Lambeth Day 2 - 7/18/08

Our second day of retreat at Canterbury Cathedral offered more space and time to be still with God and one another. The Archbishop of Canterbury’s continuing addresses on God’s Mission and a Bishop’s Discipleship are scholarly, insightful, and provocative, drawing us into a posture of openness and receptivity to each other and the Spirit. The quiet time is spent in reflection and prayer, and mostly in generous conversation with new acquaintances and old friends. It is a particular blessing to be again with Bishop Philip Baji, Diocese of Tanga, Tanzania, pictured here with me outside the Cathedral. We had a long walk together before Evening Prayer, recalling his time at our last diocesan convention which remains fresh in his heart, as it does in ours, and imagining what mission collaboration God may offer us in the future.

At the same time, I find myself missing those who by their own choice or by the host’s exclusion are absent from this community: bishops whom I know and whom I don’t know, with whom I agree and with whom I disagree, in whose presence I delight and in whose presence I struggle. Each of them makes me more whole when I am with them, and in their absence I am diminished.

The members of my Bible Study group, which meets every day for an hour and a quarter right after breakfast, have fast become intimate companions. The eight of us represent seven countries on four continents. Two of our group are here against the direction of their archbishops. After only two days together, we have achieved a level of honesty and candor that is reflective of their authenticity and humility, and a common desire to receive each other as God knows us to be.

The physical context for these first two days of community-building is striking and not easily ignored. The architecture and age of Canterbury Cathedral – its firm, encompassing physical presence and enduring history – speak a word of confidence in God and patience with humanity, respectively. This is an important note on which to start, I am persuaded, for while we have much hard work ahead of and among us, it is our surrender to God and our patient embrace of one another that will move us forward and render that labor productive.

The closing hymn at Evening Prayer, sung with the Cathedral Choir of men and boys, was John Ellerton’s text, The Day thou gavest, Lord, is ended…, set to St. Clement, Clement Scholefield’s beautiful and familiar tune. The final stanza seemed a fitting punctuation for the spiritual and communal journey of the day:

So be it, Lord; thy throne shall never
Like earth’s proud empires, pass away;
Thy kingdom stands, and grows for ever,
Till all thy creatures own thy sway.

My evening prayer this night is that, in the two weeks ahead, we creatures of God gathered at this conference will surrender, with confidence in God and patience with one another, to the divine intention that each and all may own God’s sway. So be it, Lord.