Hello, friends. ----- Sorry I haven't written for a while - for a while there everything was going smoothly but unremarkably, and I didn't want to write just the sake of writing. Now I'm at the Lambeth Conference in Canterbury, England, and my difficulty is at the other end of things ...

So many things are happening, so many sights, so many impressions - it's been somewhat overwhelming, and will probably take me a while to sort it all out.  But maybe you'll be interested in a few thoughts.

First, the people.  I've met a lot of people, from all over the world.  There are about 650 bishops here, many of them with their spouses, and a huge number of people working to keep the conference running well.  Every single person I have met and spoken with has been nice to me.  I've met a couple of the Bishops that I've read about on the internet, people who've taken one extreme position or another, and they were polite and gracious as well.  We're just four nights into it, but I'm really encouraged that the atmosphere is joyful and loving.  There are a variety of opinions and assumptions here, disagreements about things important to our Church.  But for now, our emphasis has been on those things we all hold in common: the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We spent the first two and a half days in a retreat led by Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and it was incredibly well done.  He is a remarkable speaker, and encouraged us to realize the need we all have to worship and serve from within community.

Today we went to the Cathedral in Canterbury for Sunday worship.  It was a most impressive service, but before I write about that, I want to tell you that in the streets on our way from the busses into the Cathedral, there were people holding signs condemning the Anglican Church.  It was hard to tell exactly what their concern was; most of them involved long quotes from the Book of Revelation, or from Ezekiel.  One woman had a hand puppet of a dragon, signifying the Beast (I thought it was an alligator, but a friend later enlightened me) who kept saying over and over in an eerie voice: "You are already in my belly."  Another sign said "Woe to those who are at peace at Lambeth."  This was my first time to encounter this sort of thing, and I have to tell you that it really bothered me, sort of weighed me down.  They weren't asking us to change our minds, or repent of any evil, they were just condemning us.  I assumed they were upset about The Episcopal Church and homosexuality, but actually it had more to do with The Church of England's recent decision to allow for the ordination of women as Bishops.  Whatever their justification, their behavior seemed to me to be filled with hate, and it was disturbing.

All those bishops plus a variety of ecumenical visitors and assorted dignitaries made for a profoundly impressive (and long!) procession.  Bishop Parsley has written a great description of the service in his greeting from Lambeth on the Diocesan website, and I hope you will have already read that.  It's enough for me to say that the whole service was very meaningful, rich, and beautiful: and a highlight of my life in the Church.  And then it was time to go back to the busses, back through the protestors. 

Even I know better than to engage the protestors in conversation, but I really wanted to do more than just endure them.  I didn't want to make them angrier, but I didn't want to disregard them as if they were less than human.  It occurred to me that I could write something on the inside of my service booklet and show it to them without saying anything, and that wouldn't actually be engaging them.  But I didn't want to judge them for having the opinions they have ...

I couldn't remember the chapter and verse, so I just ascribed it to its source.  As I walked back to the busses, I felt shielded by great wisdom:  Judge not, lest ye be judged.  - Jesus.