No doubt there will be much discussion on the success of Lambeth 2008. There has been no miraculous healing of the hurts of the Anglican Communion, but all have left having had the chance to voice their views and tell their stories. There has been a real atmosphere of sharing and caring for one another regardless of theological viewpoints. 

In our day with the Archbishop he told us that the church, including the Anglican Communion represents the whole of humanity; the lost, the broken, those we find difficult, the powerful, the weak all centred on Christ. When we see Christ in one another amidst that humanity, it makes it all the more difficult and painful to part from one another. Perhaps that desire not to part was something that Lambeth 2008 achieved in some peoples’ lives, but of course not in everyone’s. There is a sense of optimism for the future of the Anglican Communion centred upon the unifying power of Christ but there is also a sense of realism.    

I don’t know what impact Lambeth 2008 will have on the Anglican Communion, but I am beginning to realise the impact that the experience has had on me. Here are just a few of the best and worst moments of the past month…

Best Lambeth Moments:

Micah Challenge Walk of Witness: Seeing the church fighting where it should be against poverty and injustice, not each other. (Sadly, though not surprisingly, the media didn’t feel like picking up on that point though)

Youth Plenary: Talking to lots of Bishops and spouses, on stage in the Big Top, something I never envisaged myself doing, but that was so much fun! Its not often you get a captive audience of bishops of the Anglican Communion!

The Worship: It was truly great and so uplifting…unless one was there I think its probably incomprehensible

The beautiful weather

Seeing the world: I know of the diversity of the Anglican Communion from St Chrysostom’s but during Lambeth I saw this on a much bigger scale. It was wonderful singing in all different languages, seeing the colours of national dress and learning about the ways of the church around the world. I have been inspired to work with the church in another place and will look into how to do so.

Lambeth Palace/Buckingham Palace: Its not everyday that your morning schedule including visit 2 palaces! Or that you can hang up your high visibilty jacket in the Queen’s cloakroom

The fantastic chaplaincy team and all they brought to the conference, from music to prayer and laughter and fellowship

Hospitality: We have been so well provided for, I may need a new cassock…  From breakfast, lunch and dinner provided at campus, BBQs, to the Cathedral’s boundless hospitality, strawberries on the cathedral lawn, champagne at St Augustine’s Abbey, lunch at Lambeth Palace, afternoon tea at Buckingham Palace including actual cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off… the stuff fairytales are made of.. we really have been spoilt!

Worst Lambeth Moments:

Arrivals day: 600 Bishops, 1,200 pieces of luggage, one car park and only a prayer

Bomb scare: Being asked to seach the Spouses’ venue only to discover a sealed paper bag with a wire sticking out… calling it through on the radio, evacuating the building, thankfully finding it was a test, they were watching us from behind the curtain and we passed! Dan and I were then given the title, ‘Lambeth Bomb Squad’ for the remainder of the conference.

Learning the real story behing ‘Puff the magic dragon’… I need say no more!

Saying ‘Good morning’ 1,200 times on the way into the morning service and ‘Good evening’ on the way into evening prayer

Departure Day: 5.30am walking down to departure point after 3 hours sleep on the common room floor. Having to say goodbye to all of the delegates and staff who we had spent a month working with

There are so many more moments that I could mention and so much more that I have learnt whilst here. Those of you at St Chrysostom’s will no doubt hear more when I return.

But this is my last post on Lambeth Letters. Thank you all so much for coming on the Lambeth journey with me and for reading about everything that has been going on. I hope it has given you some insight of the conference… perhaps in 10 years I will be back… until then…

Lots of love,

Penny

The Archbishop with us at St Augustine’s Cross

Our Pilgrimage across East Kent took us to the places where St Augustine visited (or may have!) during his time in Kent. We were privilaged to have the Archbishop spend the day with us. We began by going to St Augustine’s Cross in Pegwell Bay which marks one of the sites visited by St Augustine, who brought Christianity back to England in 596 and laid the foundations of Canterbury Cathedral in 597. The Americans among us didn’t realise history went back that far!  

 Yesterday we went to Dover Castle and spent the day exploring the castle and the wartime tunnels before going to the Cathedral in the evening for supper, a candle lit tour of the Cathedral and then compline. During the tour, moving through the cathedral was compared to moving through different parts of our lives, one to the next, each meaning something different to us and equally needed by us. But that in this life we can only keep moving to the next time, we will only find our place eventually in the house of God, with many mansions. This was particularly moving as all stewards gathered there were heading off to different phases in their lives, moving on from the time we have spent together to the next challenge but remaining with each other still in faith and prayer.

This nearly concludes my diary of Lambeth 2008 but will write once more with a few brief reflections. If anyone has any questions about the whole experience or anything you are intriugued about, do let me know and I’ll attempt to answer!

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Here is the cartoon summary by Dave Walker of what exactly we have been doing for the past few week…  couldn’t agree more!

Individuals debriefs on the conference have begun by all and are very varied, some more critical than other but I think the view of the majority is that it was a much more successful conference in achieving its aims than 1998.

Most of the staff have now left too and so there is a very different atmosphere, and a summer school have just moved into the university campus so I guess for the staff at the university, its just like having the bishops back!

Today, we began our youth conference. We have had 2 sessions with Archbishop Rowan this morning on our observations of the conference, good and bad and he shared with us his observations and told us some more about the planning. His favourite colour is ‘a shade of dark green’, unsurprisingly perhaps, not purple!

Tomorrow we are going on a pilgrimage around Kent following the trail of St Augustine which the Archbishop is to join us for. At the moment everyone is still exhausted and trying to catch up on sleep which has been lacking over the past few days/weeks!

As Heather pointed out in her comment on my last post, another steward Allie, wrote about the session I spoke at on Saturday and showed a picture which she kindly gave me.

If you want to see something funny, (not sure I can return to Manchester now!), take a look at the Diocese of Manchester website www.manchester.anglican.org

Its been a while since I last wrote but in the last few days things have been a little busy. As the conference draws to an end, the reflections group has been meeting and the hearings where the Bishops can voice their opinions have been vigorous and well attended.  Last night, however, it was the chance of the young people to voice their opinions… so, with the voice that I found at St Chrysostoms, I took to the stage…

We were introduced by Archbishop Rowan, who then took his seat in the front row, (not intimidating at all!) There were 4 of us chosen as representatives of the youth in the Communion, myself from the C of E, Sarah from the Episcopal Church, Nontu from South Africa and Solo from the Seychelles. In turn, we spoke about our experience of the Lambeth Conference, our views on the absence of youth in church, the need for ministry to youth and the need for young people in ministry, followed by a question and answer session which had to be cut short for fear that we could go on all night.

I was a little nervous to say the least! Those of you who know me at church know that I can often be a little reserved, however, last night when I was on stage even though I was terrified, I was able to answer the questions presented to us from the floor, to speak my mind and most importantly, I never thought I’d be saying this, I really enjoyed it! I did indeed speak in my relaxed blog voice and got some laughs (thanks Joe and Stefani for the advice!  ) In fact, in our meeting afterwards, it was pointed out that even though I was so nervous before handed I was the one who was keenest to answer all the questions and kept taking the microphone and filling in the silences…

In my presentation, I spoke about the need for the church to recognise the gifts of young people to be used for the good of the church and the insights of youth in the mission of the church. I reminded the Bishops that they need to support young people in ministry as soon as they can as in 30 years time we will the ones sitting in their seats. I also hinted at my future aims to be a Bishop, referring to the purple top I was wearing ;-) That got a big laugh and a huge round ouf applause. Afterward, amongst lots more Bishops who came to thank us and say how well we all spoke, a Bishop from Brazil came and said “You’re a future Bishop for sure!” and another Bishop from India who said “I was where you are 20 years ago,  and I have great hope in you.”

Dave, our steward manager, had introduced me by saying that I hope to go into ministry in the next few years and that if there were any offers, those Bishops were to see him after the session to discuss terms. During the question and answer session, numerous Bishops stood up and invited me to their diocese, including Europe, Australia, a few other exotic places and a few closer to home. Bishop Chris, of Bolton then sttod up and said, “if you want Penny, there’ll be a very high transfer fee!”. I was told at breakfast this morning by the Bishop of Dorchester that its unusual for Bishops to be that generous in their offers!

It seemed that the Bishops were very receptive to us all last night, as they have been for the whole conference and I have great hope that they will take away what we communicated to them and be more open to the voice of the youth of their diocese and be willing to engage in conversation and work with them and for them.

Whilst on  the stage, its hard to see much in front of you apart from the shapes of people, but when I looked into the audience, I thought back to the first time I preached on Mothering Sunday. I saw Father Ian, sitting in the congregation to make sure I spoke loudly and clearly and looked up, I saw Edna, grinning at me, I saw Desmond making me laugh, and I thought of all of the support that you’ve all given me over the last year – just think, this time last year I was terrified of reading at church, and now I’ve just addressed and taken part in a question and answer session with the delegates of the Lambeth Conference… a good years work!

After all the exitement last night, today is quite subdued. It is sadly the last day of the conference. The marketplace has now closed, staff are beginning to leave, luggage is beginning to appear, for the mammouth departure operation tomorrow. There are still Bible studies and indaba groups this morning, later today there will be the final plenary of the conference with the Archbishop and closing worship at Canterbury Cathedral.

Will try to write later about those things, and also to see if I can get hold of some pictures of the session last night…

I’ve just been to one of  the ’hearing’ session where all bishops are being encouraged to give their feedback on the report of the conference being produced by the reflection group, regarding, for example, the content and wording of each. This information will then be taken into account as the rest of this week is spent gathering more views to culminate in the final report.

This week, at one of the ‘indaba’ groups, some bishops asked if they could spend more time with the young people present at the conference, i.e. us stewards to hear about our experience as stewards at Lambeth 2008 and our experiences and thoughts on the church (a little like politicians kissing babies…?!). As a result, tonight we are to go for dinner with some of the bishops and share our stories with them.

In addition to this at the plenary session on Saturday night, 5 of the stewards, representative from across the Anglican Communion have been asked to address the conference. For some reason, I am one of the chosen ones! Very scary! I’m quite looking forward to having done it, but perhaps not to doing it! Its a big stage, a lot of people, mainly bishops, a very loud microphone and big screens… definitely a test! If anyone would like to suggest any issues that young people in the Church of England are facing, please do send me a comment!

I’m now off to steward at the marketplace, where there are books stalls, ‘holy hardware’ stalls and stalls advertising the work of various charities and organisations with lots of freebies!

Will be in touch soon about dinner with the bishops, it’s all good practise for if I’m invited to Lambeth one day…

Yet whilst the contentious issues are being discussed I wanted to highlight the other discussions that are going on, the significance of which I feel can perhaps be best explained using the words of the Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in his address to the conference last night which was greeted with 2 standing ovations. These discussions include domestic violence, interfaith relationship, world poverty, climate change and can all come under what Sacks called ‘a covenant of fate.’

With all of the issues mentioned above, we as human beings, share the same fate even though we may not share the same convenant of faith. We all suffer and die. Sacks quoted John Donne, “any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind.” If we all share the same fate,  we all have a duty to respond alongside each other, regardless of faith or viewpoint. This is why for him to march alongside the Archbishops of Canterbury and York through London last Thursday, bearing witness to our campaign to halve poverty by 2015 was so moving. Using this image, we can all see how we can unite from different covenants of faith, bound by one covenant of fate.

The address was very powerful, there were times when there was utter silence and stillness in the room. After the address there were some questions raised including questions about Jewish-Christian relations, “Aren’t Christians just impatient Jews?!” which were asked and answered with a respectful humour! One answer included Sacks’ comment about how Christians were able to take the message and faith in God across the world, saying “Now there’s not many Jews… myself, my wife and our friends….but for every Jew worldwide, there are 183 Christians, you have done a very good job of evangelising”. In answer to the question, “So tell us about Jesus…”, he first said, “I’ll get my car…” but then he told us about his respect for Christian and this gratitude, that he had been to Church of England primary and secondary schools and was treated with great respect and brought the question back to our shared history and pointed to our shared future.

The most moving answer that I found he gave was to site the words of the Jewish prayer used at Yom Kippur that are familiar to us from Jesus’ words on the Cross, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.” Perhaps in terms of the divisive issues of the Communion and our treatment of each other and the world around us, we would be wise to pray together, for ourselves and each other, “Father forgive us, we know not what we do.” 

Steward picnic

After lunch a group were invited to the Deputy Sherrif of Kent’s house in Doddington, in the middle of the Kentish countryside. We were treated to afternoon tea in the gardens and had time to wander around in the sunshine. One bishop I spoke to was very keen for us to know that sometimes bishops do a lot more than drinking tea, eating cake and being entertained! As we left the gardens we had a slight problem with missing members of the group – we arrived with 50 and left with 48… despite running around the garden looking for our lost sheep we decided that we had probably just miscounted… I hope, otherwise there are two bishops with a long walk back to Canterbury last night!

Afternoon tea with our American friends in an English country garden...

It was a day of one party after the other, very hard work! As soon as we returned from the deputy sherrif’s house we went straight to Saint Augustine’s Abbey where a Civic reception was being held with the Lord Mayoress of Canterbury. There was music and entertainment amidst the beautiful ruins and an official welcome to the city from the Mayoress who commented on how well the coffee shops in the area are doing at the moment, to which the Archbishop responded, ‘perhaps some of you can bi-locate then, as I thought you were in your bible studies’…

Civic reception for the Lambeth Conference at St Augustine's Abbey Archbishop Rowan and the Lord Mayoress of Canterbury

It was fun and relaxing day but from today, as we are entering the final week of the conference, harder work begins for the delegates… much discussion and many prayers to come… The theme of today is about interfaith relationships and tonight’s speaker at the plenary is the Chief Rabbai, Jonathan Sacks. There are other important meetings also happening and a particular emphasis on sharing views on situations in the indaba group, allowing every Bishop’s voice to be heard. Delegates will hear about some of the work that the reflection group have been doing.

Today there is a chain of prayer for the rest of the conference beginning in the prayer space. Everyone participating in the conference in any way are asked to sign up for 30 minutes to keep it going throughout the week.

The picture above shows one of the aforementioned Bishops’ bible studies taking place earlier today outside on the grass. The studies are a chance for the bishops (spouses also have a separate bible study), to come together bringing and sharing their own experiences and interpretations of scripture. Throughout the conference, the biblical reflections are based on the ‘I am’ sayings of Jesus, ’I am the Bread of Life’ etc. These themes are also reflected in the worship sessions daily.      

The Chaplaincy Team

Earlier on today there was organised chaos as the conference pictures were taken, one of staff, one of bishops and one of spouses, with groups singing ‘O come all ye faithful’… very bizarre on a scorching summer’s day, but I still appropriate! The picture above is of the chaplaincy team who I have mentioned before. They lead plan much of the worship and are upholding the conference through their prayers. Yesterday they joined us for a service in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral, especially for the stewards. Bishop Ralph from Canada who is our steward’s chaplain preached about seeing Christ’s face in each other and in our celebrations and disappointmenst as we gather from unfamiliar places, languages and backgrounds and form relationships with one another.

'F Troupe' - the group of stewards I work with

Tomorrow, its buses to the Cathedral again for morning worship then a Civic Reception for the Bishops and spouses at St Augustine’s Abbey. St Augustine’s is a beautiful place and was one of my favourites when I was at uni here so look forward to some good pictures   

"What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God..." (Micah 6:8)

Poverty may seem an odd word to insert between parades and palaces but raising awareness, renewing the pledge and celebrating the work that has already been done with the Millenium Development Goal to half poverty by 2015 was the theme of the day yesterday. And it was quite a day!

We began by loading Bishops, spouses and staff onto a fleet of 34 coaches to travel to London. That was the easy bit… By now all are very well trained in lining up nicely and waiting patiently.

Bishops at the bus stop

The well behaved line of Bishops

We arrived in London on the Embankment and lined the street ready for the parade which took us along Parliament Street, past the Houses of Parliament, across Lambeth Bridge down to Lambeth Palace. Those marching carried signs saying ‘Keep the Promise’, ‘Halve poverty by 2015′, ‘Do justice, love mercy’ (based on Micah 6:8 ) and from time to time sang ‘We are marching in the light of God’ (appropriate if not original!)

Doing the Lambeth Walk.. Oi!

Marching in the light of God

As stewards we walked alongside the march, making sure everyone was ok as it was such a hot day. Behind the march were rickshaws carrying those who couldn’t walk. When we reached Lambeth Palace however, we too were guests of the Archbishop and his wife and so we could (finally!) take off the orange jackets and join the other guests.

Pre orange vest disposal at Lambeth Palace

At the cloakroom: whilst everyone else handed in fine jackets, we handed in our high visibility vests... classy!

In the courtyard of Lambeth Palace we had Fairtrade drinks and snacks and the Archbishop welcomed us to his “humble home”, gave a short address and introduced the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, who spoke on the target of halving poverty and how it can only be possible if we make more effort and encourage our governments to do so. I think his main was something like, ‘poverty can be erradicated, poverty must be erradicated and if we all work together, poverty will be eradicated.’ It was a great witness to the church standing united on the important issues that it is tackling rather than the division over the less important – illustrating again the nature of the 2008 Lambeth Conference encouraging unity regardless of difference and recognising that difference does not need to equate with division.

We then went through to the garden where a sit down lunch was served in a big marquee (after all the talk on world poverty). I sat next to Bishop Bernard from Sudan and his wife.

Yours truly at Lambeth Palace

After lunch we put our orange vests back on, boarded the buses in the sweltering heat, wrestled the bishops’ cameras from them as we couldn’t take them into the palace (again calling for assertiveness which I’ve been pratising – one Bishop commented on my ’feistiness’, success!) and drove to Buckingham Palace, arriving slightly flustered  but very excited. We queued outside to show our tickets and passports to the police at the door. Then entered into the courtyard, past the guards who changed just as we walked past so we saw it closer than usual.

(There are sadly no photos of this as cameras are not allowed in Buckingham Palace)

Walking through the hallway being greeted by a very British sounding “Good afternoon” from the doorman was great, everyone walked very slowly to take it all in. A lady then came and offered to put our orange jackets into the cloakroom, thank goodness! We were led into another room that led into the garden and was quite stunning – a lot bigger than it looks on the television. We walked around the lakes and gardens and then at 4pm, the Queen’s personal guard (whose ceremonial wear looks like a beefeater but I’ve now been told they are not!) lined the garden and Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip joined the group to be introduced to guests (sadly, not me!) However, I did manage to get a very good view as the bishops I was standing amongst took pity on me because of my (lack of) height, pushed me to the front and let me stand in front of them  

There was a big tent of refreshments including iced coffee and freshly pressed apple juice, ice cream, canapes and yes, there were actually cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off! Its not just a fairytale after all! And they were very nice too!

At around 5pm, the Queen’s personal guard lined a path again which all joined. I stood opposite our Bishop and next to one of the guards – we had a nice talk! I asked if women could be beefeaters, and he said yes, one applies as one would for a ‘normal’ job (I’m considering it!) and he said he didn’t think there was a height restriction as he bent down to my height much to the amusement of everyone around us! He explained too that the uniform he wears is a replica of the Tudor uniform and that the spearhead of the spears they carry is chosen by each monarch. 

It was a brilliant day, even though we had to work on and off we were very privilaged to be able to attend, especially without the jackets! There were so many highlights all day but the highest was of the day for me was when I was sent to keep the press from the front of the parade where the Archbishops of Canterbury and York were and the Chief Rabbai were (I wasn’t particuarly successful at this as those of you who know me might have guessed… they didn’t realise that my bite is worse than my bark! ) As I was standing there, Rowan Williams walked past and said that he liked the feathers that I was wearing in my hair and that I looked very pretty…

Today’s going to be pretty dull in comparison…

Today is the third “ordinary” day of the conference (remember that the first fews days were a retreat). An ordinary day consists of bible studies, ‘self select’ sessions, where one can choose from a variety of events, ‘indaba’ groups, to share thoughts and ideas and worship throughout the day, planned in turn by different provinces or with a different theme. Yesterday evening worship was led by the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil and tonight, ’Jerusalem and the Middle East’.  

There is still a great atmosphere here – the sun is shining and although people are getting hot and tired, the conference is going really well. The Bible studies are enthusiastic and the self select sessions are all (well, mostly, not identifying any in particular!) fascinating. Tonight I hope to go to one on ‘The Quiet Garden Movement’, about the place of a contemplative approach to the ministry of hospitality and prayer and what place it has.

I’ve met lots more with Manchester links too over the last few days – beginning with Stefani and Joe from the US who have been working in Manchester Diocese. They were leading a ‘Fringe event’ on Anglican Identities and the postcolonial with the Lincoln Institute so I popped in to say hello – it was great to see them and meet another fan of my blog from the US  (Please send me the photo when you get a chance Stefani!) Yesterday I met a priest from Manchester called Marcia who I recognise from events that I’ve been to and today I met a man who knew Father Ian at college… I asked for a few stories… if you’re interested, be in touch!

Tomorrow is a far from ordinary day! We leave early for London for the day. We will walk from Whitehall for about half a mile as a “Walk of Witness” to celebrate the work that the church has been doing with Millenium Development Goals, then visit Lambeth Palace for lunch and Buckingham Palace for a Garden Party – very exciting. It will also be interesting to see how well our fluorescent orange jackets match out “day dress” for the palace!

Will try to write again tomorrow evening to tell you of the days excitements…