May 7

The Eucharist this morning was celebrated by Rev’d Peter Koon form Hong Kong. He is also part of the Network on Refugees and Migrants. The Hong Kong church to which he belongs has offered to host this network by giving it a home in their already existing refugee office. This is a great gift since the networks of the Communion do not receive any budget.

Bible Study today was Mark 7:24-30, 8:1-10. I am in a great group of folks from Australia, Bangladesh, the Congo, Wales and Canada. One of the questions was “How far do the words that Jesus speaks to the woman who asks for her daughter’s healing feel difficult or problematic to you, given your context?” Well there were a range of answers. Another question was “What is the meaning and importance of these stories of Jesus feeding the crowds for our Anglican Communion today – in particular the fact that the miracle is repeated for two different groups of people?”

We moved from Networks to Ecumenical work today. There was first a plenary session presented by Bishop Gregory Cameron, the former Director for Ecumenical Relations. He introduced a new book called, “The Vision Before Us”, edited by Sarah Rowland Jones and published by the Communion Office. It covers the work of the Inter Anglican Standing Committee on Ecumenical Relations over the past 6 years. It beings with a section called “Anglicans and Ecumenism” which includes four principles for Anglican Engagement in Ecumenism. We tried them out this morning by looking at ecumenical work in which members of the new discernment group are involved and seeing if the principles applied. Well it was a bit wooly, but there were certainly some interesting stories. I am facilitating a group that is asked to consider ecumenical work with protestant churches. The stories of trying to work with these churches produced stories of great cooperation on social issues, work in the face of being Christianity a minority religion in the face of persecution, stories of dead ends in discussions over the issue of bishops. We have another session with this tomorrow. Hopefully we will be able to clarify some of the terms before we have to consider any resolutions.

After lunch we went on tours of the area that showed us something of the history of the Anglican Church in Jamaica and some of the work the churches here. I went to see the Parish Church of Kingston, a church dating from the 1600’s. We went next to the Synagogue in Kingston. The spiritual leader met us and gave us a history of the Jewish people who came to Jamaica from Spain beginning with the persecution of the Inquisition. From there we went to the National Art Gallery, then to the Craft market at the port where several of did some shopping. We visited St. Andrew’s Parish Church, a church that includes a clinic, schools, and homes for girls, for boys, for assisted living and some other social outreach ministries. It is a very old church building and it is clearly much loved and well used by the people in the neighbourhood.

Tonight we have the evening off unless you are a member of a working group or the Resolutions Committee.

+Sue