What’s actually going to happen at the Lambeth Conference? Well, I have no crystal ball to tell me exactly what the outcomes will be. But what I most hope and pray is that we emerge from the quite intensive programme with the two main goals taken forward ”“ having gained more confidence about our Communion and having helped to give bishops more resources for their primary work of serving the Church in mission.
But what we can say a bit about is the way in which the business is going to be done. The programme, devised by a very gifted and dedicated international team, responds to the widely felt concerns that we ought to get away from too ‘parliamentary’ and formal a style. It’s going to be important that no-one goes home feeling they haven’t ever been listened to. So it’s important to devise structures that guarantee everyone has a chance to be heard. It’s also crucial to build the sort of trust that allows deep and passionate differences to be stated and explored together, with time allowed for getting past the slogans and the surface emotions.
So the new thing about Lambeth this time is that the whole body of the bishops will be divided into middle-sized groups, called ‘indaba’ groups, from a Zulu word describing community discussion and decision-making. In these groups of forty or so, expert facilitators will be enabling the kind of discussion in which everyone has a chance to speak; and people will be given the responsibility of reporting on behalf of each group, so that over the two weeks of work there will be a lot of attention given to how what comes out of the groups can be woven together in a final statement. This work by the ‘reporters’ will be offered for public discussion at a number of points in the Conference so that anyone who wishes can give some feedback as the Conference works towards its final reflections.
Without doubt it’s more yadda, yadda, yadda.
Pardon me? I can’t here you over that infernal fiddling.
It is excruciating to read this after reading ++Akinola’s opening speech.
I am embarrassed for the man, for he has said as clearly as it can be said, that Lambeth has been emasculated from the very outset. As I said before, this is a meeting of eunuchs discussing sex.
We must separate ourselves from this world of vacillation and dimunition or we too will shrink and fall into “the slow smokeless burning of decay.” WE have a choice to make; any failure therein and we will have no one to blame but ourselves. Larry
A program for deciding nothing, by design, and issuing what has become the zenith of Anglican expression: a really groovy report.
“Jamboree” is a compliment for this pointless gabfest.
Ever since I heard that Lambeth would be an indaba, I have been waiting to see someone call the organizers on the use of this word. In Zulu, indaba is not at all any thing of a jamboree!! Check out these websites: http://www.indaba.com; http://www.indaba-southafrica.co.za; http://www.goindaba.com; and http://www.designindabamag.com. An indaba is a gathering for the purpose of getting something done; it can serve as a communal court as well as a ‘marketplace’. These websites use indaba to mean a gathering which gets something (big) done. They use the word indaba as a positive marketing concept–not as some cliche for shooting the breeze.
I see two very distinct possibilities–a) the leadership is truly unaware of the definition; or b) the leadership is truly aware and not saying so.
In case a)–the leadership will be surprised when the Africans expect a productive outcome and will push for such. The indaba anticipates a corporate or community-wide decision upheld by the whole community. If the West is intending to avoid decisions, they will be caught off-guard, and then be shocked that they are to comply with the agreements.
In case b)–those who think that the leadership is looking for no decisions, will be surprised as the organizers and leadership press hard for a communal decision. At the moment, the general conversation has suggested that the leadership leans in favor of the progressive commitments–and thus, it would appear in scenario b that the progressives might be working real hard to force decisions in the name of “building trust”.
Which leaves me wondering what really is being planned? And further more, it leaves me thinking that God may just have a surprise or two up his sleave!! “In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.” Proverbs 16:9
Intensive programme of avoidance. Seems like there’s a psychological term for that: denial. If the Freudians and their evolving descendants are correct in their one point of agreement, avoidance takes more energy than dealing with the problem that initiates the avoidance behaviours. Oh well, couldn’t expect the modernists or postmodernists to be truly modern, could we?
Nice denial-avoidance-regression you have planned there, Rowan. Hope it works out for your rather than returning as a life-destroying delaying tactic that is maladaptive and destructive as usual. If it does, please inform you local Freudian or evolved descendant or the breakthrough you have achieved so the benefits can be distributed world-wide in the political as well as the religious arena. Inadaba, brother. Ubuntu, too.