July 14, 2008

Well, I have been away almost a week! Sometimes it seems a long time, but every minute of the day is full with new opportunities to experience God's amazing grace!

Today, after morning prayers, a walk and breakfast, I met with a group of lay and clergy, men and women, in the Bishop's Palace, to talk about discernment of gifts for ordination. I had opportunity to hear their concerns about the potential for women in leadership roles in the church and their excitement about the General Synod of the Church of England vote to allow women to be bishops. Their system and process has been very different from ours. In our church, the basic question was, "Can women be ordained?" The Yes answer meant ordained to any order. In England, the first vote was "Can women be ordained priests?" So they have just had the obvious second question, "Can women become bishops?" For some reason, some folks think they should have financial compensation if they choose to leave the church because a woman may become a bishop! I wonder if women who leave the church because women do not become bishops will be entitled to a similar compensation?!

After the discussion, I went to lunch with a clergy couple from the northern part of the Hereford diocese at a cafe in a church. It is an ingenious design. The nave has been redesigned to keep the front half of a large church as worship space. The rear half has been reshaped into a ground level cafe (with excellent food) and an upper story for the cafe that is suspended from the roof! It was full of people - some praying - some eating lunch. This has been a creative solution to under utilized space and a lack of funds to operate the church.

From the cafe I went to an interview with BBC Wales that was the lunch hour phone show. The folks who called in asked about Canada, were happy some bishops who are women had come to visit, and were keen for the Lambeth Conference to move the church on to building the Kingdom of God!

I had the opportunity to visit the Mappa Mundi exibit in one of the wings of the Cathedral. They have a web site where you can learn more about this interesting theological staement about the geography of the world as they knew it to the Reign of Christ. There is an intriguing thing called the Chained Library - every book has a chain which secures the book but allows it to be opened on the desk in front of the shelf for study. If you Google Mappa Mundi you will find more about it.

In the afternoon, I went to the home of one of the women who has been working toward the full inclusion of women in all levels of the church for more than 30 years. There I met more clergy and lay people and one determined 10 year old girl who announced quite clearly that women ought to be bishops so she could be one someday! At the end of the time, there was an agreement that many other parts of the Communion need to keep the Church of England in prayer as they move through the years ahead. One of the organizers of the afternoon was unable to attend due to treatment for cancer. I was able to meet with her in the evening. She is a priest and her name is Barbara and I ask your preayers for her. I invited her to come to Nova Scotia and her reply was that she would not be making another trip to North America.

I had a lovely dinner with my hosts, Sue and Roger, and now I off to repack the suitcase again for the move to Kent University tomorrow and the beginning of the Lambeth Conference.

Many Blessings.
+Sue