From Religious Intelligence:
Monday, 21st July 2008. 4:59pm
By George Conger
Canterbury: The opening Eucharist service of the 2008 Lambeth Conference exemplified everything that is wrong with the Communion and the Conference, with substance given a second place to ceremony, one Global South primate told ReligiousIntelligence.com.
While much was said about transforming the world through social action, nothing was said about personal transformation and renewal of life, the archbishop said following the July 20 ceremony.
The tensions have led to three primates and an undisclosed number of bishops declining to receive the sacraments during the opening Eucharist, highlighting the tensions lurking beneath the surface of the every ten year gathering of the bishops of the Anglican Communion.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has turned his considerable intellectual talents and charm upon the gathered bishops at Lambeth, hoping to keep the Communion alive while it sorts out its divisions of doctrine and discord. He has warned bishops not to expect an end to the Anglican wars from this 14th Lambeth Conference, and over a three-day retreat repeatedly sounded the theme of unity.
Dr Williams remains optimistic. “No one appears to have told the bishops here” the Anglican Communion is over, he said on July 21.
However, Archbishop Gregory Venables warned it would take a “miracle” to hold the Communion together. “Humanely speaking there is little hope for even a peaceful separation” between the liberal and evangelical wings of the 80-million member communion of churches, he said.
The July 20 opened with a procession of choristers, local worthies including the Lord Lieutenant of Kent and bewigged and breach-wearing judges, 75 ecumenical participants and 670 bishops and archbishops.
Prof Ian Douglas of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a member of the Lambeth Conference Design Group explained the bishops were dressed in choir or convocation dress and unlike previous conferences were not grouped by province as they processes into the choir stalls.
At the 1998 Conference, the bishops processed wearing their cassocks without rochet and chimere — the distinctive dress of bishops, Dr Douglas explained, as there was concern by some bishops over the status of women bishops. This was not a “live issue” at this conference, explaining the return to choir dress.
He added that the conference organizers sought to downplay “triumphalistic” elements found in past services, and asked the bishops to “come in together” in procession and continue the “experience of togetherness” fostered by the retreat.
Seated along the aisle, Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, received the greetings of several hundred of the bishops in procession, before they passed behind the Cathedral’s rood screen, disappearing from view.
Television screens spread across the nave broadcast the proceedings to the congregation as the lessons and psalm were read to the congregation in English, Korean and French. Dancers and drummers from the Solomon Island dressed in grass skirts and painted body markings carried the Bible out into the congregation in a small out-rigger canoe, and danced round the deacon before the readings.
In his sermon, the Bishop of Colombo, the Rt Rev Duleep de Chickera spoke of the need for social and political activism from the church. He also called for the Anglican Communion to “resuscitate the challenge of unity in diversity.”
“In Christ we are all equal,” Bishop de Chickera said, there is “space for all” within the Anglican Communion regardless of “colour, race, gender or sexual orientation.”
The Anglican Communion must exercise its “prophetic voice” and be the “voice of the voiceless,” calling into “accountability those who abuse power.”
The bishop ended his sermon by offering a “Buddhist chant” in Sinhalese as a bell tolled in the background. A spokesman for the conference organizing committee stated Dr Williams had selected Bishop de Chickera to preach.
An advocate of Liberation Theology, last October Bishop de Chickera’s diocesan synod pledged to follow the path of Christian Socialism and foster “a synthesis between the teachings of Jesus and Karl Marx,” to become a “Jesus community with shared resources, shared decision-making, and shared activities.”
Only the Archbishop of Canterbury and his chaplain and cathedral clergy were dressed in Eucharist vestments, and organizers said there had been no concelebration of the Eucharist. Only Dr Williams presided, avoiding a potential controversy for traditionalists by the presence of women bishops in the service.
While the rood screen prevented a clear view of the bishops during the Eucharist, and the television cameras turned away from the bishops to film the choir, several bishops and archbishops refrained from receiving the Eucharist ReligiousIntelligence.com was told.
Two Anglo-Catholic bishops confirmed they had remained in their seats, as did three evangelical primates from the Global South. All asked not to be named as they did not wish to politicize their actions or embarrass Dr Williams. All five stated they did not receive because of the presence of the American bishops with whom there were not in fellowship.
Following the service American Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori told reporters the gathering was “glorious” and symbolic of the “inclusive” nature of Anglicanism.
The Bishop of Pittsburgh Robert Duncan, however, was nonplussed by the singing of a Buddhist chant at the close of the sermon and asked the conference organizers to provide a translation of the chant.
Subsequent inquiries made by the ReligiousIntelligence.com revealed that while the tune was that of a traditional Buddhist mantra from Ceylon, the words sung by Bishop de Chickera were a paean to the Trinity, calling upon God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit for protection of those present.
Monday marks the opening day of business for the Conference as the bishops move into their 40-man Indaba groups for reflection and study.
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