July 28, 2008

The sun continues to shine and the local folks are amazed. Sun is not their usual weather!

The Eucharist was led by the Province of the Indian Ocean this morning so parts were in French, Creole, Malagasy and English. They invited Barry Clarke the Bishop of Montreal to join them as they have a Companion link. The wife of one of the bishops is a priest so she joined them for the celebration.

Bible Study today was on John 10:1-10. We talked about what this passage means to each of us. Gates have very different roles – keep animals or people in, or out; with a gate keeper or not; to provide security for those inside or those outside. One of the questions was, “What does it mean for us to think of Jesus as the gate the both invites the world into the church and urges the sheep to follow Jesus trustingly into the world?” There was a story from the Middle East about traveling on a narrow pathway when two shepherds with flocks of sheep met. As they approached each other, the shepherds began talking and singing and whistling, and kept it up while the sheep passed by each other and the shepherds went on their way without losing any sheep. Do you know the voice of your Shepherd?

The Indaba group focused on Engaging in a Multi-faith World: the Bishop, Christian witness and other faiths. There were stories from many parts of the world where Christians are a minority and what they do to build relations with the majority religion. There stories from places, like ours, where the various religions are developing working relationships. Anglicans in minority situations rely heavily on the Communion for strength and a voice with governments. The question was raised, “What is the purpose of Interfaith Dialogue?”

The afternoon session was a Hearing on the Windsor Continuation Group proposals. We were handed the material as we entered the room which miffed several bishops as there was no time to think before being asked to speak. Most of the time was used up by TEC bishops arguing with each other. Others are not taking the initiative to speak. ++Fred asked for time to present the story of what ahs happened in the Canadian Church as there are major misunderstandings about what the situation is in Canada. The UK Bishops are being very quiet and nobody is raising the siutation here where civil same sex partnerships are permitted for C of E clergy!

At lunch, the Listeners met to get our next assignment. My group of three received the environment indaba reports to summarize and we completed that over supper. I missed evening worship because I was typing our report. The local WATCH group (Women and the Church) hosted a lovely supper reception at the home of the Archdeacon of Canterbury, Sheila Watson. We could not stay too long as Rabbi Jonathan Sacks was speaking this evening at 8pm on The Relationship between the People and God: the Covenant. This was a lead in to our discussions about Covenant.

After that the Listeners met again to go over the material that had been prepared. We have to be ready for a Hearing on our material by Wednesday. Off to bed for me!

+Sue