[This comes from the Diocese of Vermont's website. Bishop Ely is to the right of Bishop Robinson in the photo (i.e., to Bishop Robinson's left).]
July 21, 2008
Dear people of Vermont,
I finally realized today that the Lambeth Conference is a marathon and not a sprint. So far, in my desire to “take it all in” I have been participating at a pace that I cannot sustain and remain focused on the things that are most important. Don’t get me wrong! I am finding the conference stimulating and rewarding. It is just that there are so many options beyond the core program that it requires a focused effort to determine my daily calendar and leave space enough to pause and reflect. Thank goodness that the daily schedule is punctuated with times of prayer, so that all we do is grounded in the Eucharist and prayer.
The Lambeth Conference officially opened yesterday [Sunday] with a full and rich liturgy at Canterbury Cathedral. Prior to the official opening, the bishops spent three days on retreat, led by the Archbishop of Canterbury. This was a wonderful and rich gift, with the added bonus that we had exclusive use of Canterbury Cathedral during our retreat. This meant that we could walk wherever we wanted to and pray in whatever space we wanted to and gloriously soak in the awe and wonder of this place that has welcomed Christian pilgrims for over 1,400 years. During the retreat, Archbishop Rowan offered some thought-provoking meditation that helped me focus the ministry of being a bishop and all its many joys and challenges.
The liturgy on Sunday morning was full of spirit and pageantry. I think there were well over 2,000 of us gathered in that sacred space. Among other things, the sermon preached by the Right Reverend Duleep de Chickera, Bishop of Colombo (Sri Lanka) called us to embrace a truly Anglican understanding of unity in diversity and to offer our prophetic voice in service of those who have no voice. He quoted Archbishop William Temple who said, “The Church is the only institution that exists not to serve itself.” Ironically, I was seated in the south transept of the Cathedral in front of the altar that celebrates the ministry of William Temple! One of the hymns we sang during communion began with the words, “Let us build a house where love can dwell.” The refrain of this hymn is, “All are welcome, all are welcome, all are welcome in this place.” As I spoke with other bishops after the liturgy, the reaction to this hymn was varied. Some said they could not sing it because it was not true of the Anglican Communion. Others – myself included – sang it with tears in our eyes, because it is the church to which we believe God is calling us, but the church that we have not yet become.
Following the liturgy at Canterbury Cathedral, Ann and I walked to the site of the Inclusive Church/Integrity Eucharist to join Bishop Gene Robinson and others in a celebration of the Holy Eucharist, giving thanks to God for the ministries of gay and lesbian Christians in our church. About 30 other bishops navigated the streets of Canterbury to arrive just in time to share in this celebration (the liturgy at Canterbury went a bit longer than anticipated). There, among other wonderful hymns, we sang one of my most cherished hymns – “There’s wideness in God’s mercy.”
We arrived back at Kent University to join the opening ceremonies of the Lambeth Conference, including the Presidential Address from the Archbishop of Canterbury. I took many things from this address but most of all the call and invitation to use this time together to build up a community of trust and love in Jesus Christ. That is what I hope to do as I continue to encounter bishops from around the world and listen to the stories of their ministries and the challenging contexts in which so many of our brothers and sisters in the Anglican Communion exercise their ministries. I am eager to hear the stories of others and to tell the stories of the rich and marvelous things that God is doing in Vermont through the ministry of our congregations.
I am serving as a Bible Study Group facilitator, and I have a good group of bishops who are being very faithful to the process of open and honest conversation. Bishops in my group are from Northern Malawi, Central Zambia, England, Scotland, the United States, Costa Rica and the Northern Territory of Australia. We also began to meet with our larger (40 person) Indaba Groups today. This is where the main work of the conference will take place. On Monday we focused on “The Bishop and Anglican Identity,” sharing with one another our understanding of our ministry as bishop in the Anglican Communion. We also began working with material from the publication “The Anglican Way: Signposts on a Common Journey,” produced by the Working Party on Theological Education established by the Primates of the Anglican Communion.
Ann is attending the Spouses Conference, which includes its own Bible Study and program. She reports that it is a rich and positive gathering and that she is meeting a diverse group of spouses from around the world. We are both growing ever more mindful of the various challenges that others in the Anglican Communion are facing. Many in the Anglican Communion minister in areas of great poverty and need, and their witness amidst that reality is quite remarkable.
Perhaps the image that best captures the rich diversity of the conference and indeed the Anglican Communion is the praying of the Lord’s Prayer in all our worship services. Each of us is invited to pray in our native language and the experience is quite remarkable. The music and singing is likewise diverse.
Along with some other bishops from New England, I am preparing for the two opportunities we are offering to bishops and spouses to meet Bishop Gene Robinson. Invitations have been distributed and we hope for a good response. The first of these takes place on Wednesday night. There are many other “fringe events” on the schedule, so it is difficult to know who will appear. I have had a few opportunities to visit with Gene and his absence from the conference continues to be a sad reality. We felt this once again on Monday when Gene was not permitted to attend a Provincial meeting of our Episcopal Church bishops. I tried to work out a way for that to happen and our Presiding Bishop was supportive; however, the conference organizers working with the Archbishop of Canterbury (the conference host) did not support our request. They determined that since this was a conference event meeting in a conference venue and Bishop Robinson was not invited to the conference that he could not be given the security pass needed to enter the venue where we were meeting. While this outcome was frustrating and disappointing, we chose to honor it rather than pursue other options that might have been more divisive and damaging to the overall purpose of the conference. This was a topic of discussion at our Provincial meeting on Monday. There is another Provincial meeting of bishops scheduled for Friday and if Gene were going to be in Canterbury that day (he is scheduled to be in London) I think the Episcopal Church bishops would have pursued a way for including him.
There is a long way to go in this marathon of the Lambeth Conference and we greatly appreciate your prayers for us and all those gathered in Canterbury. I will do my best to write again soon.
Faithfully,
+Thomas
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