Partnership for World Mission reviews Lambeth Conference hospitality initiative, Indaba process
Episcopal News Service, London. November 10, 2008 [111008-01]
Matthew Davies
Assessing the Lambeth Conference's hospitality initiative and the Indaba process used throughout last summer's gathering of Anglican Communion bishops was the focus of the Partnership for World Mission's annual conference.
The PWM conference -- which brought together representatives from church mission agencies and diocesan companion links with members of the Church of England and global partners involved in world mission -- was divided into worship, plenary sessions, and base groups of eight people each that met four times throughout the November 3-5 gathering in Swanwick, England.
"The conference sought to seriously engage with what came out of the Lambeth Conference and seek a 'plan of action' as we go forward," said Stephen Lyon, PWM secretary. "Over the 48 hours together we covered a great deal of ground and left feeling that what happened in Canterbury over the summer will feed into the mission relationships we seek to have with our partners."
The base groups were charged with compiling a list of three action items for dioceses and parishes and "gave attendees an opportunity to engage in real conversation about the success … of the hospitality initiative, the impact of Lambeth on the average church-goer, and ways in which 'hospitality' and 'indaba' could be used in dioceses and parishes to build relationships across the communion," said Mary Brennan, mission communication officer for the Episcopal Church.
The pre-Lambeth hospitality initiative, in which bishops were welcomed as guests in an English, Scottish or Welsh diocese, "was reported to be very successful from the perspectives of both the receiving dioceses in the U.K. and that of the bishops, all of whom felt that they were warmly received within the Anglican community throughout Britain," said the Rev. David Copley, mission personnel officer for the Episcopal Church. "The hospitality initiative highlighted the benefits and the continued need to strengthen and deepen relationships on all levels within the Anglican Communion."
Helping to facilitate the conversations at the PWM conference were Archbishop Valentino Mokiwa, primate of the Anglican Church of Tanzania and bishop of Dar es Salaam; Bishop Idris Jones, primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church and bishop of Glasgow and Galloway; Alison Jones, a consultant psychiatrist (now retired) in Glasgow and Idris' wife; Clare Amos, director of theological studies at the Anglican Communion Office; and Bishop Mike Hill of Bristol, Church of England, and chair of PWM.
Copley commended Jones' comments to the approximately 95 conference participants that centered on getting "back to basics" in terms of "promoting the deepening of relationships through growing in our understanding of one another and rebuilding trust amongst one another." The emphasis, Copley said, was on creating a "climate in which we can walk together, learn together and grow together."
"The comments of Bishop Idris and the positive experiences of the initiative helped to reinforce the need for continued hospitality at all levels to help strengthen and heal relationships within the communion," said Copley.
Brennan said that specific issues addressed in her base group, of which she was the facilitator, included: how to be hospitable when the guests decide not to show up (in the case of some bishops who chose to boycott the Lambeth Conference); ways in which mission agencies, companion diocese links, and Anglican Communion Office mission networks could work together more efficiently and more effectively; ideas for making companion links work better for all concerned; making the Millennium Development Goals the focus of relationship rather than "hot-button" issues; and "what, exactly, makes us Anglican, and can we agree to this commonality across the communion."
Some of the videos that were produced by Trinity Wall Street throughout the July 16-August 3 Lambeth Conference were shown during plenary sessions at the PWM gathering. Brennan said that her group had been impressed with the video of Bishop Thomas Shaw of Massachusetts and Bishop Philip Baji of Tanga, Tanzania, talking about their mutual listening process. "Attendees were deeply moved by the demonstration of two people with very different ideas about human sexuality continuing to listen, talk, and walk in communion with each other," she said.
Time was given to discussing the GAFCON conference, which was held in Jerusalem one month prior to Lambeth and included former Episcopalians and conservative Anglicans among its participants. It had been viewed by some as a rival to the Lambeth Conference, and some Anglican bishops who attended GAFCON chose to boycott the Lambeth Conference.
Tim Dakin, secretary general of the Church Mission Society, told PWM participants that he was "pro-GAFCON [and] pro-Lambeth," and sees his organization as one that is "open to be in relationship with all these diverse groups," said Copley.
Mokiwa, who attended both GAFCON and the Lambeth Conference, said that he wanted to take on a mediatory role within the communion "although at this point he was uncertain as to how this role would develop," according to Copley.
Brennan noted that the Indaba process was addressed by Mokiwa and Jones during plenary sessions and the discussions were "generally positive, but Mokiwa made it clear that Lambeth's Indaba was not a true Indaba, since the purpose of Indaba is to come to a decision on some issues."
While conference participants "liked the Indaba concept of offering the opportunity for everyone to be heard," Brennan said that the consensus in her base group was that the Indaba process "could work well at a local level and for a very specific issue, but that it probably wouldn't work for large global issues and groups."
Overall, Brennan said she had been encouraged by the level of discussion at the PWM conference "about what it means to build real relationship as a sharing, giving companion. Everyone is searching for ways to make companion links work, exchanging stories of successful and unsuccessful partnerships. These are the same issues we wrestle with in the Episcopal Church with companion dioceses."