Lambeth Is Almost Over

This is the time that Lambeth Conference is winding down and the packing and the Goodbyes are being said. This evening the pubs on campus will be full with many of us gathering to wish each other well. Above photo: Final plenary session
The conversation however will have a tinge of the last minute points being made and in truth work will be done in a quiet way about the tables. It may look like it is over, but that is not the way it feels or appears to those on the ground.

Tomorrow my Bible Study group will meet for the last time and we will complete our study of the Gospel of St. John. We will pray together, share our thoughts on the Holy Scriptures and share our hopes and dreams for the work of the Anglican Communion. We will regret not being with each other to continue our work and ministry and we will all know that our work and ministry is back in our diocese "back home." Lambeth is almost over, but not just yet.

Tomorrow following the Bible Study our Indaba Group (the joining together of five Bible Study Groups) will meet for another two hours. This will be the last time for this group and we will continue our work and conversation on who we are as bishops of the Anglican Communion and bishops in our Provinces (for me that is The Episcopal Church) throughout the world. We will speak from the heart and listen with our inner ears to those we have come to love and respect. We will value each other and hold one another in our prayers knowing that we are not all of one mind and in agreement on many issues that could divide us. We know that context is important and non of us can fully appreciate the other's position for we each live only in our own place.

Tomorrow we will take group photos and give simple gifts (I am giving bookmarks and lapel pins from our diocese) as a token of our affection and respect for one another. We will pledge to each other that we will pray for each other weekly and stay in touch monthly via the internet. Perhaps, even use Skype once and a while to gather across the miles to share our stories, study and faith. Tomorrow there will be a time to gathering the entire Lambeth Conference to worship and pray and sing and listen and share the Peace of Christ. We will be dismissed - sent forth - from this place to bring the Gospel to the places in which God has called us to serve. That is the joy of leaving and the wonder of going home to be in the places which differ and yet which are ours to serve. Photo above right: Doddington Gardens


Tomorrow I will return to London and then go on the Ireland to both vacation and to work in a local parish in Tralee, Ireland. At the end of the month Kathy and I will come home and rejoice in being among family and friends. For others they go back to dangers I cannot even imagine or contemplate. They go in the name of Christ to share the Gospel and they carry our love and the hope and grace of Jesus with them. May God bless us all in the ministries we share in Christ.