Today I got to hear A.B.C.'s (Archbishop of Canterbury) final address for the 3-day retreat today in the Big Top. I spent the morning prior reflecting on the balance between trusting in God and trusting in myself especially when it comes to leadership and vocation. Surprisingly, Archbishop Rowan spent the morning discussing this particular topic and I found what he said to be quite illuminating. Referring to Hebrews 10:19-25, he mentioned that leadership is about clearing the way to go where we could not go before just as Jesus led the way by clearing the way. Rowan said, "We are not going where Jesus has gone already but we go where Jesus is clearing the way." This is where discernment is extremely important. For that moment, I felt like God was speaking to me through Archbishop Rowan- and to listen to him among 660 bishops from all around the world was quite moving.
The 11 a.m. session concluded with 10 minutes of prayer and reflection and it marked the end of the 3-day retreat. Starting Monday, the bishops will start meeting with each other more regularly and start making their recommendations. Hopefully, this means this blog will be more exciting for you!
There was also another event that I attended in the evening. It was an evening worship service welcoming the ecumenical participants. Seventy-five ecumenical guests will participate during the course of the conference. In the back of the program for the service, there are letters of official greetings from these ecumenical guests including the Archbishop of Constantinople, the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, the Archbishop of Cyprus, Archbishop of Athens and all Greece, the President of the Lutheran World Foundation, a Chairperson of the World Methodist Council, etc. At the end of the worship service, they all stood on the stage in the Big Top. It was quite overwhelming.
By the way, I am returning home with all these wonderful resources that I receive at the Lambeth Conference for anyone to look at. Right now, I am most excited about the Lambeth Hymn Book and Prayer Book (along with a card I received today from one of the children of the Canterbury Diocese).
By the way, I finally met the Bishop of South Carolina (my home state). His name is Bishop Lawrence. I really wanted to meet him since the Cathedral is located where I was born in Charleston, South Carolina. It's a beautiful city.
Off to bed. Good night.
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2 comments:
Hey Mary Marjorie -- get all the resoureces you can get your hands on. I'm especially interested in the Lambeth Praise book -- I'm sure there are all sorts of things from all over the world we can use at St. John's. Sounds like a good day I liked the quote from St. Dorotheus -- Fr. Mark
Hey Father Mark-
I'll plan to keep an eye out for anything that we could use at St. John's. AND- about the cross-cultural communication with the women from Africa...for many of these spouses, this is their first time traveling to the West, so, for some this is their first experience with cross-cultural communication!
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