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FROM BISHOP HENDERSONat Lambeth 2008
My Day at Lambeth (click here to download) My Day at Lambeth (click here to download)
(posted 7/28) My Day at Lambeth (click here to download) My Day at Lambeth (click here to download) My Day at Lambeth (click here to download) My Day at Lambeth (click here to download) My Day at Lambeth (click here to download) My Day at Lambeth (click here to download) My Day at Lambeth (click here to download) My Day at Lambeth (click here to download) My Day at Lambeth (click here to download) My Day at Lambeth (click here to download) My Day at Lambeth (click here to download) My Day at Lambeth (click here to download) The Next Day: An Initial Reflection, 8 Aug 08 (click here to download) “Let anyone with ears listen.” He said it. Jesus said it. He said it at least four times. “I am the true vine . . . [Y]ou are the branches. . . Go and bear fruit.” He said it. Jesus said it. Depending on how you count the varying expressions, he said it four times. “Let anyone with ears listen.” We listened. 670 Bishops, on retreat at Canterbury Cathedral, listened to the Archbishop who, over two and a half days, presented 5 meditations on topics effectively deepening our understanding of the bishop’s ministry as it comes to us through Holy Scripture and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Every day, 670 bishops, most with spouses, listened to God speaking to us through Word and Sacrament, expressed in the voices of different nations. Every day, in Bible study, which began at 9:15, we listened to God speaking to us through the Gospel According to St. John as interpreted and understood through the voices of many nations (5 in my 8-member group). Every day, we listened to each other in our Indaba groups—four or five Bible study groups which combined to meet, also daily—each Indaba thus including some 40 to 50 bishops. We listened to each other on several occasions in which we met to share in the work of the “Listening Group”—those who were to use the conversations of the Indaba groups to prepare the document to be released at the conclusion of the conference. We met on several additional occasions to listen to, and share our opinions about, the Continuing Windsor Process group. And, last but certainly not least in significance, we listened, every day, to each other in what must have totaled hundreds of separate conversations per bishop and spouse—walking together between sessions, sharing seats on coaches to London, to Canterbury Cathedral—and over meals. We listened, every day . . . and, to be sure, we talked. And yes, we shared, every day. The subjects were varied and positions mixed—but everyone within my hearing distance rejoiced and found reassurance in the establishment of relationships that seem clearly to promise a clearer, more effective way forward in Christ and in Christ’s mission. I was stunned—nothing less than stunned—at how little we bishops know each other, about each other—how little we know about bishops in the far-flung parts of the Church—how little they know about us. Personalities, ministries, and cultures, and political systems—all profoundly influence the shape, the life, and the mission of the Church so dramatically—and we know so little about each other. Believe me, the news media does not begin to report with accuracy the pain, the struggle, the risk of life and limb, and the sheer fortitude required for ministry in such a large part of the world we are called, united as Christ’s Body, to serve. “Go and bear fruit.” Believe me, we worked at working. Our days began before the 7:15 celebration of Holy Eucharist, and stretched into the evenings, with plenary sessions and major addresses starting at 8:15 P.M. To be sure, this work involved listening, too. We listened to each other—and to the world’s leading experts—on the topics which make us better bishops for a more effective missional Church: Evangelism * Social Justice * Ecumenism * Environment * Holy Scripture * Power and Its Abuse * Human Sexuality * The Proposed Anglican Covenant and the Windsor Process * Episcopal Leadership in God’s Mission. The Bible studies focused on the “I am” statements of our Lord, Jesus Christ¨ “I am . . . the one. . . . [It is I] . . . the bread of life . . . the light of the world . . . before Abraham was, I am. . . . I am the man . . . the gate . . . the good shepherd . . . the resurrection and the life . . . the way, and the truth, and the life . . . the true vine. . . . For whom are you looking? I am . . . I am . . . I am. . . . ” The topics upon which we focused relate directly to the Lord’s commandments and expectations for his people which explicitly or implicitly appear in the “I am” statements. Both Bible and topics will provoke, I trust, increased and more sensitive listening across God’s Anglican Communion, and more effective mission and ministry—not only by the bishops, but, more importantly, through their teaching and example, by those people at home. After all, it is the totality of lay people, deacons, and priests—as well as bishops—who constitute, through water and the Holy Spirit, the Body of Christ. I am reminded of the admonition in St. James’s Epistle: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food . . . and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? . . . Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will you my faith. . . . For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead.” The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)—works rooted in faith—were not far from anyone’s mind as we moved through the days and the topics of the conference. The “Walk of Witness” was a magnificent demonstration of the common, broad-spectrum commitment of different bishops from different circumstances and different cultures and with different languages to do Christ’s work until “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” You’ve heard before, but it came to me with new freshness and poignant reality when one of the African bishops said to me in halting English, “You cannot preach the Gospel to a man who is hungry. Help us.” What Did Lambeth Do? We accomplished the purpose for which we were called together. The Archbishop of Canterbury, in inviting the bishops of the Communion together, described it as a time for worship and consultation together—not a time for resolutions or answers to problems. But we contributed to resolving and problem-solving by listening to each other, by the establishment of relationships which facilitate communication and trust, and a future together—and by widespread, mutual commitment to increased corporate and separate effectiveness in mission and ministry. The Windsor Report process continues. To those who expected “answers” or an end of the process will come some disappointment and frustration. But decisions by votes or resolutions were never the purpose of this Lambeth Conference. Rather, this one was more faithful than some to the first Lambeth Conference—bishops called together to consult with each other about the mission and life of the Church across the Anglican Communion. But progress toward the answers of today’s issues was both expected—and accomplished. The Listening Group and the Windsor Process Continuation Group listened to our conversations as well. The formation of a covenant continues the course that was set out for it in the Windsor Report. The feelings and thoughts gathered at Lambeth will shape a third draft of a proposed covenant; that draft will be submitted to the provinces (that is, to each of the national churches which constitute the Anglican Communion); then the work goes to the Anglican Consultative Council (with a possible meeting beforehand of all of the primates); and eventually back to the provinces with a proposal for adoption. The timing of the process, if on schedule, means that a covenant will not be ready for consideration by our General Convention 2009. Progress continues—perhaps with frustration—but it continues. (To get a clearer picture of how the Archbishop of Canterbury sees our future, I commend to you his three “presidential” addresses of the Conference, available online, through the diocesan website. Frankly, I need to re-read the third address to obtain a better understanding of his specific hopes.) We are evolving. Beloved, The Episcopal Church is evolving. The Anglican Communion is evolving. But I have no doubt whatsoever that the Holy Spirit has called together those churches which constitute the Anglican Communion, and has a mission for us—a mission which, as a result of our history, our polity, and our worldwide connectedness and connections we dare not risk. Speaker after speaker: ecumenical partners, a protestant expert in evangelism, a Jewish Rabbi, a remarkable environmentalist and steward of God’s creation—all witnessed to the blessings which God now does, and can do, through a united Anglican Communion. Consequently, in faithfulness to our Lord and his purposes for our beloved communion and our beloved Episcopal Church, our continued mission is consistent with the Rule of St. Benedict which so shaped Anglicanism: Ora et Labora (Pray and Work). The Diocese of Upper South Carolina has committed itself to pray and work to discern God’s will for us and to be faithful to living into that will. I repeat that commitment as my reflection on Lambeth Conference. With patience (God’s ways, and God’s time, are not our ways and time), and with diligence (“Go and bear fruit”), we continue to strive to be disciples making disciples. We maintain our commitment to the unity which our Lord considered essential to the accomplishment of his mission—and therefore ours: “The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one. . . . That they may become completely one . . . so that the world may know that you have sent me. . . . .” Unity and mission are inseparable. That’s where God wants us to be. And that’s where, by God’s grace, we strive to be. Someone who wrote a history of Lambeth Conferences began his work with this observation: “There is nothing like Lambeth Conference.” Departing Canterbury Cathedral Sunday, August 3, following the concluding liturgy of Lambeth 2008, I could not but recall that sentence and shake my head with both wonder and awe. “And, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
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