Bishops say Lambeth retreat set strong foundation for conference
Episcopal News Service, Canterbury. July 19, 2008 [071908-03]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
After spending the first three days of the 2008 Lambeth Conference in Bible study and retreat, many participants say they have a strong foundation for the remaining two weeks of the gathering.
"We're at a place in our lives now where we're ready to start talking about the issues of life that we have in the Anglican Communion," said Diocese of Los Angeles Bishop Jon Bruno after the bishops' retreat ended at midday on July 19.
"This retreat has set the foundation for us to build the building blocks of love, compassion, grace and understanding," he added. "The only way that that would be disabled or derailed is if people go to places within them of their own personal agendas, that they become ideological idolaters, and that they move to a place of hatred, rather than a place of love."
The bishops spent the first two full days of their retreat in Canterbury Cathedral. They heard two addresses each day by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. In between, the bishops had 90 minutes for silence and individual reflection or work with retreat chaplains. The bishops had the cathedral and its surrounding grounds, known as the precincts, to themselves for the two days.
The final retreat session was held the morning of July 19 in a huge circus tent -- known as the Big Top -- that has been pitched in a parking lot at the University of Kent, on a hill overlooking the cathedral.
Williams' addresses set out his vision for the episcopate as a collegial body of leaders, according to bishops interviewed, with the archbishop asserting both the theme of the Christian community and that of bishops being set apart.
Diocese of Rhode Island Bishop Geralyn Wolf said July 17 that “for those who like to be taken into a vision and work into that vision," the retreat's first day was "thrilling."
"For those who like absolute answers and wish him to address the issues in the Communion, it was probably a disappointment," she added.
Many of the bishops interviewed recalled the experience of singing and praying with 650 bishops in the historic space of Canterbury Cathedral, which has been the site for Christian worship and pilgrimage for about 1,400 years. Archbishop Phillip Aspinall of Brisbane, the primate of Australia, said the singing was "gentle and wonderful."
"That's an image to take forward into the conference," he said during an interview July 19. "The harmonies we've experienced in worship…could well emerge in other ways."
Aspinall added that he sensed "a strong desire to hang in together and remain in relationship as we try to discern the truth together."
Williams challenged the bishops July 18 to seek out another bishop who made them fearful or anxious and ask that bishop to pray for them. Bishop Assistant Sergio Carranza of Los Angeles said he sought out African bishops.
"All of them were optimistic and said it's going to be alright," he told ENS the next day. "Everybody with whom I talked is concerned we find a way to stay together, and not break communion."
Williams noted the absence of bishops who decided to boycott the Lambeth Conference due to theological disagreements with the main body of the church, asking those present to pray for them. Bruno said the few bishops who refused to come "are cheating themselves and moving to a place of cutting themselves way from the body."
"No one has pushed them out. We're trying to envelop them," he said. "If they would only come and be part of the body, they would be enriched and maybe changed. As the archbishop said, they would be offering themselves as teacher and taught."
Kansas Bishop Dean Wolfe said during an interview that the absence of New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson was palpable during the retreat, especially for his fellow bishops in the Class of 2003. "We're a very close class," Wolfe said. "We've never been divided in this way. There's a sense of absence."
Diocese of New Jersey Bishop George Councell, another member of that class, told a media briefing on July 18 that he felt "a very deep ache for my brother." He said many bishops will worship with Robinson on the afternoon of July 20 at a Eucharist in St. Stephen's Field, about a 20-minute walk from Canterbury Cathedral where the conference's opening Eucharist will have been held that morning.
The bishops' Bible study groups will continue to meet nearly every day until the conference ends August 3. "I anticipate that our Bible studies will continue to be the grounding for us as we shift gears into the conference from the retreat," said Diocese of El Camino Real Bishop Mary Gray-Reeves July 19 during a media briefing.
Her fellow briefer, Diocese of Chicago Bishop Jeffrey Lee, echoed the sentiments of many bishops interviewed when he said the members of his study group have "a surprising commonality in what it is to be followers of Jesus Christ and to try to be leaders in the church."
As the bishops ended their retreat and prepared to move into the main body of the conference, their spouses continued in the third day of their own conference. Nearly every morning will include small-group Bible study based around Jesus' "I am" statements in John's Gospel, paralleling the bishops' study time.
The spouses are exploring how to be effective in the role of bishop's spouse, how to uphold close relationships, how to respond to the leadership challenges spouses face, and how to address the health and personal development issues of themselves and others.
On July 17, the opening day of both conferences, Jane Williams launched the book "Marriage, Mitres and Myself." Edited by Williams, the wife of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the book contains pieces from bishops’ spouses from around the world concerning what it is like to be married to a bishop.
Blog accounts by Episcopal Church bishops with more details of the retreat are available here.