But the organisation hasn’t been too terrible. There has been an enormous amount of good will, and I’ve really enjoyed working with such a wide range of people. I’ve travelled round the world talking to bishops and some spouses, and encountered a lot of good will there, too; so there’s that side of things, as well as delivering the Conference.
The sheer volume of minutiae has been overwhelming in recent weeks: tying up people’s travel arrangements and enquiries. Three-quarters of the people coming will never have been to a Lambeth Conference before. Still, we’ve had a great deal of fun along the way.
We didn’t know from the start what was happening about numbers and politics, but once Archbishop Rowan’s invitations had been sent out, and the replies started to come in, and we saw we had enough beds filled to make the Conference viable, we just tried to make the best Conference we could for the Archbishop. We could see from early on there was a huge take-up.
There is an irony, because I’m actually from the diocese of Sydney. The fact that my own bishops aren’t coming is a disappointment.