July 19, 2008

Today was a very gentle day.

Bishop Winston Halapua of Polynesia celebrated the Eucharist at 7:15am this morning. Tomorrow we get to sleep in. The coaches take us to Canterbury at 10am. Beginning Monday, the different Provinces lead the morning Eucharist. Canada’s turn is July 29.

Bible Study today was focused on John 4:6-42. The first question was “What does John’s phrase, ‘it was necessary for Jesus to go through Samaria’ mean for you?” What a range of Samaria’s we had! In the countries where there is conflict because of religion, going through Samaria takes on a whole new meaning. The other question that generated lots of discussion was “What are the stages of mission in the story that lead up to the confession of faith in verse 42?” This is a good question for congregations looking to open up the good news of Jesus Christ for people who have not yet heard it. There is a process that takes time and commitment that Jesus exemplifies in this story.

This morning was our last session of Retreat for the bishops. It was quite different doing this in the Big Top rather than Canterbury Cathedral. The Archbishop spoke about leadership, using Hebrews 10:19-25 as his text. Jesus is the leader because He has gone ahead of us and ‘cleared the way’ for us to go where we could not go of ourselves. Our mission is to go where Jesus has already gone and cleared the way. The Archbishop spoke of encouraging one another – “There is a Way. God will make it known to us.” ++Rowan said clearly leadership is not about giving commands and making decisions. He also clearly said that failure to hope in Christ and failure to seek the new and living Way to God is sin. He closed with two references to Hebrews - 2:9-15 and 12:1-2. Then he asked us to keep silence together for 10 minutes. I would not have believed that it was possible for more than 700 of us to do that, but it happened. When he said “Let us pray,” I couldn’t believe that the 10 minutes were over so soon.

After lunch, we had some free time – what a thought! The Bible Study facilitators met at 3:30pm to review how the groups were working. There have been some logistical problems, especially about translation. While there is translation into many languages, there is no Swahili; one I would have thought would be obvious given the number of folks from areas of Africa where this is the language. However, the study coordinators are adapting on the fly and provided a person to translate the material for one of the spouses’ groups that has 26 Swahili speakers!

The various Ecumenical partners arrived this afternoon and were officially welcomed at Evening Prayer. It was interesting to see how many Canadians were among them. The churches in Canada contribute significantly to the ecumenical scene in the world.

The evening was clear after dinner. Yahoo!

Have wonderful services tomorrow at home. We will be in Canterbury Cathedral.

Blessings.
+Sue