Anglican Mainstream
New Zealand

Tena koutou, Ni sa bula, Namas'te, Talofa lava, Malo e lelei, Greetings to everyone at home from the Lambeth Conference at Canterbury, now about to end. We record here some initial impressions from both of us, following an informal discussion of the bishops of this church held before the final plenary.

Firstly we are so grateful for all the careful stewardship of our Episcopal units over the last ten years as they have carefully put finance aside to make it possible for us to come with our spouses as well. This has been deeply appreciated. We are also grateful to Lloyd Ashton, Brian Dawson and Brian Thomas for their creative and professional work on the DVD of our church and the night prayer we shared in front of the 1300 strong conference in the big tent.

No doubt many of you may have accessed some of the work of the conference via the conference websites and the Anglican Communion news service. There will also have been blogs from others which will have given some impressions.

In no particular order and at the level of an initial reflection we offer the following observations:

The Conference sought to enable and support the ministry of Bishops and spouses by a very rich and varied range of experiences and options. This memo will focus only on the bishops’ work together although the spouses’ conference was most successful.

For the bishops it all began with a two day retreat at Canterbury Cathedral with the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was focussing on St Paul's insight into leadership in the light of Jesus' example. The full text of these addresses from Rowan Williams has already been published and we have copies to bring home. They were deep, relevant and very memorable, confirming our appreciation of Rowan as a Godly and big-minded, big-hearted man. This retreat also created an atmosphere of prayer and bible-centred work which remained for the rest of the conference: it was a very good way to begin.

The conference business itself commenced with a liturgy in the cathedral which featured the Melanesian brothers and sisters in a deeply moving gospel procession, in the light of the martyrdom of seven of their number not so long ago.

The daily routine that followed always began with Morning Prayer at 6:30am, followed by a Eucharist at 7:15am, then a morning of bible study, working our way through St John’s Gospel in groups of approximately seven bishops. These bible study groups were profoundly helpful, and achieved an intimacy and depth in the presence of St John’s gospel that was the highlight of the conference for everyone. These groups centring on the gospel produced a beautiful spirit, and the gospel from the Eucharist was the text for each day.

The second half of the morning involved collections of four bible study groups, into the larger grouping, called indaba groups. This is an African meeting method where people can share, listen and look for common ground without win-lose dynamics. What emerges is whatever high moral ground may be achieved. For a number of our bishops this was very helpful and transformational, but the group dynamic value of these groups varied for some. These groups focussed on the main theme for the day, which was also reflected in the bible readings and evening plenaries. The pattern of indaba discussion topics were as follows:

CELEBRATING COMMON GROUND: THE BISHOP AND ANGLICAN IDENTITY;

PROCLAIMING THE GOOD NEWS: THE BISHOP AND EVANGELISM;

TRANSFORMING SOCIETY: THE BISHOP AND SOCIAL JUSTICE;

SERVING TOGETHER: THE BISHOP AND OTHER CHURCHES;

SAFEGUARDING CREATION: THE BISHOP AND THE ENVIRONMENT;

ENGAGING A MUTLIFAITH WORLD: THE BISHOP, CHRISTIAN WITNESS AND OTHER FAITHS;

EQUAL IN GOD’S SIGHT: A MAJOR COMBINED PLENARY OF THE ABUSE OF POWER;

LIVING UNDER SCRIPTURE: THE BISHOP AND THE BIBLE IN MISSION;

LISTENING TO GOD AND EACH OTHER: THE BISHOP AND HUMAN SEXUALITY;

FOSTERING THE COMMON LIFE: THE BISHOP, THE ANGLICAN COVENANT AND THE WINDSOR PROCESS;

PREPARING TO GO HOME: THE BISHOP AS A LEADER IN GOD’S MISSION.

As well as all these major themes, there were many self-select groups and fringe-group opportunities to specialise in particular areas of interest.

Each evening we usually listened to a key note speaker. They were all memorable and we have much to share from these times. We wish to recognise Brian McLaren especially who talked on: "Changing contexts; breaking open our models for evangelism”, and Prof Chris Rapley: "The role of the church in the ecological crisis". We will be able to share the insights and the value of these inputs very well when we get home.

We deeply appreciated the presence of the stewards drawn from over 30 provinces, all young and all most engaged and helpful. They shared their perspective on the last evening which greatly enriched a by-then fairly tired conference of people. They want us to stay together and believe in the value of the Anglican Communion as an instrument of the Kingdom of God in our world at this time. Their faith was clear and strong.

Outcomes of the conference for us at this early stage of assessment would be:

1.       The opportunity for each bishop to tell their story in mission enabled a growing sense of trust in spite of our difficulties. We know we need to work on further building this trust and to continue to deepen our relationships across the world. If we could, many of us would like the indaba groups to continue regionally, in some way.

2.       We heard the Archbishop of Canterbury's call to resolve to listen, walk and share together rather than walk away. To come and to learn was a major theme of our time together.

3.       We held those who chose not to come for whatever reason in our prayer often, and want to reach out to them and to keep the communion together.

4.       We are so grateful for the generosity and hospitality of our hosts here and those who organised the conference.

5.       The worship was of a very highly quality, including liturgy and music.

6.       We have been given many resources for mission to bring home.

7.       Regarding the big issues facing the communion, we worked hard on the subjects above, as well as on human sexuality, the Windsor Report and the Covenant process. We shared great deal across the conference, including large hearings where every detail of these issues was named and explored in robust feedback and listening.

Our reflections on these three areas were collated just before we left and will be fed into the meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council next May (ACC 14). This meeting will look at all the responses of each province across the world to the covenant draft from St Andrews in particular, as well as the discernments of the Lambeth Conference, and then a revised report will be sent out to us all in each province for further reflection and feedback. These issues and processes occupied our time and prayer on many occasions.

It is important to note that the Archbishop of Canterbury, as host of the conference, did not see the conference as revisiting or adjusting the outcomes of resolution 1:10 of the 1998 Lambeth conference by further motion or amendment in that Westminster way. There was no resolution method; rather we used the bible study and indaba method of prayerfully and carefully describing our discernments.  The 2008 conference included time for further work, study, robust discussion and reflection on all the aspects of the 1998 resolution 1:10 on human sexuality.

The hermeneutics ("the way we use the bible") process we have begun in our own part of the world was referred to by Archbishop David in a major press conference during our time at Canterbury and got some fair coverage in the main UK newspapers.

8. To conclude on a world-facing and missional emphasis: We will never forget joining in a huge march of over 1400 people through the centre of London, past Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament, to Lambeth Palace, to emphasise the need to major on the eight United Nations Millennium goals to eradicate world poverty and to assist the development of the poorest regions to a new level of dignity and abundance. The Archbishop of Canterbury made a very motivating speech, as did the Prime Minister of Britain Gordon Brown. We will be emphasising this justice initiative on our return.

9. We have been given DVDs, books, papers, summaries of our work and a great deal to work with. We look forward to joining you in mission again.

In Christ