Well, as the bishops have been on retreat for the past two days, I decided to take yesterday off from the blog in order to catch up on some much welcomed sleep. The past two days have been remarkably slow, what with the bishops down at the cathedral on retreat and all. Nonetheless, life does go on here, and the spouses' conference is getting into full swing. Last night, Jane Williams' (the Archbishop's wife's) new book, Marriage, Mitres and Being Myself was launched, with a free copy being given out to all of the spouses present at the conference (along with wine and fair trade chocolate!). The book describes the experience of being married to a bishop, from the perspective of numerous people from around the communion. I think I'll try to find a copy once the marketplace opens up. The portions that she read sounded quite interesting.
My duties over the past couple days have mostly consisted of pointing people in the right directions, giving tours of the campus, guarding gates and ushering bishops onto buses. It hasn't been highly stressful work, but it's been very active work, and I'm starting to recognize faces, which makes checking security passes that much easier.
One of the best experiences so far has come up twice in the past two days. This would be the daily compline service, which is the last service of the night, and generally happens here at about 21:45. I feel that at a conference like this, and being in the position that I'm in, there's a really strange tension between 'humanizing' the bishops and 'venerating' them. On the one hand, you see them eat and sleep and show up late to Eucharist, but on the other hand, you have the great opportunity to see what others saw when these men and women were consecrated bishops. The tension lies in drawing the line between these two poles. It's the question of what level of respect and deference is owed to the other who is fully human and yet in a position of much greater religious authority. In my experience of the past couple days, worship in the sacred space with the monks and nuns has served as the great equalizer. The chapel room is octagonal enough to be round, and there are icons and images up along all the walls, with a large cross in the centre surrounded by flowers. The brothers and sisters sit in a circle in the middle, surrounding the cross, and everyone else sits along the outside, either in the chairs set up or on the floor (of Course I picked the floor). The great thing about it is that people's humanity and fragility become incredibly evident when in such a subdued and relfective atmosphere, and one realizes that a sense of humility before God is inextricably linked with the witness of the church. When true worship happens in both spirit and in truth, the centrality of the self is destabilized and God alone is left in power and in glory. Furthermore, however, it seems to be the very act of divesting the self of prominence in deference to God that causes one to become a great spiritual leader, and this is what I see in so many people when I go to compline.
Well, I am off to the magical land of sleep in order to hopefully make the 6:30 morning prayer tomorrow.
Blessings, all.
Nick.
P.S. - I finally got to knit a bit tonight, I now have a prayer shawl that's over half finished! And even better, I've had someone agree to teach me how to knit socks. Score!
Friday, July 18, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Title? What Title?
So I came up here with this fatastic intention of 'blogging away' my wonderful day, when I all of a sudden realized... I don't actually remember most of my day. Ooh, Candice! (Candice Young-Rojanschi that is [yes I did check Facebook to make sure I spelled it right, and no I did not spell it right]). You'll love this one. You know, when you get back to using computers and of course decide to read through every blog entry I've ever written on here. As you can likely tell, I'm a bit overtired tonight. Anyways, guess who was in the breakfast hall this morning! Seriously, guess. Here are some hints. 1) Famous Bible historian 2) Bishop of Durham, England 3) First name is the coolest name in the world, i.e. Nicholas, though he often goes by the initials N.T. That's right, if you said N.T. Wright, you've probably read too many books about the New Testament! - Seriously, really, really tired tonight.
The reason for that is that first of all, the day started with my group on break, until all of a sudden we were working at the car park, which is the British equivalent of a parking lot, which is the Steward's equivalent of one of the two ethereal realms. Needless to say, with approximately 800 bishops left to arrive, plus their spouses, we were a tad busy. Once I finished that shift I moved onto reception at one of the buildings, which on the fantastic side, gave me a walkie-talkie all afternoon, but on the not so fantastic side, lasted all afternoon. Anyways, that was a pretty productive afternoon. We got a number of the bishops into their rooms and everything, so they're safe and sound, and most have their luggage. Tonight there was the opening plenary. It will be one of few plenaries, but there wasn't much to be said. It was mostly a welcome and some short instructions. Tomorrow morning the Bible studies start, as does the bishops' three day retreat inside Canterbury Cathedral. They'll essentially be cloistered in there for the whole day with time to pray and to speak in small groups or wander without fear of intrusion from visitors. It's incredible, there's a huge wall around the whole cahedral grounds. It's quite impressive, and quite cool! I was struck today though by how archaic some of the language and rituals are. Archaic in a good sense. In other news, I did forget to update yesterday, but I should note that I finally met the Archbishop of Canterbury (aka. The Archbishop)! He was leaving the hall I was working in and on his way out he came over to say hi. I was quite pleased, he was very nice, but he moved on pretty quickly.
In other news, I was speaking to one of the other stewards tonight. His name's Isaac, and he's from Tanzania (by the way, today I also saw Bishop Mwachiko from Montreal's partner diocese of Masasi in Tanzania). I was speaking to Isaac about commodity prices where he comes from (Dar es Salaam) and found out some incredible things. So apparently one 10 kg bag of rice in Tanzania costs $800 USD - it can be used to feed 6 people for 6 months. An average annual salary is about just over $2000 USD. Now the annual salary figure isn't all that shocking, but $800 USD for a bag of rice, that amazed me. I was also talking to Daniel, from Myanmar, who said that in his entire diocese, there are two computers: one at the library, and one at the diocesan office. Having quite limited experience in the developing world (read: vitually no experience) this things still astound me. On the positive side though, I've been invited to Tanzania twice today!
That's all for tonight folks,
Have a blessed day, evening and etc.
Pray for us! The bishops, the stewards, the staff, volunteers, I think we'll all need it quite a bit pretty soon. Already exhaustion is starting to set in for many of the staff and stewards.
God bless you all.
:). Nick.
The reason for that is that first of all, the day started with my group on break, until all of a sudden we were working at the car park, which is the British equivalent of a parking lot, which is the Steward's equivalent of one of the two ethereal realms. Needless to say, with approximately 800 bishops left to arrive, plus their spouses, we were a tad busy. Once I finished that shift I moved onto reception at one of the buildings, which on the fantastic side, gave me a walkie-talkie all afternoon, but on the not so fantastic side, lasted all afternoon. Anyways, that was a pretty productive afternoon. We got a number of the bishops into their rooms and everything, so they're safe and sound, and most have their luggage. Tonight there was the opening plenary. It will be one of few plenaries, but there wasn't much to be said. It was mostly a welcome and some short instructions. Tomorrow morning the Bible studies start, as does the bishops' three day retreat inside Canterbury Cathedral. They'll essentially be cloistered in there for the whole day with time to pray and to speak in small groups or wander without fear of intrusion from visitors. It's incredible, there's a huge wall around the whole cahedral grounds. It's quite impressive, and quite cool! I was struck today though by how archaic some of the language and rituals are. Archaic in a good sense. In other news, I did forget to update yesterday, but I should note that I finally met the Archbishop of Canterbury (aka. The Archbishop)! He was leaving the hall I was working in and on his way out he came over to say hi. I was quite pleased, he was very nice, but he moved on pretty quickly.
In other news, I was speaking to one of the other stewards tonight. His name's Isaac, and he's from Tanzania (by the way, today I also saw Bishop Mwachiko from Montreal's partner diocese of Masasi in Tanzania). I was speaking to Isaac about commodity prices where he comes from (Dar es Salaam) and found out some incredible things. So apparently one 10 kg bag of rice in Tanzania costs $800 USD - it can be used to feed 6 people for 6 months. An average annual salary is about just over $2000 USD. Now the annual salary figure isn't all that shocking, but $800 USD for a bag of rice, that amazed me. I was also talking to Daniel, from Myanmar, who said that in his entire diocese, there are two computers: one at the library, and one at the diocesan office. Having quite limited experience in the developing world (read: vitually no experience) this things still astound me. On the positive side though, I've been invited to Tanzania twice today!
That's all for tonight folks,
Have a blessed day, evening and etc.
Pray for us! The bishops, the stewards, the staff, volunteers, I think we'll all need it quite a bit pretty soon. Already exhaustion is starting to set in for many of the staff and stewards.
God bless you all.
:). Nick.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Hold on to Your Mitres!
(especially you Jen Otto, seeing as how you're still wearing yours)
Well, it's now 16:08, July 15, 2008, and I've officially been in the presence of the Most Rev. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. Anglifamous indeed! We began this morning with a general tying up loose ends meeting. It started with an actual visit by, once again, the Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon. He came across to me as incredibly humble. I was amazed, really. You could tell as he stood up though, that he was used to speaking to groups, because once he got going, he was really a quite good speaker. He was only there for a couple minutes though. Then he left. On any other day that would have been the highlight of, well, life. Except, ten minutes later, as we were going through rotations and the like, I noticed out of the corner of my little eye a flash of brilliant white priestly collar, neatly framed by the fantastic and envious beard of His Grace, the Most Rev. Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. Wow. Missed a beat you say? More like stopped beating entirely for about a minute and three quarters! I was shocked, and stunned. I'm still a tad shocked! Anyways, he only stayed for a few minutes, and said some nice words and then left. It's a little bit of a blur at the moment, all I can remember is standing up and smiling, oh, and the beard of course! I haven't formally met him yet, but sometime soon... sometime.
After that, the real work started! Our group spent two hours this morning receiving bishops and carrying luggage. We then went on call and so I got to tape up signs that had already been taped up yesterday. Apparently the tape wasn't sticking very well or something. Now I'm here, and since I go back to work in 40 minutes (at 5:00) and am on duty until 11, I figured I should jot down my thoughts while they're still (smoewhat) coherent.
In other very important news. Bishop Barry has arrived safe and sound! For all those of you wondering, he pulled in this morning, just before lunch, and so I got to eat lunch with him, which was quite exciting. It's always good to see a familiar face from home, and it's even better when that familiar face is your bishop! He looked well, but tired, and he said his flight went well, so hurrah and thank God for that. Well, if there's anything else overwhelmingly exciting, I'll edit this post.
Oh, P.S. - Have I mentioned how many people there are here who are on the ordination track!? Stewards that is. Of course. I would say a great majority of the stewards are planning on being ordained, and a couple already have been! We have at Least two priests and one deacon in the group I believe. It's quite an exciting group to be a part of!
God bless you all,
Thanks again for reading the Blog!
Over and out,
Nick.
Well, it's now 16:08, July 15, 2008, and I've officially been in the presence of the Most Rev. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. Anglifamous indeed! We began this morning with a general tying up loose ends meeting. It started with an actual visit by, once again, the Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon. He came across to me as incredibly humble. I was amazed, really. You could tell as he stood up though, that he was used to speaking to groups, because once he got going, he was really a quite good speaker. He was only there for a couple minutes though. Then he left. On any other day that would have been the highlight of, well, life. Except, ten minutes later, as we were going through rotations and the like, I noticed out of the corner of my little eye a flash of brilliant white priestly collar, neatly framed by the fantastic and envious beard of His Grace, the Most Rev. Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. Wow. Missed a beat you say? More like stopped beating entirely for about a minute and three quarters! I was shocked, and stunned. I'm still a tad shocked! Anyways, he only stayed for a few minutes, and said some nice words and then left. It's a little bit of a blur at the moment, all I can remember is standing up and smiling, oh, and the beard of course! I haven't formally met him yet, but sometime soon... sometime.
After that, the real work started! Our group spent two hours this morning receiving bishops and carrying luggage. We then went on call and so I got to tape up signs that had already been taped up yesterday. Apparently the tape wasn't sticking very well or something. Now I'm here, and since I go back to work in 40 minutes (at 5:00) and am on duty until 11, I figured I should jot down my thoughts while they're still (smoewhat) coherent.
In other very important news. Bishop Barry has arrived safe and sound! For all those of you wondering, he pulled in this morning, just before lunch, and so I got to eat lunch with him, which was quite exciting. It's always good to see a familiar face from home, and it's even better when that familiar face is your bishop! He looked well, but tired, and he said his flight went well, so hurrah and thank God for that. Well, if there's anything else overwhelmingly exciting, I'll edit this post.
Oh, P.S. - Have I mentioned how many people there are here who are on the ordination track!? Stewards that is. Of course. I would say a great majority of the stewards are planning on being ordained, and a couple already have been! We have at Least two priests and one deacon in the group I believe. It's quite an exciting group to be a part of!
God bless you all,
Thanks again for reading the Blog!
Over and out,
Nick.
Monday, July 14, 2008
The Mother Church
Wow, so today was a tad bit overwhelming.
First of all, we began the day in the Big Top, and let me just say, the Big Top is a REALLY BIG Top! Imagine a tent. Now imagine that tent fit 1600 chairs on bleachers with three stages and stage room in back. Basically picture a two pronged circus tent and you can imagine what's gone up for the plenary sessions. Of course, there will be very few plenary sessions. Archbishop Rowan has made it so that this Lambeth will have no resolutions, and so few plenaries will be taking place. Instead, there will be daily Bible studies, Indaba groups (smaller discussion groups) and self select sessions in the afternoons. It will be quite impressive. The job of the stewards in the Big Top will be to usher people in and out and to take care of the communion lines.
At lunch time today, I just happened to find myself sitting at the same table as the Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon. You know, no biggie, just the Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon at my lunch table... an every day occurence really. Nothing at all. (For those of you wondering, the Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon is the General Secretary of the entire Anglican communion. You know, the one who ate lunch at my table this afternoon!) :). That was probably the first excitement of the day.
This afternoon was somewhat slower. We had a CPR/First aid course... in an hour and a half! It was really just CPR, and obviously not very in depth. I feel it's probably a good thing I'm still First Aid certified from last year...
Tonight we mosied on down to Canterbury Cathedral where we were given a closed tour of the church. The mother church of the Anglican communion, with the doors locked! It was awesome, (and I mean that in the somewhat archaic, awe inspiring, oh-my-gosh-I-just-walked-past-the-chair-of-St-Augustine sort of way). While there, I managed to actually walk past the chair of St Augustine, see the spot where Thomas Becket was murdered, see the tomb of Anselm of Canterbury, see the shrine of Thomas Becket and best of all, find a trap door in the ceiling of the tower!!! Apparently through it there's a giant hamster wheel for humans which they used in the construction of the towerto haul up bricks!
Anyways, after that we went out to a pub for our last night before the Bishops really arrive and played a good game of Scrabble! I had a nice South African fair-trade Shiraz to accompany the game, and subsequently lost. I'd just like to say though, that we were doing really really well until the other team won! (Apparently over here, when one team finishes their letters, the number of points you have on your tray goes to the winning team! What hope do you have!? Luiz and I had a 'z' left over)
Well, that's about all for tonight. I'm sure things will be getting significantly more exciting in the next few days! Pray for us all! (Seriously :)) And pray the bishops get here safe. I think the current count has gone down to about 640 unfortunately. I'm not quite sure why yet. I'll be checking. Apparently the numbers have been fluctuating quite a bit.
Love and blessings to you all,
Nick.
P.S. - For all those of you who may know the Rt. Rev. Ralph Spence, there is now an appreciation society for him on Facebook! Find it on my profile if you're interested!
First of all, we began the day in the Big Top, and let me just say, the Big Top is a REALLY BIG Top! Imagine a tent. Now imagine that tent fit 1600 chairs on bleachers with three stages and stage room in back. Basically picture a two pronged circus tent and you can imagine what's gone up for the plenary sessions. Of course, there will be very few plenary sessions. Archbishop Rowan has made it so that this Lambeth will have no resolutions, and so few plenaries will be taking place. Instead, there will be daily Bible studies, Indaba groups (smaller discussion groups) and self select sessions in the afternoons. It will be quite impressive. The job of the stewards in the Big Top will be to usher people in and out and to take care of the communion lines.
At lunch time today, I just happened to find myself sitting at the same table as the Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon. You know, no biggie, just the Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon at my lunch table... an every day occurence really. Nothing at all. (For those of you wondering, the Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon is the General Secretary of the entire Anglican communion. You know, the one who ate lunch at my table this afternoon!) :). That was probably the first excitement of the day.
This afternoon was somewhat slower. We had a CPR/First aid course... in an hour and a half! It was really just CPR, and obviously not very in depth. I feel it's probably a good thing I'm still First Aid certified from last year...
Tonight we mosied on down to Canterbury Cathedral where we were given a closed tour of the church. The mother church of the Anglican communion, with the doors locked! It was awesome, (and I mean that in the somewhat archaic, awe inspiring, oh-my-gosh-I-just-walked-past-the-chair-of-St-Augustine sort of way). While there, I managed to actually walk past the chair of St Augustine, see the spot where Thomas Becket was murdered, see the tomb of Anselm of Canterbury, see the shrine of Thomas Becket and best of all, find a trap door in the ceiling of the tower!!! Apparently through it there's a giant hamster wheel for humans which they used in the construction of the towerto haul up bricks!
Anyways, after that we went out to a pub for our last night before the Bishops really arrive and played a good game of Scrabble! I had a nice South African fair-trade Shiraz to accompany the game, and subsequently lost. I'd just like to say though, that we were doing really really well until the other team won! (Apparently over here, when one team finishes their letters, the number of points you have on your tray goes to the winning team! What hope do you have!? Luiz and I had a 'z' left over)
Well, that's about all for tonight. I'm sure things will be getting significantly more exciting in the next few days! Pray for us all! (Seriously :)) And pray the bishops get here safe. I think the current count has gone down to about 640 unfortunately. I'm not quite sure why yet. I'll be checking. Apparently the numbers have been fluctuating quite a bit.
Love and blessings to you all,
Nick.
P.S. - For all those of you who may know the Rt. Rev. Ralph Spence, there is now an appreciation society for him on Facebook! Find it on my profile if you're interested!
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Habemus Dominum!
A quick note from home... I can now officially (read: finally!) say that St. George's Church in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue has a new priest! Well, we will in the Fall at least. A successful committee I dare say was struck back in... November, I think, maybe. Anyhow, after many gruelling, hooorrible months (just kidding, it was actually pretty quick, and a rather good experience, sometimes even fun!), we've today announced the Rev. Dr. Neil Mancor as our new rector. Congratulations! I think it's safe to say we're all pretty excited to have him join us in the parish.
Canterbury Cathedral today was quite impressive. A group of us went down for the morning Eucharist, and guess who we found, yet ANOTHER former Canadian bishop, this time in the procession, the Rt. Rev. Victoria Matthews (now of Christ Church, New Zealand)! This place seems to be a hot bed of partying for the Canadian ex-bishopric! We love them all, and I think people are quite pleased to have Bishop Ralph and Carol here with us. So far they've been with the stewards every day and for virtually every activity, which has been pretty neat. We have our own bishop!
The rest of today went by rather quickly. We layed down plastic lego/megabloc/puzzle square things all over the grass so that it doesn't get torn up by the thousands of shoes treading over it. At current guesses, there are going to be around 2500 people at this conference, that's like, 5000 feet! Speaking of large numbers, today was the second day in a row in which we had Evensong with the chaplains :). I would say that's a new record as to how many days I've been around both monks and nuns, but I guess there was that Taize weekend thingie back last year. Still, I quite enjoyed it, and fully intend to rectify that personal record someday. FULLY. :). Matthew, I have another idea I think you'll love, or laugh at, probably the latter... Definitely the latter.
Well, on that somewhat cryptic note, I shall leave you all for tonight! Tomorrow is our last full day of training... then the bishops come! At last. I feel like I've finished an entire conference already, and we've yet to begin. Well, onwards and upwards!
Adieu,
Nick.
Canterbury Cathedral today was quite impressive. A group of us went down for the morning Eucharist, and guess who we found, yet ANOTHER former Canadian bishop, this time in the procession, the Rt. Rev. Victoria Matthews (now of Christ Church, New Zealand)! This place seems to be a hot bed of partying for the Canadian ex-bishopric! We love them all, and I think people are quite pleased to have Bishop Ralph and Carol here with us. So far they've been with the stewards every day and for virtually every activity, which has been pretty neat. We have our own bishop!
The rest of today went by rather quickly. We layed down plastic lego/megabloc/puzzle square things all over the grass so that it doesn't get torn up by the thousands of shoes treading over it. At current guesses, there are going to be around 2500 people at this conference, that's like, 5000 feet! Speaking of large numbers, today was the second day in a row in which we had Evensong with the chaplains :). I would say that's a new record as to how many days I've been around both monks and nuns, but I guess there was that Taize weekend thingie back last year. Still, I quite enjoyed it, and fully intend to rectify that personal record someday. FULLY. :). Matthew, I have another idea I think you'll love, or laugh at, probably the latter... Definitely the latter.
Well, on that somewhat cryptic note, I shall leave you all for tonight! Tomorrow is our last full day of training... then the bishops come! At last. I feel like I've finished an entire conference already, and we've yet to begin. Well, onwards and upwards!
Adieu,
Nick.
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