Images of Communion - from the Lambeth Conference

Photo credits to go the Lambeth Conference Official Photographers from the Anglican Communion News Service

Bishops singing - Amazing Grace at Lambeth last summer

Somehow I missed this gem...and quite surprised they haven't shown up on American Idol..

Archbishop Rowan Williams on the Millenium Development Goals

Archbishop of Canterbury in July speaking about the Millenium Development Goals and their focus on eradicating extreme poverty in the world

Images of communion ~ The Lambeth Conference of 2008

Photo credits to go the Lambeth Conference Official Photographers from the Anglican Communion News Service

Stephen Colbert on the "Lambeth Conference"

This is just great, after watching it again, I had to post it. One thing I love is the way Stephen Colbert pronounces "LAMbeth"...

Good question:

"Is Lambeth like the UN, pass all the resolutions you want, it doesn't do crap?"



Or, click HERE.

Bishops comment on the march in support of poverty reduction worldwide

Nice video with some of the bishops speaking about the march to support the Millennium Development Goals and working to eradicate world poverty...



Anglican bishops and their spouses marched on London on July 24 in support of poverty reduction worldwide.

Just one of many reasons I love the Episcopal Church!

We've got some great bishops, and a growing number of them just happen to be women! Awesome.

Photo Credit: Susan Shillinglaw (vts) 2008

Photo Credit: Susan Shillinglaw (vts) 2008

Photo Credit: Susan Shillinglaw (vts) 2008

BBC Video of Anglican Bishops Marching against Poverty in London

This is well-worth a few minutes of your time...

I, for one, am glad that the bishops marched, in part because I'm sure they talked while they walked, also, because some activity is good for the soul and for the community, and, most importantly to help us focus on the end of world poverty and the Millennium Development Goals~MDGs...



Check it out, h.t. goes to Scott...

Professor Katherine Grieb reflects from Mid-Court at Lambeth

One of the most outstanding teachers I have ever had was Dr. Kathy Grieb, who is a theologian and New Testament scholar currently teaching at Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS). She is not only a great scholar and teacher, but has also been chosen to serve on several Anglican commissions, including the Covenant Design Team. She is thoughtful and brilliant, and also just a fine person to be around. She increased my understanding of and appreciation of St. Paul as we moved slowly and intensively through his Letter to the Galatians over the course of a semester. Today, she is in Canterbury and has offered a reflection "from mid-court" from the VTS hospitality "booth" on hospitality and on our calling as Christians to welcome the stranger...

Check out this wonderful quote:

"How do we become proclaimers of the resurrection of Jesus Christ in our own day? Perhaps the first step is to acknowledge the profound mystery at the heart of every other person – even the one I thought I knew well. In the risen Christ, every one is a new creation. "

Thank you Kathy!

~The Rev. Peter M. Carey


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7/22/2008

from The Virginia Theological Seminary's Center for Anglican Communion Studies

From Mid-Court

Today is the feast day of Saint Mary Magdalene, the “apostle to the apostles” who first proclaimed the resurrection of Jesus to Peter and the Beloved Disciple. For me, the day began with Matins and the Eucharist at Canterbury Cathedral before catching the bus to the University of Kent where the Lambeth Conference is meeting.

The words from John’s Gospel continually amaze me: “She turned and saw Jesus, but she did not know that it was Jesus.” Mary Magdalene recognizes Jesus only after he calls her by name. At first, she thought she was addressing a stranger, a gardener: “Sir, if you know where they have taken him….” Instead, she herself is addressed by the risen Lord she knows and loves who appears to her in a form she had not quite expected.

What a gift it is to have this lesson to help frame the events of today. In so many ways, the Lambeth Conference is an extended family reunion. Our days at the VTS booth are spent offering hospitality and sending greetings, to long-known family members and to distant relatives whom we are meeting for the first time. In both cases we are blessed whenever we can recognize something of the risen Christ in one another.

How do we become proclaimers of the resurrection of Jesus Christ in our own day? Perhaps the first step is to acknowledge the profound mystery at the heart of every other person – even the one I thought I knew well. In the risen Christ, every one is a new creation. The bishops of the Anglican Communion are meeting one another anew in “indaba” groups (“indaba” is a Zulu word that means “respectful encounter”). And here, at the VTS booth, we are encountering new and old friends from all over the Communion for conversations that take us more deeply into the meaning of the risen Christ.

So without knowing what the day will bring, I wait expectantly to be delighted by the stranger who is the friend in Christ I haven’t yet met.

Katherine Grieb

From Lambeth ... from Mid-Court

...from Virginia Theological Seminary's "Center for Anglican Communion Studies" ...




7/21/2008
From Lambeth...

From Mid-Court

Well, here we are at the Lambeth Conference in a place called Canterbury. Our VTS “booth” or hospitality center is located at the Lambeth Markeplace in the Sports Centre of the University of Kent. That seems to be an appropriate location for us at this Wimbledon of Anglicanism. We are watching the fast volleys from our courtside perch! No match-point yet!

All kidding aside, you cannot miss the gravity of this event. In the history of the Communion, the Conference may be its most critical hour. It is a time which calls for great sacrifice and wisdom, and so we pray fervently for all the delegates and all who surround and support them.

Last week, the initial days in retreat with Rowan Williams set the right tone. The Archbishop met with his guests in the great nave of Canterbury Cathedral.

His opening address last evening left the impression that Anglicans will have a “Covenant” as this Conference concludes.

But there seems to me to be a larger question than the proposed Anglican Covenant: Will the Conference find the Anglican Communion recovering its religious imagination?

We have misplaced one of the great gifts of Anglicanism to the rest of Christendom: The ability to think outside the box and to imagine a church and a world that does not yet exist. Will we be clear about what we value as Anglicans in a changing church and world once we go home from this sacred place? How do we nurture Gospel values in a church conversation that could dwell on misplaced values? Our history teaches us that we are a broad church, but of late we have asked narrow questions and taken narrow positions. As we deal with current matters, are we connected with our long history and our early church identity? Can we imagine a new Church for this historic Christian way called Anglican?

Barney Hawkins

Virginia Seminary Alums Blog on Lambeth Conference

from the VTS (Virginia Theological Seminary) website: www.vts.edu, ....

Virginia Seminary Alums Blog on Lambeth Conference

7.15.08

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact: Susan Shillinglaw
Tel: 703-461-1764
Email: sshillinglaw@vts.edu

Alexandria, VA – During the next few weeks, several Virginia Seminary alums will share their thoughts about the 2008 Lambeth Conference in a blog entitled Lambeth Journal for Blogging Bishops.

The blog, which will rotate among eight bishops during the length of the conference, includes VTS alums: Sean Rowe (VTS ‘00) of Northwest Pennsylvania; Marc Andrus (‘87) of California; Larry Benfield (‘90) of Arkansas; Sergio Carranza (‘67) of Los Angeles; and Neff Powell, member of Virginia Seminary’s Board of Trustees and Honorary Degree recipient (‘97).

Additional contributors include Jean Zache Duracin of Haiti; Laura Ahrens of Connecticut; and Nedi Rivera of Olympia. Click here to read the Lambeth Journal for Blogging Bishops.

Additional links available for Lambeth Conference coverage are:

· Official Lambeth Web site

· Daily Accounts of the Conference

· Presiding Bishop's Web site

· Episcopal News Service

· Anglican Communion News Service

· Episcopal Cafe

Founded in 1823, Virginia Theological Seminary is the largest of the 11 accredited seminaries of the Episcopal Church. The school prepares men and women for service in the Church worldwide, both as ordained and lay ministers, and offers a number of professional degree programs and diplomas. Currently, the Seminary represents more than 42 different dioceses and 5 different countries, for service in the Church.

Bishops says divided Church should turn to cricket, "here here!"

I am so glad that the bishops are at least considering some playtime or recess while they are at Lambeth! I still thin that football (soccer) would level the playing field, but, I guess cricket is a sport of the Empire (British, not Darth Vader's Galactic one), so it may make some sense to play cricket. I still think that the free-flowing TEAM aspect of football (soccer, that is) would offer a better context for building the body (as well as the bodies) of the Communion.

The Rev. Peter M. Carey

From Times Online

July 20, 2008

Bishops says divided Church should turn to cricket

(Gareth Fuller/PA)

Bishop de Chickera delivered the opening sermon at the Lambeth conference

Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent of The Times

A liberal bishop from Sri Lanka suggested to his colleagues at the Lambeth Conference today that they should take the afternoon off to settle their theological differences over a game of cricket.

The sporting invitation from the Right Rev Duleep de Chickera, Bishop of Colombo, came in an otherwise hard-hitting sermon in which he reminded all 650 bishops attending that the Anglican Church was an "inclusive" community where everyone was equal, regardless of sexual orientation.

The sermon marked the official start of the conference in Canterbury and confirmed the Church's liberal direction. But Bishop de Chickera - who was preaching at the personal invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams - freely admitted the "reality" of the current divisions over gay consecrations and same-sex blessings.

"The reality is that we are a wounded Anglican Communion," he said. "Some of us are not here and that is an indication that all is not well."

Read the rest HERE.

Lambeth Thoughts from Bishop Epting...

There are a lot of reports about what is "happening" at Lambeth...and folks can find some good stuff on Episcopal Cafe, or just by google-ing "lambeth blog" or something...for me, I appreciated the Episcopal Church's Ecumenical Officer, Bishop Christopher Epting's thoughts on the "first day of the conference. You can read an excerpt below, or read it all HERE.


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Sunday At Lambeth

Well, this has been a roller coaster of a day, probably the first of many here at Lambeth 2008. A really moving Sunday morning Eucharist at Canterbury Cathedral featured bishops in procession in totally random order with no real preference given to Primates or others, a wonderful Gospel procession with Melanesian brothers and sisters dancing the Gospel book placed in a model boat to be read by a young Black deacon, and an English choir actually pulling off the Mass setting in Latin to Congolese music with drums and rattles! Anglicanism at its best perhaps.

But the highlight was a masterful sermon by Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo, Sri Lanka who daily faces down the barrel of a gun in persecution. He spoke of two over-riding issues – the need for the Church to confront issues of justice and peace in the wider world and the need for us to address the woundedness in our own Communion.

He said the first must be our priority but called for us to address the second by adopting the discipline of self examination and repentence (by heeding the Gospel imperative to be hard on ourselves and gentle with others — if we root up the unrighteous weeds in the field, none of us will survive, he said), by claiming the Anglican genius of unity in diversity, and by reclaiming or prophetic vision.

He concluded his sermon with a Buddhist chant, but one which offered the Archbishop and the Conference to the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Spontaneous applause broke out at the conclusion of his sermon. It was deeply moving and came from deep in his soul.

Then, we returned to the University of Kent and got a briefing on the week. Reality returned. Anyone who thinks that we are “avoiding the hard issues” by our format did not hear Rowan, Ian Earnest of the Indian Ocean, and especially Clive Handford, chair of the Windsor Continuation Committee. We will spend hours and days dealing with our Communion-dividing issues, giving input into the draft Anglican Covenant, and sharing honestly in our “indaba” discussion groups. It will be excruciatingly painful work.

The difference is, we will not try to resolve these issues with a vote, but by continuing the discussion and being but one more step in the process. We are in for years of arduous work both our preacher today and the Archbishop have admitted.

The question is, do we have the will to engage the work…and the time left to complete it.

I pray that we do.

Where's his cleats?

I found this on Ruth Gledhill's blog...and I love the photo...someone, clearly, is having a good time...

My article posted at Episcopal Cafe: "Goooooooooooal!"

"Goooooooooooal!"

By Peter M. Carey

It should be of no surprise to anyone who reads the Episcopal Café that this summer is the once-a-decade gathering of Anglican bishops in Canterbury, England for the Lambeth Conference. Much has been written about this conference this year, and the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion are surely picking up more than our share of headlines. I have been thinking about this gathering of bishops and their spouses and thinking about both the turmoil and the possibility that exist for the Anglican Church at this moment in our history.

I was reading last month in Ed Friedman’s posthumously published book, A Failure of Nerve, that one sign of overly reactive and anxious organizations is that there is a lack of playfulness. Is the Anglican Communion displaying the tell-tale signs of an overly reactive and anxious organization? Is there playfulness and humor at each level of the body of our church? I hope there is more playfulness than I am sensing in what I read and see.

While I know that the lack of playfulness and humor is the result of the reactivity and anxiety, I wonder if play and humor may also be a solution.

Read it all HERE.

Links to this article:
A Blogspotting Anglican Episcopalian

Retreat at St.Helena's Convent, Vails Gate, NY

I just spent a few days on retreat at St. Helena's Convent in Vails Gate, NY, resting, reading, and reflecting (with heavy emphasis on resting!). It was a marvelous time and a beautiful place with a lively community of sisters who truly embody the ministry of hospitality. Feeling refreshed and revitalized, I am now visiting family in Vermont and hoping that the bishops at Lambeth are also experiencing God's grace and are offering one another kindness and hospitality as well.

The Rev. Peter M. Carey

See more photos from my visit to St. Helena's HERE.