More than 400 Anglicans from all parts of the world gathered at Kanuga, the conference center in North Carolina, Sept. 4-9 for the Global Conference on Dynamic Evangelism. A subtitle for the event was Mid-point Review of the Decade of Evangelism.

Participants ranged from the Archbishop of Canterbury to a 24-year-old evangelist from Tonga in the South Pacific, an ordained woman from Antigua, a businessman from Singapore, and a bishop and a lay woman from Rwanda. Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning was prevented by illness from participating in the conference.

Fifteen-minute reports about successes and failures in evangelism were delivered from participants representing 12 general areas of the world. Enthusiastic persons with exciting stories to tell who had traveled up to 6,000 miles to participate couldn't limit their remarks to 15 minutes, so events were frequently off schedule.

The Most Rev. George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury, delivered a major address [TLC, Sept. 24] and preached at the Eucharist. The archbishop told of his recent visit to Papua New Guinea, where he preached in the "cathedral without walls," which did have a roof. "What a wonderful symbol of what worship should be - open to all and available to all: joyful, lively and reverent," he said. "We need to liberate our worship from the tyranny of many rubrics."

Among the subjects of other presentations were: Primary Evangelism, Focus on Youth, Evangelism in the World of Politics and Business, the Experience of Women, Evangelism in the Context of War and Poverty, Sharing Evangelism Across the Anglican Communion and Evangelism: an Ecumenical Perspective. A summary of insights from the conference and recommendations will be presented to the Lambeth Conference of bishops in 1998.

A 70-page book with varied worship services was printed for the conference. Morning and Evening Prayer and the Eucharists were composites of a variety of Anglican rites. A brief song in a Nigerian language was learned easily and sung several times in both African and English words.

A musical group composed of six young people from Uganda accompanied much of the singing with African drums, rattles and electric guitars. An English woman sometimes played with them on an electronic keyboard. Songs and hymns were sung in several languages.

Kanuga's chapel, built in 1940, seats about 250 persons, so only the early-morning Eucharists were held there. Other services and sessions were in the gymnasium.

In addition to the plenary sessions, participants were divided into 32 discussion groups with about a dozen persons in each group. The groups reflected on what they had heard, and participated in Bible study using material prepared especially for the conference.

(The Rev.) Emmet Gribbin