Archbishop of Canterbury's Pentecost Letter to the Bishops of the
Anglican Communion
Monday 12 May 2008
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has today sent an open
letter to the bishops of the Anglican Communion, in advance of the
Lambeth Conference.
The full text of the letter can be found below:
The Feast of Pentecost is a time when we give thanks that God, through
the gift of the Holy Spirit, makes us able to speak to each other and to
the whole world of the wonderful things done in the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is a good moment to look forward
prayerfully to the Lambeth Conference, asking God to pour out the Spirit
on all of us as we make ready for this time together, so that we shall
indeed be given grace to speak boldly in his Name.
I indicated in earlier letters that the shape of the Conference will be
different from what many have been used to. We have listened carefully
to those who have expressed their difficulties with Western and
parliamentary styles of meeting, and the Design Group has tried to find
a new style a style more reflective of that Pentecost moment when all
received the gift of speaking freely about Christ.
At the heart of this will be the indaba groups. Indaba is a Zulu word
describing a meeting for purposeful discussion among equals. Its aim is
not to negotiate a formula that will keep everyone happy but to go to
the heart of an issue and find what the true challenges are before
seeking God's way forward. It is a method with parallels in many
cultures, and it is close to what Benedictine monks and Quaker Meetings
seek to achieve as they listen quietly together to God, in a community
where all are committed to a fellow****p of love and attention to each
other and to the word of God.
Each day's work in this context will go forward with careful
facilitation and preparation, to ensure that all voices are heard (and
many languages also!). The hope is that over the two weeks we spend
together, these groups will build a level of trust that will help us
break down the walls we have so often built against each other in the
Communion. And in combination with the intensive prayer and fellow****p
of the smaller Bible study groups, all this will result, by God's grace,
in clearer vision and discernment of what needs to be done.
As I noted when I wrote to you in Advent, this makes it all the more
essential that those who come to Lambeth will arrive genuinely willing
to engage fully in that growth towards closer unity that the Windsor
Re****t and the Covenant Process envisage. We hope that people will not
come so wedded to their own agenda and their local priorities that
they cannot listen to those from other cultural backgrounds. As you may
have gathered, in cir***stances where there has been divisive or
controversial action, I have been discussing privately with some bishops
the need to be wholeheartedly part of a shared vision and process in our
time together.
Of course, as baptised Christians and pastors of Christ's flock, we are
not just seeking some low-level consensus, or a simple agreement to
disagree politely. We are asking for the fire of the Spirit to come
upon us and deepen our sense that we are answerable to and for each
other and answerable to God for the faithful proclamation of his grace
uniquely offered in Jesus. That deepening may be painful in all kinds
of ways. The Spirit does not show us a way to by-pass the Cross. But
only in this way shall we truly appear in the world as Christ's Body as
a sign of God's Kingdom which challenges a world scarred by poverty,
violence and injustice.
The potential of our Conference is great. The focus of all we do is
meant to be strengthening our Communion and equipping all bishops to
engage more effectively in mission; only God the Holy Spirit can bind us
together in lasting and Christ-centred way, and only God the Holy Spirit
can give us the words we need to make Christ truly known in our world.
So we must go on praying hard with our people that the Spirit will
bring these possibilities to fruition as only he can. Those who have
planned the Conference have felt truly touched by that Spirit as they
have worked together, and I know that their only wish is that what they
have outlined for us will enable others to experience the same renewal
and delight in our fellow****p.
This is an ambitious event ambitious for God and God's Kingdom, which
is wholly appropriate for a Lambeth Conference. And our ambition is
nothing less than renewal and revival for us all in the Name of Jesus
and the power of his Spirit.
May that Spirit be with you daily in your preparation for our meeting.
As Our Lord says, 'You know him, for he lives with and will be in you'
(Jn 14.17).
+ Rowan Cantuar
--
Charles Hohenstein (to reply, remove Gene Robinson)
"The sad huddle of affluent bedwetters, thumbsuckers,
treehuggers, social climbers, homophiles, quavery ladies,
and chronic petition signers that makes up the current
Episcopal Church . . ." -‹Thomas Lipscomb
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