Generous love — and its cost

One of the most important features of the Lambeth Conference is our common worship. Each service is led by bishops, spouses and others from a different province of the Communion. The attendees worship together with our staff, stewards, chaplains and our ecumenical guests each day at Morning Prayer (6:30), Morning Worship (Eucharist, at 7:15), at Evening Worship (5:45) and Night Prayer (9:45). While Ruth and I have not kept the full schedule of services each day (!), we have appreciated the different languages and different music that shape our worship each day. In addition, each service includes the viewing of a short DVD of its mission.

It has been a blessing to attend services at the Cathedral, as we did again last Sunday. We were there for Eucharist at 11 and for Evensong at 4. The music was absolutely glorious. At Evensong it included several Taize chants as well as some contemporary works.

In the morning we were delighted to find that the Dean and Choir of Christ Church Cathedral in Springfield, Massachusetts were in the congregation. They had just completed a week of leading services at the Cathedral in the Diocese of St. Alban's. Ruth had sung in that choir when we lived in Western Massachusetts. We enjoyed a happy reunion with several dear friends from those years.

On Monday, the Windsor Continuation Group held a third session. They are to prepare a report, with recommendations, for the meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in May, 2009, on how the different provinces of the Communion (and especially our Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada) are observing the directions arising out of the Windsor Report of 2004. In a packed (and very warm) sports hall, individual bishops were welcomed to speak for up to three minutes to this plenary session while the members of the WCG and the rest of us listened.

Here and elsewhere, it is my experience that many (and, I would guess, probably most) of the bishops do not understand the actions of our Church with respect to the election and consecration of the Bishop of New Hampshire and the provision, in some parts of our Church, for the blessing of same-sex unions. Not only are our actions not understood, many (maybe most) of our partners hold to a very different view of the interpretation of Scriptures and our Tradition. They remain unconvinced of the wisdom of what they view as innovations in the doctrine of the Church. To experience those views here is sobering, to say the least. Those who support these recent developments, as I do, have a lot of work ahead of us, if we desire, as I do, to remain a part of this beloved Communion.

Monday was also a day dedicated to Interfaith Relations. In my Indaba group I heard stories of Interfaith Relations in Tanzania, North India and Eastern Michigan. The key words that we wrestled with in our different contexts were "embassy" and "hospitality." These arise out of a report entitled, Generous Love, about our Anglican approach to living with and serving with neighbors of other faiths.

That same afternoon I also attended a self-select group on "Communion, Covenant and Canon Law," where I heard (and understood, I think, a little) of two talks by faithful British attorneys about the proposed Covenant.

On Monday night we were all uplifted by a lecture given to the Conference by Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks. I cannot begin to do justice to this important and profound presentation on the meaning of covenant. It is online here. Please read the reflections of this strong, passionate, and wise friend of our Communion.

I was very, very proud of this Conference yesterday when we took the entire morning to focus on the issue of violence directed toward women and children. The bishops and spouses sat in different sections of the big tent that is the venue for our worship. After an introduction by Jane Williams and remarks by Jenny Te Paa, we saw a drama that explored the treatment of women in the Gospel. We then engaged in a directed Bible study that focused on II Samuel 13:1-22, the story of the rape of Tamar. It was both moving and inspiring to hear the voices of the Conference reflect on this passage and the subjects of abuse in Church and society. We were encouraged to spend the afternoon discussing these matters with our spouses.

At the end of the day, following Evening Worship, Archbishop Williams gave some reflections on the Conference, thus far. He repeated his emphasis on the importance of covenant. He attempted to capture the hopes of each side of our debate about homosexuality by setting forth the voice of the "traditional believer" and the voice of the "not-so-traditional believer." And he explored the question of the costs, to each side, of being generous toward the other side, for the sake of the eternal generosity that flows toward us from our true center, who is Christ, the very heart of God.

Amen.

Keep us in your prayers, please.

+George