Vicar's Letter
Keep watch over yourselves and over all the flock, of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers… Acts 20.28 Dear Friends Our cathedral city of Canterbury will be the focus of great attention from 16th July to 4th August as around 600 bishops and archbishops from around the world will be gathering for the Lambeth Conference, held every ten years. The first conference met in 1867 in response to a crisis about the limits of diversity admissible in the various Anglican provinces, and 2008 with ongoing controversies on a number of issues of authority and accountability poses again the question of how we live together as a church family or communion across the world. We all, not just church leaders, face these issues in one form or another. Whereas the words ‘Anglican’ or ‘Episcopalian’ may be widely understood in other parts of the world, people in a local Church of England parish are less likely to use these terms. Our understanding of ‘Anglicanism’ is rooted in the broad-based parish system, forming a church with its historic mission of being open to all the people, and working with friends in other churches to live out the Gospel and provide pastoral care. The Lambeth Conference reminds us of our part in the global mission and work of the Church. Anglican churches throughout the world are at the cutting edge of issues which impact upon daily life – Zimbabwe and Iraq are two countries where Christians particularly need our help and prayer at this time. And because local parishes and local congregations are bound together in a greater whole, the leadership of the Anglican Church is vested in bishops (episkopoi, or ‘overseers’, in the New Testament) from whom archbishops or presiding bishops are chosen to lead particular provinces. This year in Canterbury, the bishops will be seeking to strengthen the sense of a shared Anglican identity and to better equip themselves as leaders in mission. They will talk, worship, pray and study together, and we’re likely to see bishops and their spouses out and about in our own Diocese (probably including our own parishes), learning about our local churches. What can we do to support our bishops in these important weeks? We can share in the Bible studies provided for the Conference, reflecting on the Gospel of St John and of course we are asked to pray for them, using the Lambeth prayer, which could also apply to own mission here in the local parish: Pour down upon us, O God, the gifts of your Holy Spirit, that those who prepare for the Lambeth Conference may be filled with wisdom and understanding. May they know at work within them that creative energy and vision which belong to our humanity, made in your image and redeemed by your love, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Yours in Christ
Charles Hill