The Rt. Rev. Ronald C. Ferris

Bishop of Algoma

August 2008

REPORT ON THE LAMBETH CONFERENCE 2008

Prior to the Lambeth Conference each bishop and spouse was invited to visit a Diocese in Britain for six days.  Jan and I were invited to the Diocese of Blackburn in Lancashire in the North West of England.  The hospitality was exceptional.  Other visitors were from Kobe Japan and Central Pennsylvania.

We stayed with the Bishop of Burnley and his wife.  Burnley had been the centre of past racial tensions.  We had the opportunity to visit a youth project, worship in a mosque, and meet Imans over lunch in a Muslim Community centre.  We learned about a joint Muslim and Christian project called "Building Bridges Burnley".

I preached at Blackburn Cathedral, attended a concert marking the 20th anniversary of Cursillo, and toured the historic Whalley Abbey which is now operated by the diocese as a conference centre.  We saw a good deal of Lancashire, walked on the moors, enjoyed visits to small villages, the Blackpool Tower, and Lancaster Castle and Priory.

As well, we toured the chaplaincy at Lancaster University.  The diocese has a Board of Social Responsibility that oversees 12 projects and a staff of 77, largely funded through government grants for community development.  The diocese is also engaged in a planning process very similar to Algoma's and their materials will be forwarded to our convenors.  We were hosted at Leck Hall by Lord and Lady Shuttleworth.  Lord Shuttleworth is the Lord Lieutenant and the Queen's representative for Lancashire.

Connecting with parish and diocesan life in England was a fitting preparation for the beginning of Lambeth.

The conference began with a retreat led by the Archbishop of Canterbury.  During the retreat he openly acknowledged the brokenness of the communion.  Of the 880 bishops, 230 did not come for reasons of conscience.  The quarter of the bishops who did not attend represent 40% of the Sunday attendance of the Communion.  Where other Lambeths were a celebration of our unity, this Lambeth was a recognition of the need for reconciliation.

A 3-day retreat was held in the magnificent Canterbury Cathedral.  The singing of the bishops echoed through the towering arches.  Quiet times were spent lingering in the gardens, or exploring the vast chambers and chapels.  The themes focused on the ministry of the bishop.

The spouses’ conference was happening in parallel on the campus.  One wife related a conversation with a spouse living in a militant Muslim extremist area. "How many churches do you have?” she asked.  "All of our churches have been burned, we worship under trees" was the response.  "Well do you have a Cathedral?"  "No but we have a Cathedral tree!"

The conference operates in eight languages including Arabic, Burmese and Korean.

The process used was borrowed from South Africa and is called Indaba.  It is a village process where everyone gets to speak to a village crisis.  In our case the messages were carefully recorded and a final document was crafted that tried to converge toward a conference consensus.  As the covenant process was outlined it was clear that the organizers understood the level of distress in the Communion and that this would be the principal focus of our work.

Memories:

·       meeting a Bishop from South India whose diocese operates 200 schools in addition to many homes for the handicapped and elderly

·       the gospel procession at the opening service by the Melanesians in native costume and paint carrying the gospel into the Cathedral nave in a dugout to the music of rhythmical flutes and drums

·       a lovely farewell reception for Jan and me by the Ontario House of Bishops; Jan telling stories and laughing until we cried

·       meeting a Bishop from Southern Sudan where the farmers are regularly raided by Ugandan Rebels.  He has only a used bike to travel 160 kms.  He checks his e-mail once every two weeks because he has to travel 100 kms on his bicycle to get to a computer!

·       Learning that bishops from the Philippines have to be very careful in supporting rural development lest they be labeled as "reds"

·       hearing a bishop from Tanzania spoke of how the average earnings of his parishioners is £200 a year and how there are 2 million school aged AIDS orphans in his country

We had wonderful clear weather for our London Day.  It began with a walk of witness from Whitehall to Lambeth Palace, past Big Ben and the Parliament, past Westminster Abbey and over Lambeth Bridge.  The purpose of the walk was to support the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations to substantially reduce poverty and disease by 2015.  At Lambeth Palace we were addressed powerfully by the Prime Minister urging a global recommitment to these priorities.

The garden party at Buckingham Palace followed, with the Queen and Prince Phillip visiting with many of the bishops and spouses.  The beautiful day allowed many to enjoy meeting others, listening to the military bands, or walking in the beautiful gardens.

Each day we met in Bible Study groups of eight with members from all over the world.  My group had people from Fiji, Britain, the Philippines, the U.S., and Central America.  Our focus was the Gospel of John.  Following that, 5 Bible Studies met as an Indaba Group of 40.  There were 16 such groups.  These groups were meant to be intense sharing groups where each person had the opportunity to speak and participate.  A delegate from each Indaba was chosen to serve in a central group writing the conference report.  There was a topic for each day such as:  interfaith relations, the environment, mission, social justice or scripture.

In addition to these groups there were self-select groups on a myriad of subjects offered at other times in such areas as:  addiction ministries, evangelism, the science of climate change, or Islam in Africa.  In the evening, many mission agencies and organizations offered dinners and receptions to connect with as many bishops as possible.  There was also a marketplace filled with mission agency booths and commercial church suppliers.

As the work developed there were also hearings on the crisis in the Communion and possible resolutions.  The Archbishop of Canterbury made it clear in his presidential addresses that he hoped for a covenant that would be meaningful and would allow those provinces that wished to do so to bind themselves to the central teachings and disciplines of Anglicanism.  The Windsor Continuation Groups proposed strong corrective measures in the meantime, including a Pastoral Forum to immediately monitor the moratoria called for by the Primates and the Windsor Report.  There were a number of hearings, but not with many hopeful signs that opposing positions could be reconciled within the conference, let alone with the 25%+ of bishops who because of conscience remained away. The Windsor Continuation Group hopes to propose measures to the Anglican Consultative Conference #16 that will allow the largest number of Anglicans possible to remain in full communion with one another.

Memories:

·       The Church of Myanmar showed us a video of their cyclone relief efforts 3 months ago and thanked all of us for our emergency relief support. 

·       Priests in the Philippines are expected to not escape when rebels come to their villages but to stay and advocate for the people to the rebel leaders.

·       In the eastern parts of India, girls from poor villages are taken to the city at age 12-18 and indentured as domestic servants.  Many are sexually abused and come into the care of the churches.

·       Bishops from the Sudan charge the other bishops, "you brought us the gospel, and many people in our land have died for that gospel, and now you are changing it and wanting a new gospel".

·       It is expected that bishops in Central America will go to the rebels and demand their priests back when they have been taken hostage

·       In many parts of the world the bishops' spouses do not travel on parish visits for fear of abduction and ransom demands

Jan and I attended a reception held by the Colleges and Universities of the Anglican Communion.  Our host was Dr. Don Thompson, formerly Provost of Thorneloe University in Sudbury, who now is the Executive Director of the organization based in New York.  Two new Anglican Universities are being established in Africa, two in Brazil, and one in Portugal.  Don's present project is to try to establish linkages between Anglican Hospitals and Medical Schools around the globe.

We also attended a reception for the International Anglican Women's Network.  Two Algoma women, Dr. Carol Knox from St. Paul's, Thunder Bay, and The Rev. Joan Cavanaugh-Clark of Schreiber/Marathon were in Canterbury to organize the booth and activities of the Network.  At one event we attended we heard of how Mother's Union Rallies were interrupted by police of the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe.

There are many Networks that operate throughout the Communion: Universities, Women, Youth, Family Action, Environmental and so on.  They do wonderful work but they have no funding resources!

Near the conclusion of the Indaba process, the bishops received ballots to solicit their views on the crisis in the Communion.  There was a very strong consensus that the bishops wish to stay united.  They endorsed the moratoria as a necessary step to reconciliation.  They endorsed the Covenant process.  There was general support for the Pastoral Forum.

A Covenant for the Communion has been developed that will allow those provinces and dioceses that wish to agree to a common teaching and discipline to do so.   Provinces and dioceses that wish to be autonomous but associated will also be able to choose that path. Those that choose autonomy will understandably have a reduced voice in the direction of the Communion.  The Covenant is an outcome of the Windsor Process.  It will take a period of years for the various provinces to consider it and make their decisions.

One very clear and hopeful impression that I was left with is that outside of North America the Communion will very likely remain united with common teachings and disciplines. 

Where dioceses or provinces in North America opt for a greater degree of autonomy, different branches and alignments are the likely result.  The Windsor process calls for a moratorium on same-gender blessings and the ordination of those in same-gender relationships, as well as a moratorium on boundary crossings to establish alternate Anglican jurisdictions.  These new developments are likely to continue in North American churches that are not part of the Covenant. 

In the final presidential address on Sunday afternoon, the Archbishop of Canterbury gave a clear and unqualified appeal for Anglican unity on the basis of the present agreed teachings and disciplines.

There was a strong feeling that the present Instruments of Communion, (the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lambeth, the Primates and the Anglican Consultative Council) are all overtaxed for their resources and structure.  In response to the views of the bishops, the Archbishop of Canterbury gave assurance that the Pastoral Forum would be convened within three months, that a meeting of the Primates would be called early in 2009, and that the Covenant would be forwarded to the Anglican Consultative Council for consideration in the fall of 2009.

The full report of the Conference can be found on the Anglican Communion website at www.anglicancommunion.org or on the official Lambeth Conference website at www.lambethconference.org .

The Conference concluded where it began in historic Canterbury Cathedral.  Deep new friendships had been made in the Bible Study Groups and Indaba Sessions. All were inspired by the stories of struggle and courage of those on the frontiers around the globe.   In one of the final sessions we were addressed by the youth with their hopes for the future.  All yearned for a time when Lambeth could be reunited with the quarter of the bishops who declined to attend.  We know that our structures are insufficient for the changes that are happening.  New and more complex patterns will be needed for the complex changes upon us. 

At the conclusion of the final communion service in Canterbury Cathedral there was a surprise ending.  In 2003, seven Melanesian Brothers who had placed themselves between warring factions were brutally murdered.  In an extremely moving ceremony, focused on the theme of reconciliation, their names were placed in the Chapel of Modern Day Martyrs.  Their names were received by the Archbishop of Canterbury from the Melanesian Brothers and Sisters.  As the Brothers and Sisters sang a Melanesian funeral litany, they ascended several high sets of stairs leading them through the sanctuary to the chapel which is behind the high altar.  It was a somber and moving experience as we concluded our time together.

We went forth hopefully, knowing the immensity of God, and of the unstoppable and glorious future of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for all the world.  For Jan and me, the three Lambeth Conferences that we have attended have been a deep privilege and blessing.