Lambeth Diary: Into the 'Miry Pit' of Chaos.

It's about a hundred degrees and getting hotter in the Big Top at Lambeth but the £1 million black hole in the budget at the Lambeth Conference means they can't afford air conditioning. Expect fainting bishops to be ferried out by ambulances any moment now, if they don't start shooting each other first. The press conference this morning was a farce. Communications officers who are generally being extremely helpful declined to comment on who is here for reasons of 'security' but declined to say what the 'security' issues were. Apparently there are some Nigerian bishops at the conference but we are not allowed to know who they are. Even the totally harmless and innocuous Church Press here are  being denied access to the evening Eucharists. As for me, I was told yesterday that it was worth applying to attend the afternoon indaba groups. Today there is one called 'Never say No to Media',  led by Rev Dr Joshva Raha, tutor at the Centre for Mission Studies at Queen's, Birmingham. I applied and they said no.

The conference is falling apart and it is only day two of official business. The Sudanese bishops, who were, astonishingly, stationed as Salisbury with the US Presiding Bishop and her team before the conference, have almost derailed the whole thing by virtually calling for Gene Robinson's resignation. One of their two statements today is here.

This video shows extracts from the Archbishop's first press conference, on Monday.

The funding crisis is more severe than we realised. A senior source has told me that the conference is up to £2 million in debt, and they are at a loss of how to meet this. 'We can't pay for it,' he told me, looking desperate. The prospect of the bailiffs turning up at Lambeth Palace to requisition some of those lovely old paintings of previous Archbishops is to unbearable for words. The Church Commissioners cannot help out because their trust deeds restrict financial aid to the English church only.

An emergency meeting has been called for the Commissioners and the Archbishop's Council immediately after the conference. Will TEC be handed the begging bowl? A bit embarrassing, isn't it, if on the one hand the conference organisers say, your legally elected bishop cannot come. And then on the other, they say: 'Help! Save us from our debt!'

This is why, I understand, we are all sweating like the proverbials. The big blue top where the bishops have their plenaries is, literally, hotter than hell itself. The prospect of air conditioning was explored, but when the estimate came in it was turned down. They just couldn't afford it.

And of course think of all that accommodation that has been booked. More than 230 rooms, presumably paid for, and lying empty. What a shame.

Poor Rowan Williams is trying his best, as we report. The retreat went well, the Archbishop seemed even to be beginning to enjoy himself. There are some genuinely good ideas for covenant and canon being worked out here. The trouble is, too many of the bishops don't want to know. It really is increasingly difficult to see how the Archbishop is going to resolve this mess. As he said yesterday, it will take nothing short of a miracle, and none knows how many Anglican bishops still believe in those.

Comments

[Bill Channon]

"Don't the Sudanese bishops have enough problems in their own horrible country that they have to tell us how to live our lives?"

"I am sorry if some Muslims don't like it and are murdering people in Sudan, but the bishops in Sudan should be condemning the murderers, not us."

WOW! With friends like these, who needs enemies!

As for condemning the murders in Sudan, I expect that the Sudanese Anglican Church does just that and, I hope, at the same time loving the murderers.
As for condemning homosexuality and bisexuality, isn't Lambeth just the place to let your beliefs known. Aren't the TEC liberals doing just that?

[Nike]

'Apparently there are some Nigerian bishops at the conference but we are not allowed to know who they are.'
If there are indeed Nigerian bishops, unless they are in hiding, they are easily identifiable. Why are you presenting this kind of rumour? It is unkind.

[Presbyter Mark]

James F. Warren: "The vast majority of the members of TEC, overwhelmingly decent, educated and professional people, simply want our churches to be served by the best spiritual leaders we can find without excluding anyone for being a woman or a gay person."
James, if we define what it is to be 'spiritual' ourselves, rather than listen to God's Word than who is to say that you, Sudan (or the Muslim extremists for that matter) are right? If instead we are prepared to humble ourselves and listen to God's Word then we might discover that our culture's definition of what it is to be 'spiritual' is way off the mark, and we may need to repent (an unpopular old-fashioned idea, I know) and be willing to listen to, and allow, Christ AND his words to set all of our agendas.

[James F. Warren]

Jenny,Julia,

The vast majority of the members of TEC, overwhelmingly decent, educated and professional people, simply want our churches to be served by the best spiritual leaders we can find without excluding anyone for being a woman or a gay person. We are practical Christians doing our best to live out the Gospel in our own environment (which abhors prejudice and bigotry of any sort). We don't have a homosexual agenda, nor are we trying to replace Christ with liberalism. If you came to any of our churches on a Sunday, you could see that for yourselves. I am sorry if some Muslims don't like it and are murdering people in Sudan, but the bishops in Sudan should be condemning the murderers, not us.

[Lapinbizarre]

"As a liberal, who in the past supported ......."

If I had a buck for every time I've read that lead-in to an off-the-wall, illiberal rant, Jenny, I could buy myself, and a guest or two, a damned good dinner, drinks and all.

[A Renegade Priest]

Now it seems to me that the Conference is not doing very much for unity or Indaba, now that the retreat has ended and the 'talking' has begun. Perhaps the whole conference should have taken the form of a silent penitential retreat to which all Anglican bishops are not only invited but compelled. Perhaps the only words any of them should be allowed to utter for the whole two weeks should be the divine mercy chaplet.

"For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us, and on the whole world"

[Brian]

Ruth,

You said: "Poor Rowan Williams is trying his best, as we report."

What planet are you living on?

"Poor Rowan?!" Either he is terribly incompetent or has a secret liberal agenda, or both. Please!

If he had told TEC at the beginning that if they went ahead and consecrated Robinson they would be kicked out of all the "instruments of unity" (a sick joke, that) then he would have stopped the leak in the dike. He dithered, and talked, too clever by half, and now there is a breach which he cannot plug.

Perhaps having a "study" on "The Body's Grace" will be the ticket...the ticket to you know where.

[saint]

Well why not take a leaf out of CANTEEN's book and run a raffle: donate a gold coin, and if the 2mil target is reached, Rowan will get a hair cut, trim his eyebrows and groom his beard.

[Malcolm+]

Perhaps Jenny would offer up some supporting evidence for this horrific charge that the US has withheld - or even threatened to withhold - any support from the Sudanese Church.

Of course, she won't. You can't prove something is true when it is completely false.

I'd have more respect for the "conservatives" if they weren't constantly making things up.

[A concerned chap]

Well said Jenny! The sooner we get the me me me Gene roadshow out the better! That man has more double standards than a labour government ...
One gets the feeling he and Queen Jeffer's are about to reap the whirl wind! Role on the southern lobby - sock it to them!

[Julia]

"Don't the Sudanese bishops have enough problems in their own horrible country that they have to tell us how to live our lives?"

--James F. Warren

Really. Their very lives have been endangered because of TEC's very public elevation of homosexual practice, yet you're disturbed because they speak about it?

If you don't want to hear what they have to say, fine, don't listen. If you want to champion homosexual practice, no one is going to stop you. But the fact remains that TEC's actions have greatly affected and imperiled Christians in other countries and the Christians in Sudan can't ignore it. They have to live with the fallout AND TEC's callous disregard for them.

[abc123]

.

"The big blue top where the bishops have their plenaries is, literally, hotter than hell itself."

Literally?

.

[Jenny]

James, the Sudanese bishop is dealing with a real life or death struggle for his people, TEC is dealing with a sham struggle to appease the vain, egocentric demands of those who want the faith remodeled to their liking.

It's not very Christian for TEC to withhold missionary support until the Sudanese Christians are subjugated and willing to betray Christ and his teachings.

As a liberal, who in the past supported gay rights, I am offended that those who would stand to defend their rights, yet turn around and demand the rights of others be violated is hypocrisy in the extreme. The gay community has allowed extremists to take over their movement, hatemongers who demand that others be forced to think and believe as they dictate them to. That's not freedom, it's not equality, it's corrupt policy by corrupt minds.

[Shaun Clarkson]

Exactly who or what entered into the contracts with the suppliers for accommodation etc? I guess it wasn't 'R. Williams of Lambeth' personally. And whatever it was, does it have limited liability? I suspect the portraits are safe on the walls for a while yet.

Of course if TEC does pick up the defecit any remaining credibilty ++Rowan has in most of the communion disappears.

In truth the communion fell apart several years ago. TEC repents and the communion keeps together; TEC gets expelled and something worth calling a communion lives on; try and keep everyone together and the whole thing falls apart leaving a rump communion for Canterbury.

[Jenny]

Amazing, the ABofC and his dog and pony show (TEC) who find our legitimate concerns irrelevant, yet they expect us to pay to keep them in comfort. I think it's time we turned our ears away until they stop trying to force Christ out of the Christian faith.

The ABofC needs to start enforcing discipline, perhaps he should cancel his hybrid vehicle, and cut back on the many luxuries he and his brood enjoy. He should demand that TEC stop financing Gene Robinson's "be-in" with his private entourage and security force, and send him home to wait in an enforced quiet humility. They should return luxuries like fancy new cell phones with expensive accounts, and pay for the air conditioning themselves.

Consider the uncomfortable conditions as a prelude to the afterlife they have earned, and just get used to it.

[David Cohen]

Why not pass round a mitre in the Big Tent? See if they can fill it with cheques? See how committed they really are when it starts to cost them money?

Alternatively, they could cut their losses and all fly home tomorrow. It might not only save money, it might save a lot of face.

[David Craford]

Good for Sudan. They came and met Schori and her minnion and rapidly decided this was no way to go. I keep saying that if we in TEC keep allowing Schori around other Christians it is our best tool for converting people.

[robroy]

I see the Guardian is blaming the self-absenting Africans for the mentioned deficit. It is not like they didn't announce there intentions some time ago. (In fact, they announced their intentions with the CAPA document.) Alas, but this gives the Americans the ability to extend some more very much strings attached lucre to support the indaba-ing.

[James F. Warren]

Don't the Sudanese bishops have enough problems in their own horrible country that they have to tell us how to live our lives?

[Michael Stevens]

Never say no to the media - and they did.

Ruth that is just so funny, and so sad and telling about the entire level of (in)competence.

[Stephen Marsden]

'the totally harmless and innocuous Church Press'

This would refer to whom exactly, Ruth?

[David Keen]

The Sudanese statement comes across as a reminder to everyone of the Windsor report and the process related to it, and doesn't say much more than the report itself. However, I do wish we could have a moratorium on statements from anyone, whether Sudan, Stonewall or whoever, for the duration of the conference.

So you're having a bad day then, Ruth...?

(rg writes: actually no I am having an ok day, if a bit overwhelmed by episcopal information overload, but I think quite a number of bishops might be having a bit of a bad day.)