishops in attendance, the conference began with a three-day retreat with the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. The theme for our retreat was God's Mission and a Bishop's Discipleship and he addressed us five times over those three days.
In his first address he reflected on Paul's letter to the Galatians (Gal. 1:16), reminding us that every calling and every vocation is an invitation to be in a place where God's Son is revealed. It is in that reality we find God's love and God's judgment. He understands how difficult that is to exercise in our ministry as bishops and shared that in his own life, when he witnessed the abundance of God's love in others toward him, that he recognized how far away he is from that place and how much he needs to change. It is in that reality he sees God's judgment.
As our retreat continued it was evident that the anxiety and fears that each one of us had brought to the conference were dissipating. I was truly thankful that God's grace allowed me to be at peace in that sacred place.
The design of the conference was such that I knew we would not be allowed to sit passively. I knew we would be engaged and would share our episcopal realities within our individual contexts and I was challenged by the coming days.
As I looked ahead in the conference agenda, I was further challenged by the question: “How might our diocese contribute to the overall goals of the conference?” We were to listen and share, to learn from our individual stories. Our single voices were to speak for a global and communal church in hope of finding ourselves in "a place where God's Son is revealed."
There were opportunities to listen and share each morning in our Bible study and Indaba Groups.
It was my privilege to facilitate one of 80 Bible study groups. (Each facilitator spent four hours in training prior to the conference.) We were nine bishops in my group — two from the Solomon Islands, two from Canada, and one each from Madagascar, England, Kenya, Vanuatu and the United States. The Kenyan Bishop was there, with his primate’s permission, despite a Kenyan church resolution not to send any. During our 14, one-and-a-half-hour sessions we studied Jesus’ “I am” sayings in the Gospel of John. With a very high participation rate and nearly perfect attendance over the two-week period, these studies were a highlight of the conference.
From our Bible Study we went on to our Indaba groups — there were 16 with about 40 bishops in each. Each day we discussed an important issue facing the Anglican Communion — the primary work of a bishop; Anglican identity; the bishop as evangelist; the bishop and social justice; the bishop and other churches; bishops and the environment; the bishop, Christian witness and other faiths; equal in God's sight: when power is abused; Living under scripture: the bishop and the Bible in mission; listening to God and each other: the bishop and human sexuality; Fostering our common life: the bishop, the Anglican Covenant and the Windsor Process.
Indaba is a Zulu process of dialogue. A facilitator ensures each person in the group is given opportunity to listen and be heard. A scribe records each person's contribution and a writing team is assigned to distill and draft a fair reflection of the discussion. A hearing critiques the findings of each draft.
The hope and intent of the process is to find a common heart and mind relating to the important issues we discussed. The final draft of this work is the Lambeth Indaba: Capturing Conversations and Reflections from the Lambeth Conference 2008. Its subtitle is Equipping Bishops for Mission and Strengthening Anglican Identity. The final document was dedicated at the closing service in Canterbury Cathedral and is available on the web. <http://www.lambethconference.org/reflections/document.cfm>.
Archbishop Rowan called it neither a report of the Lambeth Conference, nor a milestone teaching document to put on a shelf — but rather a guideline … “the wisdom we seek in addressing issues." We were encouraged to practice the Indaba process in our various dioceses — to pray, study, listen, share and to be fellow pilgrims on a journey to the Cross.
There is little doubt that more time is needed if Anglicans are to fully understand each others’ contexts that give rise to our issues and concerns that can cause us to build barriers, or to travel alone in our strengths and weaknesses. Are we willing to drop our barriers and come along side? Or will we wait for each other to catch up as we journey? Are we willing to care?
In retreat Archbishop Rowan reminded us as bishops that: "The care we are called to give to God's people, the flock that God has purchased with his own blood, is the care that breaks down the barriers of our own defenses.”
It seems the only way to be a “successful” apostle is to distance ourselves from the weakness of everybody else. How much more comforting it would be if we knew we could be successful followers of Christ by being able to say “thank goodness I'm not like them!” But here St. Paul says: “To be a faithful apostle is to be invaded by the failure and weakness of others."
During our time together it became obvious that as a Church in communion we barely know our brothers and sisters, our strengths, our weaknesses, our pain and brokenness. Yet in tribulation, Anglicans are present in God's world and are privileged to share in God's mission. We discovered that the immediate issues and concerns are wide and varied, too difficult to understand in such a short period of time. To the majority of Anglicans living in the Middle and Far East and Southern Cone, where oppressive regimes, war, natural disasters, disease and famine are an every day reality, it is difficult to understand the issues of the West.
How might we fully understand?
The short answer is it will take a great deal of time and a deep desire to seek God's will — not our own — in all we undertake. St. Paul said to the church at Corinth: "Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?" (II Cor.11.28-29)
There is a great deal more to say about the Lambeth experience — the worship and candle light vigil in Canterbury Cathedral, the self-select fringe events, early morning worship in the Big Blue Tent, and our day in London with our march to end poverty, lunch at Lambeth Palace and tea with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip at Buckingham Palace …
I met bishops from the more than 100 countries around the world with an Anglican presence and recognized the face of the Anglican Cycle of Prayer. I was changed forever.
Diocesan Communications
30 September 2008
