Frustration is rising among members of the media here who have been barred from attending a majority of events at the 2008 Lambeth Conference, including the daily eucharist, and who have not been furnished a list of bishops who are present or absent for unspecified “security reasons.”
“All I can say is that all provinces are represented except Uganda,” said Archdeacon Paul Feheley, principal secretary to Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, who is acting as a conference spokesperson. “There were nearly 750 bishops at the 1998 Lambeth. This year, 670 are registered at this point.”
In a press conference, Mr. Feheley said it was not possible to release the names of the bishops present for “security reasons.” He would not elaborate.
Read it all. There is a balance to be struck here but so far Lambeth 2008 has not found the right mix between openness and confidentiality and security–KSH.
In the US the media has been SO used to getting access to all but the MOST top secret of meetings, and even then they find a ‘leak’, that this must seem to be the gravest of insults!
I say, good for Lambeth! They are doing something right after all.
Peace
Jim Elliott <><
I agree with libraryjim. The media has no “right” to intrude upon the worship of Almighty God especially in the context of Holy Communion. I imagine this would not only be a great distraction but may imply pressure on communicants to go forward and receive the Prescious Body and Blood or not to based less on matters of conscience and more on what others in the Communion may think one way or another. Frankly, this part of Lambeth is none of our business. I think reporters should be barred from all Eucharists, Divine Offices, etc. that occur in a house of worship. All other events are fair game and should be transparent.
Is there nothing left in this world that is sacred and private before a man or woman and his or her God?
From observation:
According to the media, “Freedom of the Press” is the first great unviolatable Commandment, and all other concerns and considerations — including worship and personal grief– are considered a distant second if considered at all.
I have to agree. Think of that first Lambeth Conference: the US church was still licking its wounds from the Civil War, and then a crisis breaks out over Episcopacy on another continent. Now imagine the US papers from the day having the kind of instant communication we do today!
Sorry, but I think the relative isolation of the bishops is the best thing for them.
Randall
The source for this information about whose attending is suspect and smacks of propaganda. And it is just so that “Because we live in different cultural situations, not all biblical commandments or proscriptions apply simply or in the same way to any one person or situation,†one might have the inclination to make it appear that the opposition of any to the ACCanada and ECUSA gay agenda is absent.
So, where are the liberal complaints about not identifying? We’ve heard their blather on this about conservative meetings before.
I wish I could find the link, but I read somewhere the Lambeth bishops were pretty much told that Pravda, I mean, ENS and the Anglican Communion Office’s news service were the good media and that the bishops need not talk to anyone else. (If someone has this link, post it. It might have been from a bishop’s blog.)
So there’s a lot of news control (polite term) going on here.
Separately, here’s a gem from [url=http://timescolumns.typepad.com/gledhill/2008/07/lambeth-diary.html]Ruth Gledhill[/url]. 🙂
[i]As for me, I was told yesterday that it was worth applying to attend the afternoon indaba groups. Today there is one called ‘Never say No to Media’, led by Rev Dr Joshva Raha, tutor at the Centre for Mission Studies at Queen’s, Birmingham. I applied and they said no. [/i]
Newbie Anglican – it’s actually only the Anglican Communion Office that’s considered “good” – there was some initial confusion that ENS was on par with the ACO, but according to Cherie Wetzel, that is not the case. (The red lanyards apparently mean “safe to talk to.”)
“The big blue top where the bishops have their plenaries is, literally, hotter than hell itself.” A very fitting environment for this “conference.” The good Lord really does have a sense of humor! GAFCON is looking better and better each day of this fiasco!