Second Reflection on the Lambeth Conference.

Bishop Martin

‘The Permafrost and the African Bible’

In the Paisley of my childhood, the Bible was something black, that was ‘brandished’ in various locations from the lap of my unhappy grandfather to the bed-side table of my Mother.

The Bible was not a book, but an instrument; frankly, of the controlling world of adults and the judgement of a God I could not discern or make sense of in any way. You might think it strange; therefore, that I now find myself a Bishop, who, after all is expected to be a prime holder of the truth of Holy Scripture. After all, at the Lambeth Conference, the three great planks on which Anglicanism is founded are Scripture, Tradition and Reason.

So when it became clear at the Lambeth Conference that almost every day following breakfast there would be a Bible Study, my first reaction was to grit my teeth. That is not to suggest that the Bible was and is not of vital importance to me. At King’s College, London, in the 1960s, where I was taught theology in , the Bible was seen as a highly complex piece of literature that revealed in varying and sometimes in conflicting ways, the story of liberation of a people through suffering, death, triumph, starvation, plenty, deceit, truth, hatred, love, betrayal, loyalty, humour and seriousness…. and belief and unbelief. The complexity of this Bible; this ‘library of the history of salvation’, demanded that the priest in training, must take seriously the literary analysis and criticism that was determined to find out the true sources of the Bible; who was involved in the creation of the writings and for what and whose purpose they were written. The reality was and remains, in my view, that there are some well founded theories that this science has still to finalise, but uncertainty remains. For me that uncertainty adds to the adventure and importance of the Bible, about which there is always a question mark. Sadly, from my perspective, much of that critical approach to the Bible has disappeared. However, I with the Bishop of Lincoln, a good friend of mine, did our best to remind the Conference that Anglicanism has been at the forefront of Biblical criticism.

I feel that there is a Christian mentality now that wants little else but

certainties. Bible studies can often be the place where certainties are hungered for and truth is in danger of being a casualty.

But, but! There on the first morning of the Bible Study, I was in a tiny supervision room of Kent University, near Canterbury with seven other bishops. At the same moment hundreds of bishops and spouses were in similar rooms throughout the University all allowing themselves to be drawn into the mystery of St John’s Gospel, and more specifically the great ‘I am’ sayings of Jesus. There in our cramped space, with a shining face and bright eyes was the Bishop of Kansas, Dean Wolfe, who led our group. His first action?...He gave us all chocolate coated peanuts! [Thank you Jimmy Carter!] By the end of the three weeks, each of us gave each other gifts from our own culture. Let me get this out of the way now. You will have to forgive me! I gave each member of the group – yes – shortbread. I had forgotten to take gifts with me. Guess what? Elspeth went down to Sainsbury’s in Canterbury to buy the shortbread! I can just feel the air thick with emails now! The others brought gifts of American Indian (First Nation) Christian necklaces, The American prayer Book, Candles made in a township outside Pretoria in South Africa, a stole from Ghana, a video of life in the outback near Perth in Western Australia, books, prayer cards and a pink rosary! These wonderful Bishops were from the North American Permafrost to the heats of South and West Africa.

One of the bishops was from a strong evangelical tradition and had attended the conference in Jerusalem (GAFCON) on reasserting traditional Christian values; the Archbishop from Canada who works among First Nation peoples speaks Cree and is profoundly committed to the Church’s open attitude to those in same sex relationships. Bishop Tom from Perth, Australia, flew the flag for liberal attitudes to New Testament study. Bishop Nedi Rivera from Seattle enabled us all to risk speaking the truth to each other and listen deeply. Sitting often quietly but so attentively was the Archbishop of Ghana with a wonderful Christian name: Justice. He was from a strong Anglo-Catholic culture which had been born from the work of USPG in West Africa. Bishop Mazwi from Pretoria was deeply concerned about poverty and how a culture that has increasing images of plenty is going to adapt to the inevitable rising tensions. I silenced the group by telling them that the Diocese of Argyll and The Isles, the ‘cradle of Christianity’ in the West, has only a little over a thousand Episcopalians. I added that I have only ordained one person in the four years in the Diocese and shock of shocks, confirmed only 12 people in that time. Despite this massive diversity in such a small group of Bishops, most of us we had never met a woman bishop before. (Nedi – what a wonderfully inspiring and strong person you are!) Love and prayer marked our time together. To be honest, I suspect that is because we wanted to listen deeply to each other. And there lies the secret.

St John’s Gospel ‘I am’ sayings (‘I am the Bread of Life, I am the door, I am the good shepherd etc’) became not sayings to be examined under a literary microscope, but beautiful summonings for us to be brought into Christ. And here’s the perspective that for some may be difficult to take. To be in Christ is for each of us to be the ‘I am’! So, as you can imagine, there were moments of silence. What dawned on us all, from our different perspectives, was that because the Bishop is an apostle of Christ, he/she is therefore ‘I am’ – the presence of the Word to be discovered in each corner of each Diocese at any given moment. Laughter, sadness, empathy and listening formed the basic chemistry of the group. A few of us did fly the flag for biblical criticism. That didn’t distract us from the subjective engagement with the text, but deepened that engagement. [If you go into the Lambeth Conference website, and click on the ‘resources’ page, you will find an excellent approach to St John’s Gospel which complements the Bible Study process at the conference itself. It’s called ‘Signs on the Way’. You can download it in different formats to suit you. You might find it useful as a basis for a Bible Study in your charges.]

Now, before you read on, I would like you to get your Bible… yes over there in the corner. No, it’s not black, I know. Now open it up and read 2 Samuel 13.1-22. I’ll wait until you’re finished…… The reason I have asked you to do that is because I now want you to imagine a huge Marquee (‘Big Top’) in which about a thousand people are gathered. One of the Bible Study sessions at the Lambeth Conference was held with everyone together. Professor Gerald West a South African Biblical Scholar (with film star good looks!) had asked that the men (Bishops mostly, with a few male spouses) be on one side and women on the other (Mostly spouses, with a few women Bishops). This was a Bible Study on the story you have just read about Tamar – a raped woman, as you will gather from the text. [When was the last time you heard that story read?] Gerald split us up into fours, which enabled us simply to turn around to those closest to us and share our feelings about the characters who abused, were abused, who didn’t want to face the truth, who held their dignity, who resisted acknowledging the reality of abuse. Roving microphones picked up some reflections from each group. The atmosphere was electric. In so many cultures, abuse is not acknowledged, let alone talked about. Facing up to the potential in all of us, including in me a Bishop, to abuse others in ways subtle and not so subtle, was the painful but creative outcome of what was astonishingly skilful and, for me at least, harrowing experience.

What occurs to me is that perhaps from time to time, more of our charges might risk such an approach to Scripture in the middle of the Eucharist. What would happen if occasionally at a Eucharist, following the Gospel, you simply turned to those closest to you and shared your feelings about the Gospel? If then the reflections were pooled…. Who knows what might come out of it….?

Thank you Lambeth Conference for renewed inspiration in the Bible as it becomes a living present engagement with Christ. My next reflection will look at an approach that was adopted by the Conference to sharing critical issues of our time in a way that has been developed over the centuries in Africa – Indaba.