by The Rt. Rev. Edward Lee
Diocese of Western Michigan
The daily eucharistic celebration around the communion Table had a familiar shape and form; but the languages, music, prayers and homilies were as diverse as the 37 provinces of the Anglican Communion. Even the daily meals in cafeterias reflected the regions of the world from which the bishops, many spouses, and the Conference support staff (a total of nearly 2,000 people) had come for this 13th Lambeth Conference. The chefs made every dietary attempt to recognize and provide for this diverse group of people. In our Bible study groups, the daily nurture of mind and spirit was rich, often profound and much more than just food for thought. It was my favorite course. So Lambeth was a banquet of delight, solemnity and soul food which will take time to digest in order to appreciate its ultimate nourishment.
Lambeth was also kaleidoscopic in the dictionary meaning of that word. There were new configurations, conversations, forms, patterns, colors and sounds on a daily basis as we moved around the large campus of the University of Kent at Canterbury. Personal relationships would shift and change on a daily basis. The agenda compelled us to meet, talk, eat, listen to, argue with, and get to know a variety of people from around the world, so that every day found the participants moving from one grouping of relations to another. There was no escaping the Lambeth kaleidoscope. Lambeth was its own kind of global village which, in the end, meant that it was an extremely complex and varied conference that was both exciting and frustrating to experience. If nothing else, the Lambeth Conference was the Anglican Cycle of Prayer come alive in very personal ways. I have used that book of intercessions in my own prayers ever since it was published. American and some Mexican, English, Canadian and African dioceses are very real to me, because I know their bishops, their geography and something of their history. I usually prayed for the other provinces and dioceses from elsewhere in the Communion by title. No longer. Africa, Asia, Australia, Latin America and elsewhere are now far more real and personal to me as a result of Lambeth. That is why I concluded my two post cards to the Diocese via special Lambeth issues of ConnectionS with that traditional vacation phrase, "Wish you were here!"
For a well-educated American bishop like me, it was very good to be in a multicultural and multilingual setting like this. Even the dress code, purple cassocks, could not disguise our remarkable diversity. This setting required that I listen carefully to my episcopal colleagues from around the world as they described their local situations. There were times when so-called "first world" bishops had to be still and hear and feel the pain and anger coming from bishops of the so-called "third world" or developing countries. Friendship and rapport was good on a personal basis. But when national perspectives and realities came into play, strong undercurrents of frustration and anger with western nations, and the United States, in particular, were very real and strong. This was especially true in the discussions pertaining to international debt and human sexuality.
As I try to grasp what will be enduring about Lambeth for me and for the Anglican Communion, I realize that there were defining moments that revealed the Communion at its best, and there were decisive moments when the Conference attempted to put forth a common mind about specific issues--which in the short run some provinces will find helpful, but in the long run will not be definitive for the Communion as a whole.
It was in the context of daily worship that I experienced two important defining moments. That is always quintessentially Anglican. The first were the daily liturgies themselves. It is clear that extensive liturgical revision, renewal and reform have occurred in almost every province of the Anglican Communion during the past 25 years. There is no longer a monolingual, neo-English shape to the eucharistic liturgies. The Book of Common Prayer as inherited from our Church of England ancestors is no longer the linchpin of Anglican identity throughout the Communion. There is a common eucharistic structure to the liturgies, but the ordering, languages, intercessions, music and even body postures and gestures are now so varied and localized that one can only imagine that Thomas Cramner himself would be amazed--and yet I believe pleased. Anglicanism is defined by its worship, and it is still as definitive as it ever was. But, it is no longer defined by historical English texts and practices. The era of liturgical uniformity is over, and we are all the better for it.
The second defining moment for me came on August 6, which in the Prayer Book calendar is the Feast of the Transfiguration. It is also the anniversary of the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima in Japan in 1945. The Eucharist that day was led by the bishops of the Holy Catholic Church in Japan, the Nippon Sei Ko Kai. We began with a statement issued by the bishops a year ago, acknowledging and confessing their church's complicity during World War II and before that with the imperial and military actions and atrocities of Japan. An English priest, the Rev. Canon Susan Cole-King, who was accompanied by her brothers, was invited to preach the homily. Their father was Leonard Wilson, the Anglican bishop of Singapore during World War II. As she told the story, in 1943, he became a prisoner of war and was brutally tortured by the Japanese who accused him of being a spy:
"After eight months he was released, one of the few who survived. For the rest of his life he emphasized in his speaking and preaching the importance of forgiveness. How he would have rejoiced to be here today, as I am sure he is. This year he would have been 100, and it is fitting to remember him now as this month is the anniversary of his death." After the war, Bishop Wilson returned to Singapore, and, as his daughter told it, "...had the great joy of confirming one of his torturers."
This was truly a defining Gospel moment for the Anglican Communion and the rest of the world: former enemies repenting and reconciling, the Gospel cutting through hatred and animosity and changing hearts and minds. On the Feast of the Transfiguration, the people at Lambeth remembered past disfigurations: the torturing of people by one nation and the cataclysmic bombing of that same nation by another. The painful questions are the same in any age: What sense do Christians make of all of this for others? How does God's grace console and clarify? And in the words of Susan Cole-King's homily, "It is through Christ's disfiguration on the cross that God's glory is revealed." This profoundly defining Lambeth moment was the Church at its most faithful where, in the conciliar context of the conference, it could dare to be the Gospel as well as to do the Gospel.
Parallel with these defining moments there were for me two decisive, but, in the end, not definitive actions by the Lambeth Conference. They are important to acknowledge and record for they are immediate and are deeply felt throughout the Communion. The first action was the time and attention given the matter of international debt as that economic burden is experienced by developing nations in the "third world." The final report and resolution on this matter is long, detailed, technical and complicated. Simplistic solutions are not offered cavalierly, but the urgency of this global economic problem can no longer be ignored. As a bishop from a lender nation, I was compelled to listen somberly to the descriptions of poverty, disease and starvation that plague nations which must expend the bulk of their national resources and currency paying off debts and debt interest--when their resources ought to be spent alleviating chronic human suffering. I return from Lambeth persuaded that we in the Episcopal Church and elsewhere in the "first world" must discuss this matter carefully and caringly. In our popular press, it may not be a "hot button" issue. But if Christians do not heed to the voice of other Christians about economic justice, then by our inattention and indifference we will have failed to live out the baptismal promise contained in the question: "Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?"
The second decisive but not definitive matter discussed at Lambeth was human sexuality. As a "hot button" issue, it got the attention of the media around the world. That seems inevitable these days. There is no doubt that the final resolution approved by the Conference received a decisive endorsement by 526 bishops, with 70 against it, and 45 abstaining. I was one of those who voted against it; because in its final amended form, there were aspects to which I cannot conscientiously subscribe. I was prepared to vote for the original resolution as it came to the Conference from the group that discussed it for over two weeks. Their final report and resolution acknowledged forthrightly that there is no consensus throughout the Anglican Communion at this time on the matter of homosexuality. But when their resolution was being discussed and eventually amended by a well-organized contingent of bishops, the tone of the debate became raw and ugly. Speakers were jeered and ridiculed when they spoke against some of the proposed amendments. Fortunately, some of them did not pass. However, the charity and concern which characterized the discussion on the resolution on international debt was not characteristic of this debate. Diatribe replaced discussion, and the legislative mode of determining winners and losers superceded the listening mode which was so characteristic of most of the Conference. This was not Lambeth's finest moment--not because of the decisiveness of the decision, but in the manner and mood with which it was achieved. It was an occasion of heartburn. Nevertheless, homosexuality is now on the agenda of the Anglican Communion.
This decisive resolution is a starting point, and there are some positive aspects in it. But between now and the next Lambeth Conference, ten years hence, this subject will not vanish simply because of this particular vote. That is consistent with the history of previous Lambeth Conferences when dealing with human sexuality and related matters. What seemed definitively determined at one Conference would in 10 or 20 years emerge with a new and different consensus and understanding. Marriage and divorce are but two examples. That is the genius of the Anglican ethos at its best. It lives open-endedly. It does not lock itself into hardened positions which it considers definitive for the ages. It knows that in matters pertaining to the human condition, the Holy Spirit will prevail to guide us through our flawedness and finitude to understandings consistent with the Christ of our Gospel. In the meantime, like the Lambeth Conference, we meet to worship, study, pray, discuss and discern the directions the Spirit points us toward.
Contact information:
Rev. Joseph Neiman, St. Mark's Church in Paw Paw, Michigan 49079 Communications Minister, Diocese of Western Michigan (Episcopal) 616-657-3762 Internet address: joseph.neiman.parti@ecunet.org; QUEST: JOSEPH NEIMAN; FAX 616-657-5664
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