Lambeth, July 27th

Dear Ones,

OK, I am going to admit, I took a day off! Sunday was a very light day, nothing required although several things offered and I just decided to not be "on the program" today. So, I slept in a little more than usual, cleaned up a few things around the little room I have, walked to the train station and went to the town of Whitstable, which is a beach town. They happened to be having their annual Oyster Festival this weekend. So, I took part in these festivities and, on beautiful day, hung out with normal, everyday people. I didn't have to have an ID badge and there was not "the next thing to get to." I went swimming and enjoyed the gorgeous day! Of the two pictures above, one did not turn out quite like I had hoped, the crates sitting there are all filled with old oyster shells. And the sign reads, "Oyster Shell Recycling" subtext: used to build new oyster breeding grounds.

Train back to town, dinner, and now I am writing you. I took some pictures of the beach and the town above. In many ways it reminds me of our part of the world but there are no snow topped mountains and I do miss those!

One of the pictures above is of Luke Fodor, Network Coordinator for ERD and me at the Episcopal Relief and Development booth here at the Marketplace at Lambeth. Luke's wife is from our neck of the woods and he secretly loves us very much! Of even more interest are the pictures you see in the booth behind the two of us. These are pictures taken by Laura Ellen Muglia on her mission to Tanzania. Olympia is incredibly represented here!

I also wanted to send along this link to the music that goes along with the words I put in the blog last night. This is Jack Barben singing. Jack is an extrordinary musician. Some of you will remember him from the convention last year, and he has led music in several other workshops and conferences. Jack is currently the Director of Music at St. Benedict's, Lacey. Here is the link to "Let the Broken ones be healed."

http://jackbarben.com/SBE.html

Blessings!

+Greg

Lambeth, July 26th

Dear Ones,

Today was Ordinary Day 5. We opened with Eucharist by the Province of Australia. The theme for the day was the Bishop and the Environment. I have really been excited about this day. The Rev. George Browning, Bishop of Canberra preached. He is also the Chair of the Anglican Global Environmental Network. Breakfast, Bible Study on John 9: 1-41. Tea, then Indaba group. Our group today took up the discussion of the proposed covenant. It is clear we do not all see eye to eye on it, but in my group I found much more concern about its introduction than a clamoring of support for it. We will be sorting out more about this as the next week goes on, but the Archbishop has made it clear repeatedly that this will not be decided at this event, but will come, if at all, some time later.

My afternoon was a busy one. I worked with two other bishops on a document that needed some work, and then collected my rochet and chimere for our group picture. You might imagine trying to get almost 700 bishops in one photo. It was an amazing sight. The spouses had their picture taken earlier, and at 2 p.m. was the bishop's slot. It took about 40 minutes to get us in place and about 10 to take pictures. The press was then allowed to take photos of us, and then we were carefully brought down from the risers built for this occassion. You can look at the Lambeth website to see all of this, but I have placed a picture above too. I have also put a picture of a breakout small group within an Indaba group, as well as a few other shots. The Lambeth site again is www.lambethconference.org.

Immediately following the picture I had to quickly move to the media center as I was one of the media responders today along with Bishop Thomas Ely of Vermont. If you have a desire to see that report you can go to Episcopal News Service and look under "multimedia."

Then I reported to the Big Top and to Dent Davidson, as it was the Episcopal Church's night to offer evening prayer. Our House of Bishops choir sang and for those who attended I think it was a hit. Nedi and I both sing in this choir, and if you look closely you will also note Jeff and Lisa Lee, so a big Olympia contingent in this!

Then, finally, a nice dinner and time to share with others. Tomorrow will be a slow day, which I desperately need. This is full, and long, and tiring. However, I feel so blessed to be here and I am learning so very much. I end tonight with the text of the last song we sang tonight. You will not hear the tune, which is beautiful, but the words are the prayer for this next week and for this conference. The hymn is by Michael Hudson and Marilyn Haskel and it is entitled "Let the Broken ones be healed."

Let the broken ones be healed, let the lost be found and fed.
Let the grace of God roll on, roll on.

Let the river rise and spread. Step into the stream with me.
Let God's gracious purpose be. Let God's gracious purpose be.

Blessings,

+Greg

Lambeth, July 25th

Dear Ones,

Back to Ordinary days, this being the Ordinary Day 5. Same schedule, 7:15 Eucharist, today by The Church of North India and the Church of Bangladesh, then breakfast. Bible Study today covered John 8: 31-59. While we discussed that my Bible Study is becoming closer and closer and wanted to process the day before, the ironies, the incredible sight and feel of marching with our brothers and sisters for a cause that deserves and needs our moral and spiritual voice, hunger and poverty. That day will not soon be lost on any of us. Thanks to Mary Allen, one picture was found with me, kind of in it. I put it in just above. Also, you can see the BBC news video at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/7523539.stm

Today, we turned our focus to one of the issues that I have the most passion about and the one that I think is the most serious for us to have a voice; Climate Change and Global Warming. In my self select session I again attended the Climate Change workshop entitled today "The consequences of of climate change From South to North" The Chair was John Prichard, Bishop of Oxford, UK, and Tom Wilmot, Bishop of Perth, Australia and Bishop Mark McDonald, National Indigenous Bishop, Toronto, Canada and former bishop of Alaska. This was a fascinating discussion. I am very heartened by how many bishops see this as a major focus and how many want to know more.

In keeping with that theme today the spouses had a presentation from Professor Chris Rapley, Director of the Science Museum, a known expert in Climate Change. Until 2007 he was the Director of the British Antartic Survey. He then gave an excellent plenary to the entire conference tonight in the Big Top. We will continue our exploration of the Bishop and the Environment tomorrow.

Dent Davidson showed up tonight and our bishop's choir rehearsed, we will also rehearse tomorrow and then lead Evening Worship tomorrow evening. It was good to see him. He is a huge asset to our House of Bishops and to our Church.

Our Diocese of Olympia Cursillo community sent a package to both Nedi and I filled with "palanca" for us both. These letters and well wishes and assurances of prayer have been so very important to both of us. Thanks to all who took the time to do this. You are a blessing and we are so heartened by all who are praying for us. My picture tonight is of our presentation in the Big Top by Dr. Rapley. I hope it gives you some perspective on our meeting space.

I leave you with a quote from one of those letters from Cursillo. The person sent me a 1939 quote by King George VI, "Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than life and safer than a known way!" That is a keeper!

Blessings,

+Greg

Lambeth, July 24th, London Day!

Dear Ones,

Today was London Day, which meant getting up even earlier, about 6 a.m. for breakfast, then on the bus at 7:15 a.m.. We drove to London to Whitehall, where we unloaded and began walking in the Walk of Witness which was purported to be the largest walk for hunger and poverty ever in London. I don't know about that but it was huge. We walked past 10 Downing Street, past the Houses of Parliament, over the Thames, and into Lambeth Palace. We were treated to a very nice meal (kind of a contradition in a walk to eliminate poverty) but there you have it. The Archbishop and his wife Jane were simply wonderful in their hospitality. Prime Minister Gordon Brown joined us for a while and spoke to us as well. He gave a superb and inspiring speech to us and that was echoed by all I spoke with today.

We were there about 3 hours, and then back aboard the buses to head to Buckingham Palace. Having stood outside these gates two years ago almost to the day, it was surreal to actually enter into them. For this entry we had to have our special invitation, our passport, another form of indentification. We were then taken into the inner courtyard, which is just a large gravel yard, much like what you see in front of Buckingham Palace. After a short wait, we were taken through the Palace and into the beautiful back yard, where huge tents with tea, sandwiches, deserts awaited us. There were two bands in two seperate parts of the garden. After a time, the Queen and Prince emerged and were ushered down a corridor of people which we formed on two sides. People were randomly, at least that is how they put it!, selected from the crowd to step out, where advance people took down the names in the party on cards, and prepared you for meeting either the Queen or the Prince. I was not selected. I am not nearly interesting enough. Nonetheless we were just feet away from them both and I must say they did take time and talk as they made their way down the line. Then they made their way to the Royal Tent, where a few more dignitaries, much farther up the food chain than me, were offered entry. After a while the corridor of humanity was formed again and the Queen and Prince walked up the aisle and back into their home. The weather was magnificent.

We then boarded our buses and took the road back to Canterbury. I think Nedi and I represented you well. I have no pictures as it is against policy to have cameras in either Lambeth or Buckingham and since were not allowed to bring bags or have anything we could not carry on our person, I could not have done it. I wish I could have! Also, we wore our cassocks all day long and those don't exactly have lots of storage space!

I have to say, I consider myself quite fortunate to experience such an event and yet the irony is keen. As I stated before, the march for poverty as we marched toward a fabulous meal that many never would get to enjoy, and then on to visit a monarch, who met many who eagerly lined up to meet her; who will not make in their lives, and perhaps even three or four of their lives, what we spent on those three hours in that garden. Perhaps this will all go toward, in some strange way to help that situation. One of the highlights of my day was sitting with John and Joseph, both from Tanzania. They are youth stewards, those who are helping make the conference flow, pages, guides, gophers. They are youth from all over the world. We shared tea and dessert at Buckingham Palace. Perhaps that is one small sign of the Kingdom, what it is supposed to be. That was the glimpse I will take from this day....

A day which started with a them, to eliminate poverty, and to promote the MDGs, the Millennium Development Goals. You can find out all about these at http://www.undp.org/mdg/ We have done much with promoting these in our diocese and we will be doing more. I have shared with you my personal committment of giving .7% of my income each year toward them, because it has been calculated if we did, all of us, we could see the goals achieved. My fervent hope, and there is certainly some momentum building here, is that these goals, and other important issues like protecting our planet, will be the real issues we galvanize around in these next days. Keep praying that we can see and hear God and follow in the path of grace and graciousness.

Blessings,

+Greg

Lambeth, July 23rd

Dear Ones,

"Ordinary Day" three. The Theme for today was "Transforming Society: The Bishop and Social Justice." We began with Eucharist at 7:15 a.m. done by the Episcopal Church in Cuba! That was fun. Breakfast, Bible Study, today on John 8:1-20 "I am the light of the world." My relationship with my brothers in Bible study continues to grow. We then had tea, and went to our Indaba session. Many good things happened here too.

This afternoon was the first of two hearings on the Windsor Report, by the Windsor Continuation Group. This group was put together to help assess the report and to work on how it might or might not be applied. They reported earlier that they were not completed, and it would take more time and conversation. They did present some findings. One finding suggested the "great turmoil" in the Episcopal Church in the US. Many in our House of Bishops spoke at this hearing, and many in Canada as well regarding the lack of "turmoil." As one bishop put it, "the world needs to know that only .7 of 1% of Episcopal parishes in the US have left the church." This is often percieved by many to be almost 50/50. It was a cordial but clear hearing which started and ended on time. There will be another one next week. No decisions will be made here but the Continuation Group wanted to capitalize on the time here to listen to others. It should be noted that many of our bishops spoke to the Windsor provision regarding jurisdiction and incursions into other dioceses. It was noted that Olympia is a diocese that suffers in this regard as do many others.

We had tea again! Then we had another set of self select programs. Today I chose the one entitled, "The Economics of Climate Change" and it was excellent. I will bring much back on this. Tonight was the first of two nights in which the a few of the American bishops offered "A Conversation with Bishop Gene Robinson." We are trying to hold back so that others from around the communion can come and meet Bishop Robinson but can also hear from bishops that voted for him, from some that did not vote for him, and how our polity works and how his election occurred. I did not attend this one tonight but heard it was well attended. I plan on attending the one upcoming.

Some of you will know Clark Berge, our very own, who calls the Diocese of Olympia home even though he now lives in Berkely. You may remember that Clark was last year named Minister General of the world wide Society of St. Francis. What a joy to find him heading up the chaplaincy service here and leading the daily office in the prayer place set up at Lambeth. I sat with him a while today and took his picture just above!

Also, thought I would add here what Brian Mclaren said about his time at Lambeth which more accurately describes the reality then one headline in papers here today which said, "WAR AT LAMBETH!" We all found that one interesting. Here is what Brian said:

"Joyful time at Lambeth

What a tremendous honor and pleasure it's been to speak on the subject of evangelism at the Lambeth Conference being held here in Canterbury, England.
I know that most people think the "news story" here is about divisive controversies over sexuality, but my sense is that the real news story is very different. There is a humble spirit here, a loving atmosphere, a deep spirituality centered in Bible study, worship, and prayer, and a strong desire to move beyond internal-institutional matters to substantive mission in our needy world.
In every conversation and gathering I've participated in, the spirit has been kind and holy and positive. That sort of good news doesn't attract the media the way a salacious or pugilistic story does ... It will be interesting to see whether the press reports what is actually happening here, or if they need to rewrite the narrative to fit the shape of war-tales they are more accustomed to telling.
My sense is that the quiet, prayerful, and humble patience of Archbishop Rowan Williams is leading the way to better days for the Anglican Communion. It feels like the bishops gathered here are turning a corner together. I feel that I'm witnessing the emergence of something good, beautiful, true, and blessed ... Hearts here are sincerely open to the Spirit of God.
Thanks for all who prayed for me regarding my plenary session here tonight. Everything went well, and I look forward to my next two days here."

Ok, back to my blog,


Tonight was a free night and I wandered alone into Canterbury, and walked back. It is good exercise which I am needing about now. Tomorrow morning, very early, we leave for London. I will participate by the Archbishop's invitation in the Walk of Witness for the MDGs. This will be a walk through London to Lambeth Palace where we will eat lunch and then move to Buckingham Palace to have tea with Queen Elizabeth II and other members of the Royal Family. I will report tomorrow on how all of that went. Now, I need to get some rest!

Blessings,

+Greg

Lambeth, July 22nd

Dear Ones,

The second "Ordinary" Day and as suspected, they will not usually be very ordinary. The day started as always with 7:15 Eucharist, today offered by the Church of the Province of Central Africa. It was great as was the evening worship provided by Igeja episcopal Anglicana do Brasil. Colorful, exciting, fun!

Breakfast, Bible Study, today on John 6: 1-14 and 25-59. As I have said I am growing closer and closer to these group of fine men, they do all happen to be men, and I am learning much from them as well. Believe it or not I am not the "newest" bishop in the group. One of my Japanese brothers has been a bishop for three weeks. There is a bishop here that was a bishop for 5 days before coming here!

We then went into our third Indaba group meeting. I think these are very good Some in the groups are frustrated that we are not moving more quickly into the more difficult topics but I find their process well thought out and, at this point, I am trusting it and following it.

After lunch, we had a bit of free time. I used it getting my computer into better shape with the wonderful campus support they have here. I also secured my invitations for the visit to London on Thursday.

After that free time we had our first of many self-select programs. I decided today to go see Brian Mclaren one more time as he will be leaving here on Thursday. Brian spoke on "Evangelism by Example" and it was as good as the night before.

We then headed for dinner. Tonight the presenter to the entire conference was Cardinal Ivan Dias, Prefect of the Congregation to the Evangelization of Peoples at the Vatican, Mission, Social Justice, and Evangelization. He too joined Brian Mclaren's workshop today and he spoke to us about the same topic. It was good to have him here with us.

You will have read that the Archbishop of the Sudan and his bishops held a press conference today and asked Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire to resign. I did not see the press conference, it occurred during our self select programs and I have not read the transcript as of yet too. You can expect more of these I would suspect. As much as the Archbishop of Canterbury would like us to focus on a wide range of pressing issues for the church and the world, there does seem to remain a unitary focus. For now, I am trying to stay focused on dialogue and listening which is where I think the most good will come. For now, keep praying.

I need to say also that, now sitting in this conference, and being part of it, I am disheartened by all of the speculation, much of it misguided and false that comes from those from all quarters of our church. We all need some holy patience. The rapid communication and speculation and accusation that flies, often with little or no real information, is a recipe for problems always.

Now, for something a bit lighter. There is a cartoonist on the campus, making cartoons everyday. I will try to send some along so you can see them too! Not sure you can read it but it says, "The Secret Plan" And it has a long line of bishops standing in a line to the Dining Hall and then it reads, "Now the Lambeth Conference attendees are being encouraged to talk to each other!" We do need to do that. The big picture above is the view of Canterbury, the town, and the Cathedral out my window.

Blessings,

+Greg

Lambeth, July 21st

Dear Ones,

Today was our first "Ordinary" day. We will have quite a few in the next few weeks that have this basic form. Eucharist at 7:15 a.m., breakfast, Bible Study, Indaba Group for an hour or so, on a topic, and then lunch, Indaba again, and an evening program after supper. On some days afternoons will have some self select programs of various varieties. Eucharist was offered by Korea with the Korea Mother's Union Choir performing as well.

Today was the first day to be in our Indaba Groups. "Indaba" is a Zulu word meaning conversation with a purpose, usually utilized with perplexing problems. Of course we know the obvious issues but we have many more relating to some issues that affect the world and in which we might affect the world to greater levels together, as a communion. Today's Bible Study was John 6: 14-21, and the Indaba theme for today was "The Bishop and Anglican Identity" The Indaba groups are made up of five Bible Studies, so they are 40 people or more. I am impressed so far and I found these groups much more interesting than I had thought.

We had a brief meeting of the House of Bishops today, although in this setting we are not the House in session. We simply gathered to share our impressions so far and to make announcements about upcoming events.

Tonight we had the great pleasure of seeing Brian McLaren who gave one of the best presentations so far. He answered questions at the end and when asked by one of the 1000 or so present "Where can we find models of what you are talking about?" McLaren specifically named one, Church of the Apostles in Seattle, and Karen Ward! I am adding two pictures that Dave Manes on our staff found somehow! I have not seen these as of yet myself. Both were taken after the Opening Eucharist at the Cathedral on Sunday.

Blessings to you until tomorrow!

+Greg