Dispatches From Lambeth Week 1
Bishop Sumner from the Lambeth Conference in England:
Day 1- some confusion
We’ve arrived at the University of Kent in Canterbury; the conference begins with an orientation today, Wednesday. Part of the global communion is the connective tissue of friends one has made over the years, and I have enjoyed seeing many in the first day. (The photo is of one of the bishops of Hong Kong, Matthias Der with his wife, whom we knew in Toronto. His is a demanding job, pastorally, politically, epidemiologically, as with so many one meets). There has been a good deal of upheaval about the one part of one of our topics for discussion, which reaffirmed, and then no longer reaffirmed, Lambeth 1.10 on the nature of marriage from the 1998 conference. The crux of the matter is the idea of reception. Traditionally this required testing over a long period of time with fellow churches as they listen to the Word of God together. This is not something one does by oneself, though that would seem to be what our own Church imagines. There are different visions of what ‘walking together’ means. But we witness here as we are able and put these questions of our larger common life in God’s hands.
Peace,
+GRS
***
Hace cuatro anos, nosotros asistimos Guelaguetza in Oaxaca. Era bonito, pero mejor eran los desfiles pequenos de los barrios en las calles laterales. Lambeth es similar. Los inter-cambios son personales y fortuitos.
Yo encontre mi amigo Obispo Azad Marshall de Lahore buscandos el lugar de nuestro grupo, y dos obispos aparecieron. Decidimos compartir alla como un grupito atras de un arbol, comprandos cafe y galletas de una tienda cerca. compartimos nuestros experimentos similares de seminaristas, plantar iglesitas, y el estres del tiempo de la pandemia, con muchas diferencias tambien.
Entonces, cuando entre nuestro dormitorio, un obispo de Tanzania escucho mi Kiswahili. Dijo que necesito hablar conmigo, y entendio que Dios ha me dirigido a el. Es un misionero a este Congo evangelizando un estado grande de con un moto (‘pikipiki’ en Swahili) y mostrando la pelicula ‘la vida de Jesus’ por los campesinos. Nosotros vamos a hablar juntos sobre la posibildad de ayuda.
Paz
+GRS
***
Dispatches from the Lambeth Conference: There is also a very valuable gathering of bishops’ spouses from around the world. they too have bible study, talks on I Peter, and time to share some of the challenges in their own ministries. Stephanie is facilitating a group with English, French, and Swahili speakers.
After yesterday’s quite personal sessions some had a chance to walk in the woods, where there were hammocks. Twenty minutes in one would probably do us all good! One participant offered a spontaneous meditation on trees in the garden, for Zaccheus, at Golgotha, and in the Kingdom! Here are a couple of pics of that idyllic interlude…
Peace
+ GRS