Indaba Works

Our Indaba has started to work. Now it is beginning to do what, I believe, it is meant to do.

I say that ours is beginning to work, not because we have solved issues or had a breakthrough. The real breakthrough was the breakout from our designated Indaba topic and schedule and agreeing, as an Indaba group to enter into conversation together and to address our own articulated concerns. This is what Indaba should be as I believe it was first offered to us by the Archbishop of Canterbury when, last April, he announced that we would use this process. He said:

We have given these the African name of indaba groups, groups where in traditional African culture, people get together to sort out the problems that affect them all, where everyone has a voice and where there is an attempt to find a common mind or a common story that everyone is able to tell when they go away from it. This is how we approached it. This is what we heard. This is where we arrived as we prayed and thought and talked
together.

So this is what we are doing. I don't know what is happening in all other Indaba groups but I understand that some others have also re-shaped their Indaba process, for the good.

It is true to say also that I have heard a number of people say that they don't like the Indaba process. I suspect that at least some of these are those who are good at speaking in big assemblies; others are missing the opportunity of wooing or whipping up the whole crowd, and still others, sad to say, for whatever reason best known to themselves, would, it appears, be happy to set aside the journey towards mutual understanding in order to precipitate that crisis that some people so desperately seem to want. Yes, want!

For now, for some of us at least, after a hesitant start, Indaba is working. And this is coming from one who, as my friends and colleagues know, hates small group work!

Something else, Indaba may well have something to teach us all in our western cultures in the shaping of our ecclesial lives and even our synodical processes. But then Indaba takes time, time and more time - something we in the west seem to have all too little of.

Common Ground in Strange Places

Yesterday was my first opportunity to choose a self-select session, as they are called. They run in the late afternoon. Typical for me - the one I went to did not make the official programme and was announced at short notice. But it pulled a crowd.

Hot off the press is a small but significant booklet (only 125 pages) The Principles of Canon Law Common to the Churches of the Anglican Communion.

Yesterday it was distributed to the bishops and introduced to those of us who went to a self-select session chaired by Archbishop Barry Morgan (Wales). Among those who spoke were Canon John Rees (legal adviser to the Anglican Consultative Council) and Professor Norman Doe (Centre for Law and Religion at Cardiff University).

Professor Doe (and no one has done more than he has to examine the laws of the churches in the Anglican family) introduced the work done by the Anglican Communion Legal Advisers' Network.

This publication is indicative of a work in progress. It is not a book of laws or a code. It is the fruit of detailed analysis and comparison of 44 sets of laws from throughout Anglicanism. It is a description of the common principles identified and how they were formulated as common principles. It is not a project designed to give everyone the same ecclesial legal system.

There are 100 legal principles (macro principles, as Norman Doe, calls them) which show common ground that we have which fall into eight common categories throughout the Communion: Church Order, the Anglican Communion, Ecclesiastical Government, Ministry, Doctrine and Liturgy, Ecclesiastical Rites, Church Property and Ecumenical Relations. The 100 macro principles unfold further into sub-statements (650 micro principles) where there is also common ground.

Yes, friends, more common ground - and in places that don't immediately come to mind!

I celebrate this (and am hugely interested in it - no surprise there, Canon Law is my thing), however, I am among those who do not believe that law alone can hold us together. Our laws, as the examination and study of them show, manifest our shared inheritance, our common pilgrimage and are further evidence of our deep-rooted connectedness with each other as a family of churches.

As I say, law alone, cannot, I believe, hold us together. This is why I am inherently quizzical about the idea of the proposed Anglican Covenant and am determinedly opposed to the appendixed scheme for regulating (enforcing?) that Covenant.

And for those of you who hate things legal and worry about its role in the life of the Church you will be glad to know that the very first of the Common Principles address your concerns:

'Law exists to assist a church in its mission and witness to Jesus Christ.'

'Law is not an end in itself.'

'Law should reflect the revealed will of God.'

'Law is intended to express publicly the theological self-understanding and practical policies of a church.'

'Laws should reflect but cannot change Christian truths.'

Common ground - for now - in strange places indeed. Such is the importance of this legal work that 62 - almost a tenth of the bishops at the Conference - attended yesterday's self-select session.

Sub-Themes and Public Lavatories

Yesterday brought one of the sub-theme's of the Lambeth Conference to its ultimate, but purposeful, climax: queuing! (Hats - ecclesiastical, sartorial and Ascot-like was another sub-theme yesterday but enough of that, for now).

Unlike the three hour queue for registration, the daily queues for food and the periodic queues for busses, here was the whole Conference, joined by their friends in one long procession of public intent. 38 coaches left Canterbury from 7.15 a.m. onwards decamping the entire Lambeth Conference to central London where we were deposited on the Embankment. (The stewards and volunteers are already the heroes of this Conference to my mind).

The funniest queue of the event to date has to have been the procession of purple-cassocked, ecclesiastical-hatted bishops, accompanied by their elegantly dressed spouses, proceeding, at rush hour, through Embankment Station, along the Embankment where a queue formed for the public lavatories. What struck me was how few of the commuters even noticed or turned an eye as dozens of purple cassocks and hats and fashion icon spouses passed them as they emerged from the turnstiles to their daily grind in central London. Not for the first time it dawned on me that really for most in the world they do not know we are here or meeting; and if they do, for more, we are not relevant to them; they are not bothered or we do not catch their imagination.

But within two hours we caught the imagination of many and the Lambeth Conference hit the headlines for its manifest unity.

Joined by brothers and sisters from other churches and from other faiths, and accompanied by hoards of media, marshalled by our own ever-efficient stewards and the Police, we set off down Whitehall at 10.30 a.m.

Our goal was to highlight the eight Millennium Development Goals set in 2000 with a view to attaining them by 2015. Now we are more than half way to 2015! What of the goals? 'Keep the promise' our plackards challenged and 'Halve Poverty by 2015.'

Along Whitehall, past the Houses of Parliament on one side and Westminster Abbey on the other, along Millbank, over Lambeth Bridge and into Lambeth Palace where we were addressed by the Archbishop, Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Helen Wangusa (Anglican Observer at the United Nations)

The Prime Minister was moved, moving and enthusiastic: 'This is one of the greatest public demonstrations of faith this country has ever seen,' he said, 'You have sent a symbol, a very clear message with rising force that poverty can be eradicated...'

Today, like the retreat days, was a day of unity, fellowship, common ground and shared purpose. These positive things seem to be the order of the day when we focus on the issues which, to my mind, matter most. We had a wonderful lunch in a marquee in Lambeth Palace garden and later enjoyed the hospitality at afternoon tea at Buckingham Palace.

We returned on the two hour bus journey to Cantebury, weary but fulfilled pilgrims: tired feet and legs, and singed bald patches inspite of judicious use of a biretta.

Walk of Witness

A brief input today! We are up early (4.50 a.m.) to head for London for the Walk of Witness.

Afterwards we will have lunch at Lambeth Palace. Oh, and afternoon tea somewhere else later.

It strikes me that if I needed to be in Whitehall for the 10 a.m. start for the walk of witness I could do that from Cork also on the 7.35 a.m. flight and I wouldn't have had to get up at 4.50 a.m.! I am already looking forward to my lie in tomorrow until our usual 6.00 a.m.

One track minds

Sad to say, from the word 'Go!' I have had the feeling that some people are here to talk about only one thing: sex. That's not good enough. The Church deserves better and many people expect more.

The days of Retreat were wonderful: these were days too of introduction, reunion and international networking.

Sunday morning's worship seems to have been a watershed point. Many thought the Sermon was stunning (as I did): others were 'seriously disturbed' by it (as one colleague put it to me).

My first real inkling that all was not well in some people's minds was on Monday morning when one bishop from the Global South - someone I had not previously known but whose company I have been keeping and building fellowship with - approached me and asked me if I could explain what people were doing on the campus handing out leaflets on behalf of InclusiveChurch. He did not understand why they were here. Moreover, he could not understand how 'that woman (the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church) who had been involved in the consecration of Bishop Gene Robinson had been allowed to take part in the liturgy in an English Cathedral the previous Sunday.' He told me he was going to stay in his room from then on. I urged him not to. I explained about the freedoms we gave people in this part of the world to express and circulate their views and advised him that he could choose whether or not to engage. I encouraged him to go to the MarketPlace and to speak directly with the people he felt should not be there. (Later in the day I saw him accepting the offer of literature from the Lesbian and Gay Christians stand in the MarketPlace). The Bible Study for that morning spoke about the storm that blew up while the disciples were out in the boat. Jesus came to them and said 'It is I. Do not be afraid.'

Then - and you know as much about this as I do from the press (for we are living in a very dispersed campus where we seldom see many and we are working through small Indaba groups) - a Statement was issued by the Sudanese bishops calling for the resignation of Bishop Gene Robinson.

Sadly, I detect an impatience with the new process which calls for patience. Two days is not a fair trial of any new method. If the people in the pews rejected any of our innovations on the basis of two outings we would soon point out to them that it takes more than two encounters with the new to explore its potential.

Meanwhile, here at Lambeth, I detect this impatience on the part of some, if truth be known, to get on with talking about what they seem principally to have come here to talk about: sex!

Half Naked Dancers and Grass Skirts

It is so annoying - from the perspective of one who is attending Lambeth - to see how some of the headlines, and indeed reports themselves, seem to trivialise our work and celebrations.

I mentioned before that moving moment at the heart of our Opening Eucharist when Melanesian Religious (Sisters and Brothers) lovingingly placed the Gospel Book in a model boat and carried it, accompanied by their energetic dance and pipe music.

In one report the headline stated 'Shindig begins with nerves and half-naked dancers'. Another inanely found it necessary to refer to 'grass skirts in the aisles'. This is an international gathering! Doh!

One report states:

Then the entertainment began. The gospel reading about the uprooting of weeds was preceded by a troupe of Melanesian dancers, wearing grass skirts and playing pan pipes.

First of all, it was not entertainment. It was an act of solemn Christian worship at the outset of our celebration, in this Conference, of the life of the Anglican Communion, however vulnerable or imperfect. Second, the Gospel Book was carried, not by 'a troupe of Melanesian dancers' but by some of those - men and women - who have heard God's call to give their lives to ministry, who work in challenging and demanding parts of the worlds, and whose commitment, sacrifice and joy put many of ours to shame.

In their traditional dress, with care and love, energy and protection they took the Gospel Book and placed it in a boat (a symbol of the heart of their life, their communication and their survival as island communities) and brought it through the Quire, under the pulpitum (screen) and down the steps to the east end of the Nave (amid the body of the Cathedral - itself emblematic of the Ark of Noah; the Church as a boat) where the Gospel was read from the Compass Rose - the symbol of worldwide Anglicanism, where the Good News was proclaimed by the Deacon. A message announced to all parts of the world.

As it was read the Brothers and Sisters gathered around it, as we are all doing, more than ever - gathering around the Scriptures - in this Conference.

So much for 'shindig and half naked dancers' - that's not what I witnessed!

Lambeth Incident!

This is our resident Lambeth Cartoonist - Dave Walker.

(Not Dave Walker, the Bishop of Dudley who I have known since I became a bishop nearly ten years ago: we were on the same baby bishops' courses at Launde Abbey).

Dave Walker is making a difference at our Lambeth - giving us a smile and, in a very perceptive way, making us reflect about ourselves.

We got a fright yesterday because the rumour went around that he had gone. In fact he was setting up his stall in the Marketplace and another group annexed his tent on Campus - temporarily: a disturbing Lambeth incident.

It just shows how we can easily get the wrong end of things - a valuable lesson and cautionary tale for our discussions and our listening to each other.


Have a look at Dave's cartoons http://www.cartoonchurch.com/

Here is one of them!