July 20

Of course when I had the chance to sleep in, I woke up wide awake at 6:30am! So I went for a walk/jog and all the birds in the woods were talking! There are magpies here and they make the most amazing sounds! At breakfast today, across the table was an unknown bishop who turned out to be Bishop Philip Wright from Belize, Nick Hatt’s supervisor during Nick’s work in Belize last summer.

The inevitable coaches pulled up at precisely 9am and we were whisked off to Canterbury. The various protestors are now lining the walking route we take from the coach into Canterbury Cathedral. They have told by the police to be silent, so it is quite odd to be walking by silent protestors holding up signs that have Scripture verses listed. We looked up some of them on our return and I can’t think what they are protesting!

The liturgy was Anglican ceremonial at its best. There are photos of the procession on the Lambeth web site. We were lined up in the Crypt by very officious virgers (local spelling). We stood with our partners for an hour and 15 minutes before the procession started to move. I got to know the bishop beside me and his Diocese in detail during that time. It takes quite a while to get almost 700 bishops and ecumenical partners into the cathedral when they are walking by two’s. The music was glorious while we made our way through the nave up a flight of stairs, through the quire up another flight of stairs to the presbytery. That’s where I stopped, right beside the choir. The Archbishop of Canterbury was sitting in St. Augustine’s chair up another flight of stairs with the various Patriarchs sitting behind him. (There is a map of the Cathedral on their web site.)

The setting for the liturgy was “Missa Luba”, a version of the Latin Mass based on traditional Congolese songs originally presented in 1958. There was a full Congolese percussion section directly across me and the boys of the choir (who were sitting right beside me) were obviously enjoying every bit of it! Parts of the service were in the various languages of the Communion with the English translation alongside. The Gospel book was brought in by Melanesian dancers (who the rest of the time are nuns and brothers who serve on the Chaplaincy Team). The sermon was by Bp Duleep de Chikera from Sri Lanka about the need for reconciliation within the Communion. Since he speaks from his work for reconciliation in Sri Lanka his message had great integrity. We arrived back on campus at 2pm for dinner. There was an hour break and then we “switched gears” as various bishops put it, from Retreat into Conference. There were clear presentations on the style of the conference, our participation and a challenge to honestly and respectfully tackle the difficult questions about covenant, communion, human sexuality, the authority of Scripture and the follow up to the Windsor Report. Apparently some media have been saying we have been doing nothing for three days. Perhaps that is how they see prayer – doing nothing!

This evening we enjoyed a concert by the Mothers’ Union Choir of Korea called “Singing for Peace in Our Land.”