The Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee

Letter from Lambeth, July 19^th

Greetings to members of the Diocese of Tennessee from the Lambeth Conference, held in Canterbury from mid-July until early August. This gathering of bishops from throughout the Anglican Communion has been held approximately every ten years since 1867, called together at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury to provide a means of consultation and fellowship for the bishops of the Church. I’ve written before about the Conference in Connections, about its significance and importance, but wanted to follow up now that it has actually begun with some impressions I’ve formed.

The first part of the Lambeth Conference this year has taken the form of a two day retreat, held largely in Canterbury Cathedral, which was closed to the public in order to accommodate the over 600 bishops present. The retreat concluded at noon on Saturday, July 19^th. Like most cathedrals, Canterbury is a maze of rooms and the corridors connecting them, defining a space that lends itself to prayer and praise. The Cathedral Church of Christ in Canterbury consists of several architectural templates superimposed upon each other, the legacy of repeated building and re-building over time. Archbishop Lanfranc and Prior Ernulf in the 11^th century, and then the master architect William of Sens and his colleague William the Englishman in the 12^th century, provided the main building blocks of what turns out to be a pretty graceful structure (considering the number of persons who contributed to fashioning it). The Cathedral was first the home of the Benedictine monks who constituted the worshipping community of the Archbishop’s Cathedral, and then with the Reformation of the 16^th century the Dean and Chapter have continued their work up to and including our own time. 

I hope you won’t think I’m pressing it too much when I say that during the retreat the Cathedral itself became for me a metaphor of the Church Catholic itself, that great artifact that is the gift of God and which is itself the Body of Christ. The Church too has been built by God over centuries, with many people contributing their vision and their gifts. Sitting in the cathedral, one cannot help but contemplate the history of the Church, those many layers or templates that have been put in place and which have created the foundation of further efforts on the part of others. In the Church, our history is sometimes obscured by more modern attempts at construction, but it is always there; and of course the foundation of the Church on which our layers of lived experience arise is Christ himself. The Church is as well a community of prayer and praise; that is, a community of common prayer where God is praised and the power of Christ’s new life is celebrated and made real and effectual.

The retreat itself has left some other impressions, powerful in their own right. Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was our retreat leader, a man of prayer and intellect whose historic office gives him a unique position in this time of testing in the Anglican Communion. It is impossible to capture the multitude of themes that emerged in the course of the five addresses, but the Archbishop spoke as a bishop to bishops, and so a great deal of the material dealt with the particular ministry of episcopacy. He encouraged us to consider how Jesus is revealed “in us” (Gal. 1:16), and to reflect on the way in which we have been “taken hold of by Christ” (Phil. 3:12).

The Archbishop sounded two other notes that impressed themselves on me and which I take away with grateful thanksgiving. First, the importance of gathering as an authentic mark of the bishop’s ministry. It is the charism of the bishop to gather the Church, to bring together God’s People in prayer and sacrament, in unity with each other and with God. Unity is the state in which we bear one another’s burdens and joys. The ministry of the bishop must be marked by openness to others, because this is the pattern we have learned from Christ, and is part of his ministry of gathering.

Second, the work that the bishops are doing at Lambeth is important work, repairing our fractured communion and deepening it as well. When there are disputes they must be worked on together, and prayed about in common. Just being together will not solve all our problems, but it will at the very least mean show that we are committed to modeling a more Christ-like life. The careful listening that we are doing at the Lambeth Conference is a way of moving forward and building up our common life. Our gathering embodies hope. We need to have courage, for God will find a way.

I appreciate the many expressions of support I have received from people in the Diocese, especially indications of prayers said. The time of retreat has been incredibly helpful. It is an incredibly busy time. Now that this time is over and the work of the Conference has shifted elsewhere, I ask you again for your continued prayers.

-    Bishop John