Bishop Brian Cole reflects on his time at Lambeth and the one missing piece during his time there, you! Join Bishop Brian on Thursday, August 18, beginning at 6:30 pm for a conversation about the Lambeth Conference and what it means for East Tennessee Episcopalians.
Transcript
Hi. I’m Bishop Brian. Susan and I have just returned from the Lambeth Conference. The Lambeth Conference takes place every ten years, roughly, and gathers Anglican bishops from across the communion. This was the 15th gathering and initially that took place at Lambeth Palace in London, the palace, the home of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Now, because of the growth of the number of bishops around the globe, it takes place on the campus of the University of Kent at Canterbury, where we were in residence for two weeks.
Many good things did come out of this gathering: good Bible study, good fellowship. I had a chance to visit with Bishop Given Gaula and his wife, mother Lilian, who are connected to our companion diocese in the diocese of Kondoa, Tanzania. It was great to see them. We had some important work around staying connected as a communion, even as we have very different views on human sexuality and the Episcopal Church’s support of same gender, marriage and full inclusion of LGBT+ believers.
We also, at some point, realized something was really missing at the Lambeth Conference and that was you. As Episcopalians, when we make significant decisions, when we do significant work together, it really involves lay folk, deacons, priests, and bishops together making those decisions. We are a synodically governed, episcopal-led group of Christians. So your voice, your presence was missing at the Lambeth Conference.
So on Thursday, August 18th at 6:30 p.m., I would invite you to join me in a Zoom conversation where I will say more about the Lambeth Conference and my experiences and Susan’s experiences at that time. But I also want to hear from you about what you heard or saw while we were there, or questions about why we gathered or what it looks like for us to gather and what we might do from this work, particularly in the summer where we also had a general convention of the Episcopal Church and now a Lambeth Conference.
So much of what we do as Episcopalians, when we think about governance, we think about constitution and canons or canon law. It’s applied theology. It’s applied ecclesiology. It’s our way of saying this is how we want to live together. This is how we want to make decisions. We want them to be consistent. We want them to be clear.
We want them to be fair. I want them to be guided with gospel values. So again, join me on August 18th, 6:30 p.m. At the end of this video you’ll see a link and how to do so and it’ll be great just to see you and reflect on the work of the Lambeth Conference and to think through how we take this work forward, share this community, this fellowship that we share as Anglicans and Episcopalians around the world, but share it particularly in our church where we value all the orders of ministry and we realize we are led and governed by all those orders.
We need you in order to do our work in the life of the Diocese of East Tennessee. So join me on August 18th and join me in the days ahead. And to do ministry in East Tennessee.
Links to Resources
We will also post a recording of the presentation when it becomes available from Zoom.
Archbishop of York on Evangelism beginning around the 32 minute mark.
Bishop Brian highlighted four of the calls as speaking particularly to our context as East Tennessee Episcopalians: Mission and Evangelism, Environment & Sustainable Development, Discipleship, and Anglican Identity.
Parish: An Anglican Theology of Place
The First Letter of Peter: A Global Commentary
Also, a link to relief efforts in Eastern Kentucky which was mentioned.