Lambeth Day 10 - 7/26/2008

Picture Day. After a full morning of discussing environmental sustainability and the moral leadership needed to effect it, this afternoon brought the festive challenge of herding more than 700 bishops and ecumenical guests into the 2008 Lambeth Conference’s official photograph. In the middle of a wide lawn had been constructed a huge bleacher, the sort used for fans at a sporting event, upon which we were stacked 12 rows high by the photographers for the formal shot. The stands were so high that a couple of bishops had to be led down to a lower level, having grown faint from acrophobia. The photo above, taken by Sue, shows only a portion of the crowd. If you click on it, you might be able to find me, close to the top and waving enthusiastically at the camera.

Bishops tend to clean up pretty well when there are cameras around, both in dress and attitude. I suppose that, like most people, we want to look good for posterity. In this Lambeth Conference’s photograph we all wore the dress of our order, the rochet and chimere. It is informative to note that at the last Lambeth Conference ten years ago, the first one attended by women bishops, all participants were asked to wear cassocks for the official photograph, a copy of which hangs in the hall outside the elevator near my office. The reason for this was that it avoided having women dress in episcopal (bishop’s) vestments. So in some ways, they still weren’t in the picture.

I am trying to picture the Church as I imagine God imagines it. Of course I can’t. I keep having to move back to get everyone in the field of view.