Lambeth Marketplace offers goods, ideas, meeting place
Episcopal News Service, Canterbury. July 26, 2008 [072608-03]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
From a woman selling "holy socks" -- along with "glory golf balls" and "biblical brollies" -- to advocacy groups from across the spectrum of causes, to clerical haberdashers offering the latest in episcopal wear, the 2008 Lambeth Conference's Marketplace is a place to meet with others, shop, and learn.
Tucked behind the main venue of the Lambeth Spouses Conference, the marketplace has been set up in two gymnasiums and features about 50 exhibitors, including a corner booth for Lambeth Conference souvenirs.
Five of those exhibitors represent the mission and ministry of the Episcopal Church, including the Episcopal Church Center, the Episcopal Church Foundation, Episcopal Relief and Development and its Nets for Life initiative and the United Thank Offering.
Entering the Marketplace, the first booth belongs to the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, a mostly Anglican advocacy group with an international membership. "If I am entirely honest, the reason why we have such a prominent position is more down to luck than to design," said the Rev. Richard Kirker, the organization's chief executive. "But we're taking full advantage of our presence in welcoming everybody who enters the marketplace as warmly and sincerely as possible."
Kirker said reaction to the group's presence has been mixed. "Some are delighted that we are here; only too pleased that we have taken a prominent role in advocating human rights for all and others who are not yet ready to accept the validity of that message and are, frankly, I think, hostile, although nobody so far at least has verbalized their hostility towards us," he said.
Just around the corner from the main entrance is Margaret Wyllie, of Newton Stewart in Scotland, with her business, Holy Socks, Faith on your Feet. She sells socks with symbols of Bible verses and other aspects of Christianity as a dove, loaves and fishes, and Daniel in the lions' den -- "the lions have their mouths very firmly shut."
Wyllie said the socks are a form of evangelism. "It's a very gentle introduction to the Christian faith," she said. "People will ask the question: 'What is that on your sock?' And then they can take it as slowly, as quickly -- or as funnily -- as they want to."
It's been "eight years and three weeks to the date of when we sold our first Holy Sock," Wyllie said.
The stand's Glory Golf Balls feature Bible verses such as "A time to seek and a time to lose." Her Biblical Brollies (umbrellas) are emblazoned with Matthew 5:45: "For He sends rain on the just and on the unjust."
Amid the conversation and laughter of the hall, Mary Fleeson, from the island of Lindisfarne, worked on a piece of illuminated calligraphy.
The goal of her work and her company, Lindisfarne Scriptorium, is "to emulate the spirituality of the monks who created things like the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Book of Kells, but to do it in modern way, using modern materials, putting a new twist on the ancient Celtic designs."
Trained in textiles, silversmithing and jewelry, Fleeson moved to Lindisfarne 10 years ago with her family and opened a Christian resource shop. "I found I was itching to do artwork and it seemed a good idea to try to use my faith and my training together, and see what happened," she said.
Lindisfarne, a small island off the coast about half-way between Newcastle and Edinburgh in the United Kingdom, was the location of a Celtic and then later Benedictine monastic community. Saint Aidan built the first monastery in 635 AD, continuing the ministry of Saint Cuthbert. It became the base for evangelizing that part of England. The monastery was attacked by Vikings in 793.
Fleeson's gets her inspiration, she said, from dreams, confessions, Bible passages, poetry -- which she also writes -- and "just from looking around and seeing other things." She works in paint, fiber pens, pencil crayons, gel pens and "whatever is appropriate for the texture I want."
Working in an exhibit hall is not like being a monk in a monastery working with chanting in that background, but Fleeson said she manages. "It can be hard to concentrate, but I have two small children at home so I have gotten used to it and, actually in some ways, [it's] easier here and I like to be able to talk to people and get feedback about my work," she said. "I get inspiration, as well."
Mary F. Brennan, associate program officer for mission interpretation and communication at the Episcopal Church Center, said it has been important for the church to be present in the marketplace because "we want to talk about the mission and ministry of the Episcopal Church," which she said is "very strong; it's broad and it's deep."
"There are so many elements to it that people don’t know about, or they've forgotten about, because everybody's been talking about sex," she said.
The UTO booth is a good example, Brennan said. People come by to thank the organization for grants they received 20 and 30 years ago, as well as recently. New bishops are stopping by the UTO booth to learn about the process involved in applying for grants and get help with their project proposals.
UTO coordinator Elizabeth Beach-Hacking said she has also been helping connect bishops from across the communion with similar challenges in mission. For instance, she connected Congo Diocese of Bogo Bishop Henry Isingoma with Bishop P. K. Dutta of the Diocese of Dugapur in the Church of North India so that Isingoma could learn about Dutta's efforts to supply bicycles to people for transportation. In Durgapur, men use the bicycles to transport people, but Isingoma was looking for a way to help people take food to market.
There are more stories about UTO connections across the communion here.
"We've been touting our Anglican connections," Brennan said. The Church Center's booth features a large banner listing the Communion's Five Marks of Mission, as well as fans, which have become a hot item in the very stuffy exhibit halls. "We're the only booth in the marketplace that has the marks of mission," she said.
"It's just good to engage in conversation and many come by" to do just that, Brennan said. "It's given us a great opportunity to talk about all [the] ways we're connected with people in the Anglican Communion: companion dioceses, missionaries, UTO, ERD."