(ACNS) The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams opened the Lambeth Conference to the sounds of South African Alleluias and prayers for the guidance of the Holy Spirit. He spoke to the gathering of Anglican Bishops from around the world addressing the first plenary session of the Lambeth Conference yesterday (July 16) He stressed that the Conference had a very strong emphasis on drawing together round the Bible and had been designed as a place “in which every voice can be heard and in which we build Christian relationship”.
He said that his own prayer and hope for the Conference “is not that after two weeks we will find a solution to all our problems but we shall as I have written more than once in some sense find the trust in God and one another that will give us the energy to change in the way God wants us to change. That is the most important thing we can pray for, the energy to change as God wants us to change individually and as a Communion.”
Some Bishops have chosen to stay away although only one Province (Uganda) has no Bishops present. Dr Williams acknowledged this fact, “I think it’s important I should say that it’s a great grief that many of our brothers and sisters in the Communion have not felt able to be with us for these weeks, a grief because we need their voice and they need ours in learning Christ together.”
Dr Williams said that ”“ as he had written to many people in recent months ”“ “I respect and accept the decisions that have been made but together we need in prayer to acknowledge the wound that that makes in our fellowship and to acknowledge also as I must do myself that we still have to do to mend relations that have been hurt. I hope that in these weeks we shall daily be remembering those who are not with us upholding them in our prayers, in our respect and love.
He continued: “I don’t imagine that simply building relationships solves our problems but the nature of our calling as Christians is such that we dare not and I say very strongly dare not pretend that we can meet and discuss without attention to this quality of relation with each other even if we disagree or find our selves going in different directions. The Lord of the Church commands that we must love one another in the process and there is no alternative to that. I trust that you are here in that confidence in that willingness to love one another.”
The Archbishop added that this sounded “so simple” but it had to be said “because we know as we meet that we are also a wounded body.” He added there were no magic words to heal those wounds “but as we seek to meet Jesus Christ in each other we hope that the wounds that are still open will in some sense also be open to receive the work of God the Holy Spirit in our work.”
Dr Williams concluded his address by encouraging the bishops who are now in retreat until Sunday morning “to be there and let God come to you”.
Re: “….the most important thing we can pray for, the energy to change as God wants us to change individually and as a Communion.â€
I have no reason to believe the ABC really wants (or believes in) the change that the Lord DEMANDS of us. From all indications, the ABC is not interested in affirming the Truth of the Word of God, and calling transgressors to repentance.
Empty Words. Colorful Words.
I pray God is not mocked by the words and actions of this Lambeth Conference.
Fr. Kingsley Jon-Ubabuco
Well Hello! The Peoples’ Daily has woken up.
But fascinating as it is to read about progress on the latest 5-year plan and production figures for tractors I would much rather read what Dr Williams had to say in full. Or are we going to have to rely on Bishop O’Neill for our news?
Lambeth was “designed as a place ‘in which every voice can be heard…'”
But by no more than a relative few other attendees, and most certainly not in any plenary or deliberative venue.
w.w.
Lambeth was “designed as a place ‘in which every voice can be heard…’â€
The braying of asses must be deafening.
#1 Spot on. I am reminded of the wise words of the Preacher: “It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay.
Do not let your speech cause you to sin and do not say in the presence of the messenger of God that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry on account of your voice and destroy the work of your hands?” (Eccl. 5:5-6)
#4 LOL!!!! Makes me want to burro my head under the covers until it all goes away.
Hear t hese words! What do they really mean? Do they mean anything at all, or do they mean that a dry wind is blowing over bare field decorated with artificial flowers? There is an emptiness in this speech that is hard to characterize correctly because he does not MEAN to say anything. This is form without substance. Why do we wait? Why do we go on listening? I almost think now that it would have been better if GAFCON were all there, and they had come to break the flow of empty rhetoric with hard words, angry words, real feeling and belief, accusations that are now so well deserved and so just. Let the world see the difference between the ersarz and the genuine; i t is time to play for keeps. Larry
Thirty years ago when I was in college, I helped organize several “retreats†sponsored by our Campus Christian Community. They were great times and we had some life-changing decisions made by fellow students after 2 or 3 days of prayer, worship and fellowship.
But it always bothered me a little, because I was aware (even at the time) of how cults would use retreats like that for their own programming purposes. They’d get the recruit alone, deprive them of sleep, and subject them to constant indoctrination in the sect’s dogma. Those who watch the Simpsons will remember the different pressures put on the family to join the “Movementarians.â€
After weeks away from home, in different time zones and away from familiar routines… After weeks of separation from their faithful brothers… After weeks of constant preaching that unity is the greatest of the Christian attributes… After weeks of talking incessantly in the indaba groups about the fact that we’ll always disagree on doctrine, so collegiality is our highest goal… How can we expect anyone to come home from that conference without a nagging doubt in their mind saying “Maybe they’re right. Maybe I need to listen more.â€
A lot of us have been thinking (and saying on the blogs) that Lambeth is doomed to be a failure. But as I reflect on my own experience, I begin to see how it could work. Their listening groups may not produce a resolution saying that the AC supports same-sex blessings. But they very well could produce a resolution, to general if not universal acclaim from the participants, saying that unity and collegiality are more important than the small doctrines that might otherwise separate us.
That is kind of scary. 🙁