Wow, so things have been a tiny bit hectic around here lately. There wasn't too much of note going on two nights ago, although I did get to a Fringe event on the Quiet Garden Movement. It was neat!
Yesterday was by far the more eventful day. More eventful because I had to get up at 5:15! The buses for London began loading at 7:15. When we got in to London, we all unloaded and began the Walk of Witness from partway down the embankment of the Thames to Lambeth Palace. You can see clips of the march here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7523539.stm. The purpose was to draw attention to the necessity of striving to reach the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals), which are:
Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Achieve universal primary education
Promote gender equality and empower women
Reduce child mortality
Improve maternal health
Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
Ensure environmental sustainability
Develop a global partnership for development
Because the UK has been working pretty extensively on these issues for a few years now, Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister of Great Britain addressed all the delegates and staff at Lambeth Palace. He stressed the importance of achieving the goals as well as the potential inherent within the Anglican communion to help do this. It was a good speech, but I'm anxious to see what comes of all this. It still feels as though the MDGs are too abstract to really impress upon people the absolute necessity of their results. I hope many of the bishops, particularly the ones from the "Global North" go home with a better understanding of their importance, as well as ways in which to bring them to life in their dioceses.
After Lambeth Palace we all got back on the coaches and went for a jaunt over to Buckingham Palace. Once we had all arrived, the Yoemen of the Guard created a large swath down the middle of the lawn and Her Majesty the Queen came out, accompanied by Prince Philip. She greeted a number of delegates (not me) and other people of varying fame and importance in the great scheme of church politics. We then had tea on the lawn, and yes mom, of course, I had a cucumber sandwich. It was really good! There's neither bread crust nor cucumber skin anywhere in sight! I have to say though, for all the talk about cucumber sandwiches, they had Nothing on the salmon rolls! Those were fantastic! There were also these little dark chocolates that were kind of mousse-like, and soooo sweet. Talking about sweet, I didn't actually have a cup of tea, I had a glass of iced coffee. Trust me, if you ever have to choose between Buckingham Palace, and Tim Horton's, pick the palace! Great coffee. Fabulous. After I finished my munchies, everyone walked around the garden for a bit. We saw the royal tennis court, the rose garden, the pond, the island and the bathrooms. Oh, my gosh, everyone. English port-o-potties are insane! I used one at each Palace. The one at Lambeth was a large trailer with mutiple stations. It had tile flooring and framed pictures up on the wall, complete with those crzy new sinks with the bowl on the top of the counter. The ones at Buckingham had antique floor mirrors and vanities, and they were in tents! I hear rumours that the one at Canterbury Cathedral also has marble counters and music playing. I'm astounded!
Anyways, the stewards are off on another exciting adventure soon, so I'll have to write more later. Hope all are well.
Blessings everyone,
Nick.
P.S. - I forgot to mention, but it was in the title, I got to swing on the Archbishop's plank swing when I was at his house! That and, I've now used square plates! How fancy!
Friday, July 25, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Indaba - Not In 'da' bar!
(OK, so maybe I didn't make that up. But it's witty!)
Once upon a time, in a land faaar across the ocean, there was a biiig, big tent. It was called the Big Top. It was the blue-est tent anyone had ever seen, with two big spires and guidelines that would trip up even the least weary traveller. Well, I've decided I'm moving in there. Forget living in Birks when you've got the Big Top! My day today started with a 6:45 shift manning the doors at the Big Top. No one except for the people with the right lanyards and passes are allowed in there. I've had to pull out my scary security face a couple times already. Of course, the entire Big Top is fenced in (not quite the 10 foot fence Ms. Glendhill has been talking about if any of you are following The Times at all), so most people have the right passes already. I was also in the Big Top for evening worship before supper tonight, and then on the Big Top security gate until 22:15. See? This is why I'm moving in to the Big Top. I'm also on for the Eucharist at 6:45 tomorrow morning, so I'll just roll out of my comfy padded chairs and already be at work. It's foolproof!
Bishops' Bible Studies have now begun, as have Indaba groups. Most of the time we can't really sit in on them though, so the shifts have been a bit monotonous. It's a lot of sitting in the hallway for two and a half hours. Those one's aren't the greatest shifts (they've got nothing on the Big Top!). The topics do look interesting though. A lot of the talk at the conference in focussed on issues of social justice, in its quite varied manifestations. There's also a big focus on the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals), which quickly seem to be turning into the quintessential Anglican rallying point. I'm all for the MDGs, but I don't know how I feel about that.
Yesterday I was able to attend/work at a self-select session on Healthcare Networks, which was great and informative, but I have virtually no experience in the field, at least in terms of it's main theme, which seemed to be midwifery/infants/maternal health. Today, though, I managed to get into a session on Jesus, Evangelism and Other Faiths, which was basically an attempt to talk about soteriology in an interfaith-post-colonial context. Needless to say, I felt a bit more at home there.
For last night's plenary, we had Dr. Brian Mclaren as a guest speaker, talking about Evangelism in a post-modern context. I'm really confused by a lot of post-modern approaches to religion too. It's weird. I find I often arrive at similar conclusions to many post-modernists, but have a really different way of getting there. It seems really anti-institutional, which doesn't really provide for a great way of modifying existing structures, it just means recreating everything, over and over and over again. I'm not so sure that works. Tonight was Roman Cardinal Ivan Dias of the Vatican talking about Mission, Social Justice and Evangelism. Unfortunately I wasn't able to be there for that one, I was on gate duty. At least I got a radio with an earpiece :).
The Marketplace is also now open, and I've bought my first Rowan Williams book! It's called "Silence and Honey Cakes: The Wisdom of the Desert". A great author with an equally great theme, I can't wait to be awake enough to read it!
Well, that's about all I can think of right now. I'll try to send another update tomorrow. Thursday is London Day! Woohoo! Catch the news and look for the crazy people in the blinding orange jackets. That'll be us :). We're off to Buckingham Palace!
Adieu, tout le monde.
Nick.
Once upon a time, in a land faaar across the ocean, there was a biiig, big tent. It was called the Big Top. It was the blue-est tent anyone had ever seen, with two big spires and guidelines that would trip up even the least weary traveller. Well, I've decided I'm moving in there. Forget living in Birks when you've got the Big Top! My day today started with a 6:45 shift manning the doors at the Big Top. No one except for the people with the right lanyards and passes are allowed in there. I've had to pull out my scary security face a couple times already. Of course, the entire Big Top is fenced in (not quite the 10 foot fence Ms. Glendhill has been talking about if any of you are following The Times at all), so most people have the right passes already. I was also in the Big Top for evening worship before supper tonight, and then on the Big Top security gate until 22:15. See? This is why I'm moving in to the Big Top. I'm also on for the Eucharist at 6:45 tomorrow morning, so I'll just roll out of my comfy padded chairs and already be at work. It's foolproof!
Bishops' Bible Studies have now begun, as have Indaba groups. Most of the time we can't really sit in on them though, so the shifts have been a bit monotonous. It's a lot of sitting in the hallway for two and a half hours. Those one's aren't the greatest shifts (they've got nothing on the Big Top!). The topics do look interesting though. A lot of the talk at the conference in focussed on issues of social justice, in its quite varied manifestations. There's also a big focus on the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals), which quickly seem to be turning into the quintessential Anglican rallying point. I'm all for the MDGs, but I don't know how I feel about that.
Yesterday I was able to attend/work at a self-select session on Healthcare Networks, which was great and informative, but I have virtually no experience in the field, at least in terms of it's main theme, which seemed to be midwifery/infants/maternal health. Today, though, I managed to get into a session on Jesus, Evangelism and Other Faiths, which was basically an attempt to talk about soteriology in an interfaith-post-colonial context. Needless to say, I felt a bit more at home there.
For last night's plenary, we had Dr. Brian Mclaren as a guest speaker, talking about Evangelism in a post-modern context. I'm really confused by a lot of post-modern approaches to religion too. It's weird. I find I often arrive at similar conclusions to many post-modernists, but have a really different way of getting there. It seems really anti-institutional, which doesn't really provide for a great way of modifying existing structures, it just means recreating everything, over and over and over again. I'm not so sure that works. Tonight was Roman Cardinal Ivan Dias of the Vatican talking about Mission, Social Justice and Evangelism. Unfortunately I wasn't able to be there for that one, I was on gate duty. At least I got a radio with an earpiece :).
The Marketplace is also now open, and I've bought my first Rowan Williams book! It's called "Silence and Honey Cakes: The Wisdom of the Desert". A great author with an equally great theme, I can't wait to be awake enough to read it!
Well, that's about all I can think of right now. I'll try to send another update tomorrow. Thursday is London Day! Woohoo! Catch the news and look for the crazy people in the blinding orange jackets. That'll be us :). We're off to Buckingham Palace!
Adieu, tout le monde.
Nick.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Starting Again
Well they're off... once again! Today signalled the actual opening of the real conference. Not the retreat conference, which ended yesterday. This morning we all went down to the Cathedral once again and got to see the Archbishop actually by his big stone chair! (i.e. - The chair of Saint Augustine - the actual cathedra). I'll readily admit that I'll probably never see another ceremony as opulent as that one, not that it was over the top or even all that extravagent, but the sheer number of people/religious leaders, from both the Anglican communion and beyond was astounding. Stepping onto the grounds was like stepping back a few centuries. As soon as we were inside, the police shut the large outer gates and we were left in the tranquility of the courtyard.
The stewards were placed by the north transept, so we were right next to the quire, which was super neat, except for the fact that Canterbury Cathedral was built, I'm convinced, in order to prevent anyone from ever seeing all of the service, as my fellow steward, Luiz, pointed out today. There's a mini wall, right in front of you if you're seated in that area, so I basically watched the tips of croziers wandering by and saw the rest on the TV screen in front of us. The service was nice, and despite what anyone says, I personally heard nothing but good things from those leaving the cathedral. I've included a link to the BBC page, but I have no audio, so I don't know what was said. All I have to go on is friends' testimony as to Archbishop Venables' statements. From what I've heard, they paint a very different picture from what I saw on the inside of the church. The Melanesian brothers in particular had everyone clapping, they're always an exciting group.
This afternoon there was another plenary describing certain processes involving the Windsor report, the Covenant draft and the discussions to come in the next two weeks. The Archbishop gave a quite succinct presentation and encouraged everyone not to abandon the conversations.
Well, I'm off for tonight. Morning prayer starts at 6:30, so I'm up early!
Bonne nuit a tous!
Nick.
The stewards were placed by the north transept, so we were right next to the quire, which was super neat, except for the fact that Canterbury Cathedral was built, I'm convinced, in order to prevent anyone from ever seeing all of the service, as my fellow steward, Luiz, pointed out today. There's a mini wall, right in front of you if you're seated in that area, so I basically watched the tips of croziers wandering by and saw the rest on the TV screen in front of us. The service was nice, and despite what anyone says, I personally heard nothing but good things from those leaving the cathedral. I've included a link to the BBC page, but I have no audio, so I don't know what was said. All I have to go on is friends' testimony as to Archbishop Venables' statements. From what I've heard, they paint a very different picture from what I saw on the inside of the church. The Melanesian brothers in particular had everyone clapping, they're always an exciting group.
This afternoon there was another plenary describing certain processes involving the Windsor report, the Covenant draft and the discussions to come in the next two weeks. The Archbishop gave a quite succinct presentation and encouraged everyone not to abandon the conversations.
Well, I'm off for tonight. Morning prayer starts at 6:30, so I'm up early!
Bonne nuit a tous!
Nick.
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