Peterborough Diocese Document

The Diocese of Peterborough
The Lambeth Conference Update One: 21 July 2008
Background information The topics this week Archbishop’s hopes Bishops visit Peterborough Diocese - High level political peace-making disclosed Background information Top The Lambeth Conference is primarily an opportunity for bishops from across the Anglican Communion to get to know each other, listen to God and each other, and to discuss a wide variety of topics. From Thursday to Saturday last week (17-19 July) the bishops were on retreat. The programme starts in earnest today (21 July). Each day begins with small group Bible studies looking at the “I am” sayings from John’s Gospel. Later in the morning the bishops meet in 15 “Indaba” groups. Indaba is a Zulu word for a gathering for purposeful discussion. Each day the groups will look at a different topic, and they will pray together. A Listener will be in each group, and the reflections from them will be woven into a “Reflective Document” at the end of the Conference. Later in the day there will be free time, a variety of self-selection sessions, and fringe events. There will be only five plenary sessions each focusing on a single topic. This makes it far different to a parliamentary debate leading to a vote, or a party political conference at which policy is determined. The Conference has no legal authority to legislate for the Anglican Communion. The topics this week are: Top Monday 21 Celebrating Common Ground: the bishop and Anglican identity Tuesday 22 Proclaiming good news: the bishop and evangelism Wednesday 23 Transforming society: the bishop and social justice Friday 25 Serving together: the bishop and other dioceses Saturday 26 Safeguarding creation: the bishop and the environment There will be plenary sessions on Monday (evangelism and mission), Tuesday (working together for God’s mission) and Friday (the ecological crisis and the role of the church). On Thursday 24 the bishops will be in London for the day. Part of their programme will be a walk through central London with other faith leaders in a mass call on world leaders to keep the promise of halving world poverty by 2015. Archbishop’s hopes Top The Archbishop of Canterbury opened the :Lambeth Conference to the sound of South African Alleluias and prayers for the guidance of the Holy Spirit. He stressed that the Conference has been designed as a place “in which every voice can be heard and in which we build Christian relationship.” He said that his prayer for the Conference was “not that after two weeks we will find a solution to all our problems but we shall in some sense find the trust in God and in one another that will give us the energy to change in the way God wants us to change.” He added, “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 pretend that we can meet and discuss without attention to this quality of relation with each other even if we disagree or find ourselves 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.” Bishops visit Peterborough Diocese Top High level political peace-making disclosed Seven overseas bishops were in Peterborough Diocese for a few days before the Conference as part of a nation-wide hospitality initiative. We welcomed Bishops Eliud and Zakayo from Kenya, Bishops Francis Park, Michael Kwon and Paul Kim from South Korea, Bishop Bethlehem from South Africa, Bishop Geoffrey Smith from Australia and Bishop Chris Epting from the USA. We have diocesan links with the Kenyans and Koreans. At a welcome reception at Bouverie Court in Northampton, Francis Park, Archbishop of Seoul, disclosed how he and other Christians had been actively seeking peaceful unification between north and south Korea. Anglicans in the south have sent tons of food aid to the north following recent floods, he said. Some 50 Anglican churches in the north have been closed by the state, and the south Korean Anglicans are working to recover them, he added. Bishop Eliud from our link diocese of Bungoma in Kenya also disclosed how he and other faith leaders had drawn together the warring factions after the Presidential election, when Kenya was torn by violence. Bishop Eliud is Chair of the National Council of Churches in Kenya (NCCK). “The whole country relies on the NCCK to help it talk about peace,” he said. “Making peace is a difficult thing.” The churches laid the foundations, producing a document which Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the UN, then built on and a coalition government was formed – something that had never happened in Kenya before. Top
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The Lambeth Conference

Update One: 21 July 2008

Background information
The topics this week
Archbishop’s hopes
Bishops visit Peterborough Diocese - High level political peace-making disclosed

Background information Top

The Lambeth Conference is primarily an opportunity for bishops from across the Anglican Communion to get to know each other, listen to God and each other, and to discuss a wide variety of topics.

From Thursday to Saturday last week (17-19 July) the bishops were on retreat. The programme starts in earnest today (21 July). Each day begins with small group Bible studies looking at the “I am” sayings from John’s Gospel.

Later in the morning the bishops meet in 15 “Indaba” groups. Indaba is a Zulu word for a gathering for purposeful discussion. Each day the groups will look at a different topic, and they will pray together. A Listener will be in each group, and the reflections from them will be woven into a “Reflective Document” at the end of the Conference.

Later in the day there will be free time, a variety of self-selection sessions, and fringe events. There will be only five plenary sessions each focusing on a single topic.

This makes it far different to a parliamentary debate leading to a vote, or a party political conference at which policy is determined. The Conference has no legal authority to legislate for the Anglican Communion.

The topics this week are: Top

Monday 21 Celebrating Common Ground: the bishop and Anglican identity
Tuesday 22 Proclaiming good news: the bishop and evangelism
Wednesday 23 Transforming society: the bishop and social justice
Friday 25 Serving together: the bishop and other dioceses
Saturday 26 Safeguarding creation: the bishop and the environment

There will be plenary sessions on Monday (evangelism and mission), Tuesday (working together for God’s mission) and Friday (the ecological crisis and the role of the church).

On Thursday 24 the bishops will be in London for the day. Part of their programme will be a walk through central London with other faith leaders in a mass call on world leaders to keep the promise of halving world poverty by 2015.

Archbishop’s hopes Top

The Archbishop of Canterbury opened the :Lambeth Conference to the sound of South African Alleluias and prayers for the guidance of the Holy Spirit. He stressed that the Conference has been designed as a place “in which every voice can be heard and in which we build Christian relationship.”

He said that his prayer for the Conference was “not that after two weeks we will find a solution to all our problems but we shall in some sense find the trust in God and in one another that will give us the energy to change in the way God wants us to change.”

He added, “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 pretend that we can meet and discuss without attention to this quality of relation with each other even if we disagree or find ourselves 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.”

Bishops visit Peterborough Diocese Top
High level political peace-making disclosed

Seven overseas bishops were in Peterborough Diocese for a few days before the Conference as part of a nation-wide hospitality initiative.

We welcomed Bishops Eliud and Zakayo from Kenya, Bishops Francis Park, Michael Kwon and Paul Kim from South Korea, Bishop Bethlehem from South Africa, Bishop Geoffrey Smith from Australia and Bishop Chris Epting from the USA. We have diocesan links with the Kenyans and Koreans.

At a welcome reception at Bouverie Court in Northampton, Francis Park, Archbishop of Seoul, disclosed how he and other Christians had been actively seeking peaceful unification between north and south Korea. Anglicans in the south have sent tons of food aid to the north following recent floods, he said.

Some 50 Anglican churches in the north have been closed by the state, and the south Korean Anglicans are working to recover them, he added.

Bishop Eliud from our link diocese of Bungoma in Kenya also disclosed how he and other faith leaders had drawn together the warring factions after the Presidential election, when Kenya was torn by violence. Bishop Eliud is Chair of the National Council of Churches in Kenya (NCCK).

“The whole country relies on the NCCK to help it talk about peace,” he said. “Making peace is a difficult thing.”

The churches laid the foundations, producing a document which Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the UN, then built on and a coalition government was formed – something that had never happened in Kenya before.

Top