Bishop Howe Writes His Clergy about July 23 at Lambeth 2008

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The Indaba groups focused today on “The Bishop and Social Justice” – which really meant “The Bishop and the Millennium Development Goals,” in preparation for tomorrow’s London day. The day will begin early, with buses leaving campus at 7 AM to travel about three hours to Whitehall Place, where a “Walk of Witness” through the streets of London will be led by Archbishop Rowan and Lady Jane Williams, on behalf of the MDGs.

The Archbishop said in May, “This walk will be a poignant public act of commitment by the Anglican Communion and other faith groups to continue to put pressure on those who have the power and resources to help end extreme poverty across the globe. It will be about pledging, as a Church, to play our part in continuing to develop lasting solutions. It will also be a walk where we will be in step with those who know at first hand the impact that the unfair distribution of the world’s resources can have on daily living and life opportunities.”

The walk will pass a number of London landmarks, including the gates of Downing Street, the Houses of Parliament and “Big Ben,” and Westminster Abbey, ending at Lambeth Palace, the London home of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Upon arrival there will be a “rally,” expected to draw in the neighborhood of 1,600 persons, including members of Her Majesty’s Government, an address by the Archbishop (whom we are coming to affectionately call “the Energizer Bunny”) and Hellen Wangusa, the Anglican Communion’s Observer to the United Nations.
In our Indaba groups today we focused on the twin questions: “What can I, as a Bishop, do…” and “What can we, as Bishops, do to further the MDGs”? In our group it became evident that most of our Dioceses are already fairly deeply involved in implementing at least some of the MDGs (think: houses in Honduras, relief efforts in New Orleans, Mustard Seed outreach in Ft. Pierce, etc., and our plans for a major effort to combat malaria this fall).

(Of course, the point of the effort is not so much that churches and Dioceses will implement the MDGs as it is to induce governments to do so, and there is a small irony here in that the present Prime Minister of Great Britain, Gordon Brown, is already under a fair amount of criticism for his very overt commitment to the MDGs! But perhaps the effort will encourage him, and others, to “keep on keeping on.”)

Tomorrow afternoon, we then go on to lunch at Lambeth Palace (where the PM will address us), and then to Buckingham Palace for the Queen’s Garden Party.

Anecdote: ten years ago Warren Richardson told me it was a “lifelong dream” of his to attend the Opening Eucharist of a Lambeth Conference. I said I would see what I could do. I contacted the then ABC, George Carey, who said, “No, every seat in the Cathedral will be assigned, but if he would like, I can get him an invitation to the Queen’s Garden Party.”

So, Warren and Pam took their vacation that year by coming to England for the Party. Warren told me he had a little speech prepared, should he happen to be introduced to Prince Philip. He and the Prince had been at the same place in Georgia some time earlier, and Warren wanted to relate that point of contact to him.

Well, about half an hour after we all arrived, the Queen’s ushers, in their bowler hats, came out to create a large open rectangle among the guests, and shortly thereafter the Queen and the Prince came down the stairs, and headed into the midst of it. At that point one of the ushers came directly to Warren and asked, “Would you care to meet Prince Philip?” “I WOULD; and my Bishop would, too!” exclaimed Warren; “He’s right over there.” (The Prince was very gracious to both of us.)

This afternoon we had our first “Hearing” regarding the “Windsor Continuation Group” and the effort to produce an “Anglican Covenant.” If anyone thought we might be close to completing that task at this Lambeth Conference, I think s/he was quickly disabused of the notion. I would guess there were 300 present, and following an opening update of where we are in the process we had about an hour for comments. 21 people each spoke for approximately three minutes apiece, eight of them Americans. (We haven’t entirely given up trying to dominate the proceedings!)

The tone was set by the first speaker, a Bishop from TEC, who used his time to assert the need for the FULL acceptance of LGBTs by the Church; he was really quite animated about it, and then he ended by declaring, “And I believe in the Virgin Birth, the bodily resurrection of our Lord, the necessity of his death upon the cross for our salvation; I believe him to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and I believe the Bible contains all things necessary for our salvation!”

Almost all of those who spoke were fairly to deeply critical of the efforts to date, albeit for all different kinds of reasons. There was great anger expressed by a number of our Bishops over the incursions into their Dioceses by international jurisdictions. And there was a claim by one of them that, “Less than 7/10 of one percent of The Episcopal Church has defected” over “the issues,” so “Please, let’s stop repeating the ‘myths’ about how deep this ‘crisis’ is.”

One of our Bishops apologized on behalf of TEC for our “tearing the fabric” of the Communion.

One of the predominant themes from many (both TEC and others) was that we do not want a Covenant that can be used “juridically” to expel, discipline, or exclude.

Apparently, a number of others wanted to speak, but we ran out of time. They were invited to write down their concerns, and to come to the other Hearings scheduled later during the Conference.

Tonight I have just come from a meeting of seven of the “Global South” Primates, several of the British Bishops, and 14 of our American Bishops, some involved in “Common Cause” and some in “Communion Partners.” The point was again made that CP is an “inside” strategy, and CC an “outside” one, but that both are needed; and we want to do the best we can to support each other. The Primates were very clear in repeating several times their promise of solidarity with both efforts.

It is nearly midnight, and tomorrow is going to be a long day. Thanks for your prayers.

Warmest regards in our Lord,

–(The Right Rev.) John W. Howe is Bishop of Central Florida