At the heart of this will be the indaba groups. Indaba is a Zulu word describing a meeting for purposeful discussion among equals. Its aim is not to negotiate a formula that will keep everyone happy but to go to the heart of an issue and find what the true challenges are before seeking God’s way forward. It is a method with parallels in many cultures, and it is close to what Benedictine monks and Quaker Meetings seek to achieve as they listen quietly together to God, in a community where all are committed to a fellowship of love and attention to each other and to the word of God.
Each day’s work in this context will go forward with careful facilitation and preparation, to ensure that all voices are heard (and many languages also!). The hope is that over the two weeks we spend together, these groups will build a level of trust that will help us break down the walls we have so often built against each other in the Communion. And in combination with the intensive prayer and fellowship of the smaller Bible study groups, all this will result, by God’s grace, in clearer vision and discernment of what needs to be done.
As I noted when I wrote to you in Advent, this makes it all the more essential that those who come to Lambeth will arrive genuinely willing to engage fully in that growth towards closer unity that the Windsor Report and the Covenant Process envisage. We hope that people will not come so wedded to their own agenda and their local priorities that they cannot listen to those from other cultural backgrounds. As you may have gathered, in circumstances where there has been divisive or controversial action, I have been discussing privately with some bishops the need to be wholeheartedly part of a shared vision and process in our time together.
Good Lord. Does the man realize what a pathetic joke he has become?
Indaba? Indaba? What IS he thinking of? He has gone to a Zulu word for no better reason that it is a black language, and a African language.
This is childish. He is posturing, the word is pretentious, and his essential liberalism is thrown in a harsh and unforgiving light. To use trendiness and a elitist theatricality marks this man as an impostor in the church close. Larry
What makes you think that he chose the word at all?
Cause ubuntu (or something) was already taken by TEC
Gloria in SC
Bad call on the negative comments. He’s clearly serious about the Covenant here. This needs to be read in light of the Advent letter. It is a good letter. It is what needs to be said in terms of tone and possibility. It’s theology is flawless.
Hey guys, “Kumbayah” used to cut alot of ice; a new African word for the 21st Century. Ohhhhh Lord, Indaba…. Campfire stuff.
Indaba – where you find bishops.
[blockquote] “genuinely willing to engage fully in that growth towards closer unity that the Windsor Report and the Covenant Process envisage” [/blockquote] So now we have the mystery letter that was supposed to be forthcoming, ‘warning’ the bishops not to come if they weren’t serious about Windsor. Believe me, folks, this is as close to ‘serious’ as the ABC is capable of expressing himself. Pathethic.
[size=1][color=red][url=http://resurrectioncommunitypersonal.blogspot.com/]The Rabbit[/url][/color][color=gray].[/color][/size]
It’s theology is FLAWLESS? What theology? I really missed the part in the letter where there was any concrete statement of anything regarding God. This is mush, fudge, and totally FUBAR. We don’t need any stinking covenant theology. We already have a covenant in our baptismal vows and in the ordination vows. If we aren’t going to take those seriously, or expect others to do so, what good would another covenant do?
And Chris, No, he has no idea what a pathetic joke he is.
Indaba,daba, do.
“clearer vision and discernment of what needs to be done”
Does anyone think the apostles needed an indaba group to get it going on Pentecost?
And what about the Great Commission in the Trinity Sunday Gospel next week? Did they indaba before they went?
Are Zulu words becoming the “new” in thing for TEC and liberalism? If so i better go get my Zulu to English dictionary…
The Lambeth Conference Design Group, responsible for the planning of the Conference, consists in:
[i]It’s theology is FLAWLESS? What theology? I really missed the part in the letter where there was any concrete statement of anything regarding God.[/i]
Last time I checked, the Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity. It seems to me the letter had a lot to say about the Holy Spirit and, further, the way of the cross.
Too many of us want the Archbishop to be a schoolmarm with the ruler in hand whacking away.
Will there be Indaba weekend events? You know, where they take your watch away, and people write nice letters to you? Maybe a symbol of the thing could be a colorful African bird of some kind. “Have you *made* your Indaba?”
A feckless letter. Will this give Michael Ingham pause? Nope. How about the consecrators of VGR? Nope. Carol Tanner Irish? Nope. Jon “Not in my diocese” Bruno? Nope. The presiding litigator? Nope.
[i]We have listened carefully to those who have expressed their difficulties with Western and parliamentary styles of meeting, and the Design Group has tried to find a new style – a style more reflective of that Pentecost moment when all received the gift of speaking freely about Christ.[/i]
I find myself wondering about this. Is the implication that this is the result of requests from the Global South? If Lambeth 1998 is any guide, the Third World bishops quickly learned to operate in a parliamentary environment (aided, of course, by briefings from their Global North allies) and got the results they wanted both on 1:10 AND the debt relief resolutions (about which some Global North conservatives were more skeptical). So it’s surely not that they don’t get the process; more likely it’s that they now understand the process all too well!
The words which jump out at me are “carefully facilitated.” This means manipulated towards the desired result.
I might have misunderstood the Rt Rev prelate’s words, but I think Gregory Venables’ comments on Standfirm on the first of January might shed some light on the question of why “Western and parliamentary styles of meeting” have been abandoned.
[blockquote]It’s not just about figures, it’s about who is prepared to speak up and who knows how to in that kind of meeting.[/blockquote]
or
[blockquote]Jackie – Sadly, for a significant number the decision has already been made for the reasons I have sought to share and which is why I asked for prayer because I believe it is still worth asking what you said. But the absence of trust in the Communion is the fruit of our experience. Also, the consciousness that this is a western driven agenda which is paternalistic and has little if any understanding of other cultural styles. [/blockquote]
Last time I checked, the Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity. It seems to me the letter had a lot to say about the Holy Spirit and, further, the way of the cross.
Could you summarize where and what those statements were? Merely mentioning the Holy Spirit or saying that you trust him to be leading and illuminating us in our stupid plans does not amount much to theology. Heretics can and do say the same.
Baby Blue has found something positive, to hope and pray for in this letter.
#8, This does not sound like the letter Bishop Tom Wright was alluding to a couple of weeks ago. Does anyone know if that alleged letter was sent? This sounds like an altogether different letter to me – with a different audience and purpose.
Tory, I’m afraid that letter has never and will never be sent. This one, sadly, will have to do in its place. Do you think any bishop will even entertain the thought of disinviting himself because of this letter? I think not. They will come with the express purpose of subverting all that Windsor proposes to accomplish, without a second thought. Shame on the ABC. He disgraces his office.
[size=1][color=red][url=http://resurrectioncommunitypersonal.blogspot.com/]The Rabbit[/url][/color][color=gray].[/color][/size]
Merely mentioning the Holy Spirit or saying that you trust him to be leading and illuminating us in our stupid plans does not amount much to theology.
It seems like you’ve already made up your mind. The ABC’s letter precisely calls out of order the view of the Holy Spirit’s work that you lament. You are addressing not him, but others you are rightly worried about. The letter insists that this process be about compliance. It refuses to allow the process to be dodged that will lead to Windsor and Covenant focus and result. And yes, it appeals to the Holy Spirit’s guidance within this framework. What else would you want?
In the meantime, this is much worth a listen. And I believe the Archbishop shares this view of things.
http://media.gts.edu/Leander_Harding.mp3
Br_er Rabbit – come on now. You start with a presumption you cannot, at this stage, stand up and then, based on that you turn it into “Shame on the ABC. He disgraces his office”. This is a letter based around Pentecost and the Holy Spirit – it is most likely not the letter Tom Wright was discussing. Judge according to what it is, not what you would like it to be.
Marcus:
It is true, my reaction may have been too extreme. My premise is still the same: Faced with having to follow through on his promise to write the bishops about not sabotaging Windsor, he chose to tone down his rhetoric, remove any threats of disinvitation, and slip in what little he did have the courage to say in an otherwise uplifting Pentecost letter.
[size=1][color=red][url=http://resurrectioncommunitypersonal.blogspot.com/]The Rabbit[/url][/color][color=gray].[/color][/size]
~An indaba is an important conference held by the izinDuna (principal men) of the Zulu and Xhosa peoples of South Africa. Such indabas may include only the izinDuna of a particular community or may be held with representatives of other communities.
The term comes from a Zulu language word, meaning “business” or “matter”. ~ This from Wikipedia. At any rate, perhaps it is perfectly appropriate to use such terms, considering that Caucasians are now the minority in the Anglican Communion … just a thought.
T
Don’t know what all the wailing was about because I thought the ABC was preachin’ it! Who’d a thunk he had it in him? Great letter. Slow build with a furious finish–“And our ambition is nothing less than renewal and revival for us all in the Name of Jesus and the power of his Spirit.” Amen.
A further thought to add to Tikvah (whose name, by the way, is the Hebrew word for hope). I have met any number of Native American words being used in the US: for example, the equivalent of an indaba could, dear friends, rightly be called a pow-wow. I hope that next time someone invites you to a cursillo you will not upbraid them for their use of a Spanish word.
The problem is not with the choice of the word Indaba, but with how it is perceived. This just sounds like so much double talk from a confessed and proven liberal who has proven himself not to be up to the task of being Archbishop of Fantasy Island, much less the Anglican Communion. These are real people out there fighting for what they believe is right. It is said not to discuss politics or religion unless you want a real argument. Well . . .the whole thing has gone beyond that realm. The revisionists have attacked everything that seemed good and decent throughout the modern history of humanity and expect it to be taken lightly. Won’t happen. As I have brought up before, show me a civilization that has survived what TEC and AC of C espouse and I will give up. It can not be done. No civilization throughtout human history has survived such an onslaught and they want us to take it nicely?
If we go back eighty years or so to when birth control first became a topic of interest and watch what has happened since, humanity has been on a self destruct path. Revisionist, who have to feel they are right, will accept nothing but total surrender to their theology. I can not surrender to them. God laid out his plans for us and as long as we worked with him, everything was OK. Since we have decided we are in charge everything has gone to hell in the perverbial handbasket. I guess I have to feel about my faith like some hard core NRA types do about their guns, you can have it when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.
Well Albany, since you see so much in the ABC’s theological points regarding the HS in his letter, let me ask you this: How has the Spirit spoken to the church primarily? Is it not in Scripture? Did you see a single mention of Scripture in this letter outside of a mention of Bible groups? I didn’t. But maybe I missed it in my haste to dismiss what he says as having no teeth. My sense is that he is laying no groundwork for building up the authority of Scripture in the Communion at Lambeth.