anglican world issue 133

anglican world issue 133 november 2013 | 1

Please drink responsibly All Wales’ post-service drinks may soon be Fairtrade

Fracking and the environmentDoing God’s will in a vulnerable world

Being a godparent: a holy calling

Anglican WORLD

MAGAZINE OF THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION • ISSUE 133 NOVEMBER 2013

2 | anglican world issue 133 november 2013

As members of God’s global family, we are called to show the world

there is another, better, more self-sacrificial way to live.

What does the Lord require of us?

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THIS QUARTER’S EDITION of Anglican World is perhaps the best example thus far of the ‘now and not yet’ of God’s Kingdom; of the way that Christians are called to represent Christ in the midst of a fallen and broken world. My colleague Jeff Golliher in our UN liaison office appeals for Anglicans and Episcopalians everywhere to take a stand for climate justice now, so future generations are spared an environment irrevocably damaged by greed-fuelled pollution. Bishop Humphrey responds to a twin suicide bomb attack on a church in Peshawar, Pakistan, by committing his

Church to those in physical, emotional and financial distress. In Wales, churchgoers are making the simple act of drinking tea and coffee a Kingdom-centred one by ensuring the beverages are ethically sourced.

It is also good to read about members of our Communion working to improving the quality of life for those around them. The Anglican Church of Southern Africa has recognised the potential for cheap technology to enrich and educate people right across Africa. From Scotland, Robin Angus writes how relationships grounded in God can enrich the lives of

everyone involved for many decades. A cloth instruction manual prepared by our Anglican Alliance and children from a UK school is helping people in Pakistan mitigate against the devastating effect of natural disasters.

As members of God’s global family, we are called to show the world there is another, better, more self-sacrificial way to live. I hope you enjoy reading about some of the demonstrations of that truth in this edition of Anglican World.

Canon Kenneth Kearon Secretary General of the Anglican Communion


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PresidentThe Archbishop of Canterbury

Secretary GeneralThe Revd Canon Kenneth Kearon

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¢ EDITORIAL Canon Kearon on the ‘now and not yet’ of our Communion 2

¢ COMMUNION NEWS 4

¢ FEATUREFracking is only the tip of the iceberg 6

¢ YOUTHLearning leadership in China 9

¢ WORLD VIEWThe Communion at a glance 10

¢ FEATURE Will Wales be our first Fairtrade province? 12

¢ PROFILE Disabled, but still called 14

¢ PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Bible study: the soul of theology 16Godparents: the only unbreakable bond? 18The results of walking together in Japan 21

Anglicanworld

ISSUE 133 NOVEMBER 2013

Inside this issue

Cover photoPrince George (pictured with his mother the Duchess of Cambridge, and Bishop of London Richard Chartres) had seven godparents at his christening in October. CREDIT: PA


Please drink responsibly All Wales’ post-service drinks may soon be Fairtrade

Fracking and the environmentDoing God’s will in a vulnerable world

Being a Godparent: a holy calling

Anglican WORLD

MAGAZINE OF THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION • ISSUE 133 NOVEMBER 2013

¢ THE LAST WORDShame and pride 22

11News

12More (Fairtrade) tea, vicar?Wales’ decision to serve only Fairtrade beverages is welcome news for workers around the world



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EPISCOPAL HISTORY MADE JUST WEEKS APART

Two Anglican provinces have appointed their first women bishops within weeks of each other.

The Revd Patricia Storey was appointed Bishop of the Church of Ireland’s Meath and Kildare Diocese on 19 September. Less than two weeks later the Church of South India appointed the Revd Eggoni Pushpalalitha as Bishop of the Diocese of Nadyal.

These two appointments followed a decision by the Governing Body of The Church in Wales to approve a Bill to enable the consecration of women to the episcopate from September 2014.

At the Church of England’s

House of Bishops meeting in February, it was decided eight senior women clergy, elected regionally, would participate in all meetings of the House until such time as there are six female

Bishops who will sit as of right. In November the Church of England’s General Synod approved a package of measures as the next steps to enable women to become bishops.

PROVINCE PROPOSES E-READER THEOLOGY PROJECT

Archbishops Kim and Welby in Korea

ANGLICAN CHURCH OF KOREA

Bishop-elect Pat StoreyCHURCH OF IRELAND

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ARCHBISHOP WELBY TO VISIT EVERY PRIMATE

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Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has committed himself to visiting every Anglican Communion primate by the end of 2014. To date Archbishop Welby has visited the most senior bishop in Central America, Hong Kong, Japan,

Jerusalem and the Middle East, Kenya, Korea, Mexico, Tanzania, Uganda, and the West Indies.

Lambeth Palace press office confirmed that the Archbishop’s wife, Caroline Welby, will travel with him for these visits. Archbishop Welby wants to “get to know each of them in their context – personally as well as professionally – in the hope that friendship and mutual understanding may follow. Such relationships are the essential basis for growing collaboration and trust at a wider level across the

Communion”.The visits to primates have not

replaced official visits – official provincial visits will resume in 2015 – but the Archbishop is keen to meet primates and bishops in a more informal setting, travelling without an entourage and staying as a private guest.

This enables him, Lambeth Palace said, “to reach a greater number of people and places than would otherwise be possible, not least those that might be perceived as isolated or remote”.

The Anglican Church of Southern Africa has proposed a project that will see e-readers become the main source of theological texts for ordinands, clergy and laity.

The initiative is a partnership between the Province’s Centre for Reflection and Development and the College of the Transfiguration, and is championed by its Primate Archbishop Thabo Makgoba. The aim is to “capitalise on this developing technology to further

the mission of the church in a context in which physical libraries are rare, remote, and increasingly unaffordable”.

There are three phases to the initiative, which envisages providing tablets and Kindle-style e-readers to people across the Province and then Churches across the African continent. The written proposal concludes: “Through this project, the Anglican Church of Southern Africa will

improve the lives of her clergy, lecturers, ordinands, youth leaders and parishioners by creating empowering leaders across the African Continent to be active readers and researchers”.

For more information, or to help contact the Revd Godfrey Walton on [email protected]

ACNS


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FAREWELLS AND WELCOMES FOR THE ANGLICAN ALLIANCE

CHURCH IN PAKISTAN STANDS BY BOMB-AFFECTED FAMILIES

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resultant injuries mean some are now having to care for people with disabilities, while others have lost their wage earners.

More than a thousand survivors of abuse at Indian residential schools, their families members, representatives of churches and government, and local citizens gathered at Canada’s Pacific National Exhibition in September.

The event was held to document the experiences of those who had lived through the abuse. Priests, bishops and staff of the national church listened to the survivors’ stories.

Anglican Church of Canada Archbishop John Privett, bishop of the diocese of Kootnay and metropolitan of British Columbia, said he had been “personally shocked and saddened and shamed” by the legacy of residential schools and the Anglican Church’s part in that.

A hand-made woollen baby blanket and prayer shawl were presented as “expressions of reconciliation” by the Archbishop, and elder and parishioner Charon Spinks.

EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF BRAZIL

Mourners comfort one another

Rachel Carnegie (centre) in Brazil

ANSA

ANGLICANS ATTEND TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION

Bowerman, previously Mission Rector at Wareham Team Ministry in Dorset. The team also welcomes Janice Proud and Isobel Owen.

During the past three years – together with colleagues in Lambeth Palace and the Anglican Communion Office – the Anglican Alliance has gone from a start-up to a well-respected global platform with staff around the world.

The charity’s many success stories include the launch of a distance-learning course for Anglican Church development practitioners; several residential training courses for

The Bishop of Peshawar Diocese has said the Church will never abandon the Christian community which lost men, women and children in the suicide bomb attack on All Saint’s Church in September.

Bishop Humphrey Peters swore that the Church would continue to look after and rehabilitate the injured, and do whatever it could to support the families financially.

More than 80 Christians were killed and many more injured after a pair of suicide bombers blew themselves up outside the 130-year-old Anglican church in Pakistan after Sunday Mass. It was the deadliest attack on Christians to date in the predominantly Muslim country.

Not only did the attack rob families of their loved ones, but the

ANGLICAN CHURCH OF CANADA

The prayer shawl and blanket presented by the Church

The Communion’s pan-Anglican platform on development, relief and advocacy, Anglican Alliance, will look pretty different from 1 January. The organisation’s Director, Sally Keeble, is stepping down after three years to return to full-time politics, while Relief and Programme Manager Tania Nino is returning to her native Colombia.

The Alliance’s new executive directors are the Revd Rachel Carnegie, previously the Archbishop of Canterbury’s International Development Secretary, and the Revd Andrew

specialists from Commonwealth countries; and significant work with such bodies as the UN, the British Government and the G20.


We Don’t Have Much Time: Fracking and the Environmental Crisis

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NOW MORE THAN ever, we need to engage with the environmental crisis as people of faith. As Christians we proclaim the Good News, which sometimes makes us reluctant to talk about worldly news when it’s grim and scary. Yet we find hope when the church keeps a watchful, discerning eye on the way things are, and responds faithfully, prophetically and with good works.

The profound need for faith, discernment and action is exemplified by the controversial method for extracting natural gas called hydraulic fracturing, or simply fracking. The politicized nature of the debate about fracking and the ambiguous use of the science behind it make it difficult to know what anyone is actually

talking about or how reliable the information is.

The promise of jobs and large

profits (as a solution to poverty), energy independence (as a solution to energy poverty), and clean energy (“gas is cleaner than coal”) motivates the pro-fracking point of view. Because these arguments reach the public largely through media campaigns funded by the fracking industry, which are often echoed by elected officials, opportunities for informed public debate can be few and far between. Citizens ask important, often unanswered questions about risks to God’s creation: the possible contamination of ground water, the impact on human health, the immense volume of water (millions of litres per well) needed for drilling, and how toxic wastewater will be stored. Landowner rights and community decision-making also Æ

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The promise of jobs and large profits (as a solution to poverty), energy independence (as a solution to energy poverty), and clean energy (“gas is cleaner than coal”) motivates the pro-fracking point of view


come into play. So do concerns about the decline of property values and of whole communities when farmland or residential areas are transformed into industrial zones. Last but not least is the possible impact on climate change – fracking can release methane, a greenhouse gas far worse than carbon dioxide. These legitimate concerns point to the further impoverishment of God’s creation by fracking, rather than genuine sustainability and real freedom from poverty.

In our time the big picture surrounding the fracking debate is climate change and we don’t have much time. The future is uncertain on a global scale that previous generations never experienced. The cause is carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that we have put into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. The result: the earth’s temperature will probably increase 3 degrees C (5.6 F) by 2100. Ocean levels could rise at least 1 metre – much more depending on how quickly the ice sheets melt or break apart. All this, and not only this, will take place unless we make substantial changes in how we live today.

Another fact is that we’re falling behind in the race to reduce carbon emissions. Scientists know that in the nearly 800,000 years before the industrial age carbon dioxide levels never rose above 300 parts per million. Since then, yearly levels have risen far above what is considered to be marginally safe – 350 ppm. Just this year, scientists recorded 400 ppm on a single day. We will reach that figure as a yearly norm by 2017, unless emissions are drastically reduced. Otherwise we can expect the worst, and this is not only about rising temperature and oceans. There will be stronger storms in some areas; more severe droughts in others; shortages of food and water, waves of refugees, more species extinctions, changes in ocean chemistry that will destroy fisheries and coral reefs – not to mention heightened social and political upheaval.

No one intended this to happen,

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but it is happening. Some richer nations have polluted the air and impoverished the land a great deal more than others. A few continue to do so, despite efforts organized by the United Nations to change our collective course. The vulnerable and poor (in the Global South and elsewhere) suffer the consequences for which they are not responsible. They have made repeated, desperate pleas for climate justice at the UN. The Rt Revd Apimeleki Qiliho, Bishop in Vanua Levu and Taveuni, tells the story of climate change in the Pacific. Islands, atolls and villages are washed away, shorelines recede, crops decrease in yield. We as a diocese continue to search for responses to mission that combine our need to be good stewards of God’s earth with advocacy for climate justice. How do we, as a diocese, continue to do God’s work in a vulnerable world?’

Climate injustice is not confined to the Pacific. Consider the

The vulnerable and poor (in the Global South and elsewhere) suffer the consequences for which they are not responsible.

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experience of the Most Revd Dr Thabo Makgoba, Archbishop of Cape Town, Metropolitan of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, and Chair of the Anglican Communion Environmental Network (ACEN). ‘Crop yields, particularly of maize and wheat, have dropped and we have seen a rise in the costs of basic foods within Southern Africa. Already water-stressed, the dryer parts of our Province such as Namibia have experienced drought which has led to farmers being forced to slaughter starving livestock. In

Jeff Golliher


“we can forget about making poverty history – climate change will make poverty permanent

other parts, such as Mozambique, above average rains have led to severe flooding, with people fleeing from their homes. My plea to you as fellow Anglican brothers and sisters is to make the change now from fossil fuels. If we don’t do so then, in the words of Christian Aid, “we can forget about making poverty history – climate change will make poverty permanent.”’

The environmental crisis is so closely tied to economies that impoverish people and the earth that the challenge of finding an ethical and sustainable future is daunting indeed. How can we make the transition to clean renewable energy, provide food, water, and meaningful work for an estimated 9.6 billion people by 2050, while sustaining the ecological integrity of God’s creation at the same time? The United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals are designed to find answers to this very question. The sense that we

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Southern Africa Archbishop Thabo Makgoba is the Chair of the Communion’s Environmental Network

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live in a time when the world seems to be up for sale only makes matters worse. Land and water grabbing in the Global South are on the rise; and as the divide between the rich and poor increases, get rich quick schemes can seem very appealing. Obviously, the dream of unlimited economic growth is just that – a dream. This is not to suggest that every business and corporation is part of the problem. Many – more than we might think – are well aware of the urgency of the crisis, and they pursue profits and a better life in socially and environmentally responsible ways. Nevertheless, at the present moment, no one has a practical solution to all the challenges we face.

People of previous ages have faced challenges that tested their

faith. It was scary then. The future was uncertain. Survival was at stake, as it is today. Now is the time for us to rise up as people of faith, with loving kindness, respect for each other and God’s creation, a keen sense of justice, discerning hearts and minds, and with as much forgiveness as we hope God will have for us. Anglican sisters and brothers, it’s time to come together so we can have a life together.

The Revd Dr Canon Jeff Golliher is Programme Director for the Environment and Sustainable Communities, Anglican Communion Office at the UN/New York in collaboration with the Executive Committee of the Anglican Communion Environmental Network


Students Experience Young Leaders’ Conference In China

by liam alexis

LAST NOVEMBER I was nominated by my English teacher at Queen’s Royal College, Port-of-Spain, to attend the Global Young Leaders Conference (GYLC). It is hosted every year in three different countries/regions: the USA, Europe and China. Five other students and I, from QRC, opted to attend the China conference, which took place from July 16 to 25. It was an experience like no other.

The main purpose of the conference was to develop leadership skills in the area of conflict resolution, with significant focus on cross-cultural relations. Over the course of the 10-day conference we were lectured to by professionals and delegates from Government, Charities, Business and the United Nations. They were very interesting and covered topics such as “China’s High Economic Growth Over The Years”, “China’s Foreign Policy” and “Business In China”.

Apart from the lectures there were daily group meetings geared to develop our conflict resolution skills, the climax of which was a simulation

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part with donations and support from many individuals and committees in the Holy Saviour Parish in Curepe.

In conclusion, I express my sincerest thanks to the church and reiterate that the conference is a beneficial experience to anyone nominated to go; it will change your life and your view of the world as it has mine.

Liam Alexis, 16, is from the Holy Saviour Parish, and is a member of the Servers Guild. He is a past pupil Bishop Anstey Junior School and is a Queen’s Royal College Form V Graduate.

This article first appeared in Anglican Outlook, newspaper of the Diocese of Trinidad and Tobago.

This was an eye-opening experience, immersing myself in these cultures and explaining to them the Trinidadian customs.

DIOCESE OF EGYPT

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in groups with each person representing either a business, government official or NGO. There were two additional roles of media person and the mediator for the whole session. In this simulation the problem being discussed was “Water Scarcity In China”.

Lectures and work were not the whole conference, however, since most days were spent exploring the many traditional and modern wonders that are China. We hiked The Great Wall in the scorching sun; walked the path of Emperors in The Forbidden City; witnessed the sight of rebellion and protest at the massive Tian’amen Square; and traversed the modern marvel in itself that is Shanghai.

The conference also afforded scholars an opportunity to interact with peers from different countries, with different cultures and back-grounds. This was an eye-opening experience, immersing myself in these cultures and explaining to them the Trinidadian customs. They were very interested in music and the steel pan which I played for them.

This trip was a very costly venture and was made possible in

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The Communion at a glance

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Secretaries General honoured by West Africa diocese

A decade on, Melanesia remembers fallen brothers

ALDRIN PELOKO

The former and current Secretaries General of the Anglican Communion were installed as Honorary Canons of Christ Church Cathedral, Cape Coast, Ghana in October. The Revd John L. Peterson, Secretary General between 1995 and 2004, and

the current post-holder the Revd Canon Dr Kenneth Kearon, were honoured during their visit to the country with the Compass Rose Society.

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A 21st century-pilgrim’s progress

A church musician living in London has just returned home having completed a 22 day continuous pilgrimage around the 61 cathedrals of mainland England. Stuart Whatton joined the worship at services at all 42 Anglican ones and praying and lighting a candle at all 19 Catholic ones. He decided he “wanted to do something special” to mark his 50th birthday.

Anglicans from four continents are contributing their diverse skills and experience to guiding the work of United Bible Societies (UBS), the world’s biggest translator, publisher and distributor of the Bible. The new international board members are Bishop John Chew from Singpore; Brazilian Dr Rosalee Velloso Ewell; Revd Mkunga Mtingele from Tanzania, and Francisco Viguera from Chile and Colonel Richard Sandy from the UK.

UNITED BIBLE SOCIETIES

Global Anglicans join board of United Bible Societies

In October, the Melanesian Brotherhood, along with friends, supporters and local dignitaries marked the 10th anniversary of the deaths of the group of brothers known as the Melanesian Martyrs. These men were murdered by militants after they had tried to locate one of their number who had been taken hostage.


The Anglican Alliance says it could be producing more cloth disaster-preparation manuals after successful trials of The Cloth Book by communities in Pakistan. Designed and produced by the Alliance, together with Commonwealth fellow Naveed Khurram Gill, the Revd Rana Khan and students from Northampton High School, the book is printed on polyester fabric made from recycled plastic bottles. It features brightly coloured illustrations and text.

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Malaysia: Court rules only Muslims allowed to say ‘Allah’

The Church of the Province of South East Asia’s Primate Archbishop Bolly Lapok denounced a court ruling banning non-Muslims from saying ‘Allah’ to denote God “an insidious aberration to the spirit of Muhibbah (harmony)” among Malaysians. He said Christians would continue to use the word and called the decision “excessive, utterly irresponsible and grossly demeaning.”

Archbishop Justin Welby was called on to christen His Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge, on 23 October. The future king wore a white satin robe – a replica of one made in 1841 for the christening of Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter. Archbishop Welby performed the ceremony at the

More cloth instruction disaster-preparation manuals planned

Secretaries General honoured by West Africa diocese Archbishop of Canterbury performs christening By Royal Appointment

New Zealand’s newest temporary cathedral opens to acclaim

After controversy and soggy building materials, Christchurch’s ‘transitional’ cathedral was opened to the worshipping public in August. Nicknamed the Cardboard Cathedral because giant cardboard cylinders were used in its construction, the new church has made quite an impression on those who have attended services there.

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Chapel Royal in St James Palace in London and officially welcomed baby George into the Church of England.


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REFRESHMENTS SEEM AS much a part of the Sunday church service as the Eucharist and prayers. Gathering for a drink and snack marks an important moment in the morning’s proceedings: another way of expressing community, fellowship and generosity.

Sadly, in many churches, that moment comes at the expense of men, women and children around the world. The coffee and tea served through countless hatches each Sunday are brewed with scant thought to the conditions or wages of those who picked the beans or the leaves.

A hot post-service beverage might seem a world away from the oppression of workers in other Communion countries such as Sri Lanka, Ghana and Colombia. Nevertheless, a visit to Wales from a Cameroon banana farmer underlined the truth that ‘shopping justly’ can even affect the future of a nation.

“We had someone from the Cameroon banana producers trade union come over to Britain because the big banana producing companies are pulling out of Cameroon,” said the Revd Carol Wardman, the Church in Wales’ Bishops’ adviser for Church and Society. “ [The country is] nationalising banana production and they want to get Fairtrade registration because it knows that will open up markets in Europe.”

Carol invited trade unionist and farmer Mbide Charles Kude – who was in Britain as part of the the Europe-wide Make Fruit Fair campaign – to Wales to meet local Anglicans there. His visit was part of an ongoing drive to make the Church in Wales the Anglican Communion’s first Fairtrade-accredited province.

Fairtrade is an international

In April 2012 a resolution was brought to our Governing Body that we should become a Fairtrade province and it was unanimously passed.

More (Fairtrade) tea, vicar?The Church in Wales has challenged itself to become the Anglican Communion’s first Fairtrade province

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movement to ensure people in producer countries get a fair deal. It is an initiative that many churches in the West have taken up.

“As far back as 2006, each [Church in Wales] diocese was accredited as a Fairtrade diocese,” Carol said. “People involved in that thought, well, if we can get six dioceses why don’t we have a province with Fairtrade accreditation.”

It was after a partnership with Fair Trade Wales that the idea of

CHURCH IN WALES

CHURCH IN WALESCarol Wardman

Cameroon farmer Mbide Charles Kude (centre) met local Anglicans while in Wales


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accreditation for the whole province took off.

“In April 2012 a resolution was brought to our Governing Body that we should become a Fairtrade province and it was unanimously passed. We set ourselves two years to get the right number of parishes accredited with Fairtrade status, and we need to get 70% of all churches signed up to the Fairtrade pledge. Some parishes have more than one church and as tea and coffee are served by churches we need those to sign up individually.”

The only concrete thing the churches need to is to provide Fairtrade tea and coffee whenever they provide refreshments at a church event, and to promote Fairtrade in any way they can. They are also encouraged to provide Fairtrade literature in the churches, to say prayers that call for trade justice and even to do local media relations work alerting others to importance of shopping justly.

“It’s part of our Christian witness to support people in every way that we can and trade is an important way for doing that,” Carol said. “It’s a fairly

easy thing to do – you can easily buy Fairtrade produce everywhere and you know it’s ethically sourced and [the companies] are treating their workers properly.

“Also, we’re very much aware that the aid agenda is changing and it’s not necessarily just about giving to charity, but it’s also about how we’re spending our money when we’re shopping and actually thinking about the ethical sourcing of products or items that we use. It’s a bit contradictory if you’re giving to a development agency with one hand and then going out and buying something that’s exploiting someone with the other.”

All dioceses have been set up with their own Fairtrade Champion who are doing their utmost to ensure that the province meets its 2014 deadline to get 70% of churches signed up to the pledge.

Carol is not aware of other Anglican Communion provinces trying to achieve accreditation, but she certainly recommends it: “It might be a lot to bite off in one go depending on how big you are. I would suggest starting as we did diocese by diocese.”


A journey with epilepsy

by george choyce

I WAS PREACHING one August Sunday in 2009 when to my embarrassment I lost

my place in the sermon. My perception of the event was that approximately 10 seconds had passed, but in reality, I was told, it was at least one and a half minutes.

I had just experienced my first seizure and had begun my reluctant journey toward disability. As a first line of defence, I passed the whole episode off with humour. “The sermon was so boring,” I chuckled, “that even the preacher fell asleep”.

It was not funny when it happened in the pulpit again just one month later.

I am an Episcopal priest, living with the disability of a seizure disorder called epilepsy. Though my story about disability is my own, it has some similarities with

those of other clergy who are also living with disability. It is our own struggle for clergy wellness.

There is the obvious physical side to wellness. It includes, but is not limited to, going to numerous doctors’ appointments, availing oneself of physical therapy, undergoing surgery and taking medications hourly.

For instance, I have a primary care physician, a neurosurgeon and a neurologist. My medications have included two high-powered AEDs (anti-epileptic drugs) that were accompanied by two pages of warnings about nasty side effects. I’ve also had two neurosurgeries.

But wellness goes significantly

beyond the physical; it also includes multifaceted emotional components. I have had the pastoral care of my bishop, George D. Young III of the Diocese of East Tennessee, a therapist, and a priest from East Carolina with whom I have a weekly telephone appointment. I have also talked with Barbara Ramnaraine, a deacon at the Episcopal Disabilities Network in Minneapolis, who has been a remarkable source of both encouragement and education.

However, finding other Episcopal clergy living with disabilities in order to share experiences has been an exercise in futility due to the privacy regulations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. This separation from one another diminishes our health. Do not underestimate the depressing influence that isolation brings to our complex journey toward wellness.

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“The sermon was so boring,” I chuckled, “that even the preacher fell asleep”.

Reclaiming my priestly call after a debilitating disability

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There is another example of separation: think about diocesan conventions, where so often the seating plan singles out clergy who are not associated with a parish; they are seated with other on-lookers or stand around the periphery of the event. Though not excluded from the Eucharist, they are unintentionally excluded from another kind of table fellowship.

For me the hardest part of healing is spiritual and vocational. I went from being the rector of St Timothy’s at Signal Mountain, Tennessee, to wearing my “civvies” to other Episcopal churches. Clean, crisp vestments that once hung in the church’s vesting room were now hanging in the closet, permeated with a musty, mothball smell.

I placed my clerical collar on my dresser as an “outward and visible sign” of my priestly vocation, because sometimes I did not know who or what I was anymore. I experienced a depth of despair, difficult for others to understand, as my identity was being stripped away by my disability.

I had to find a way to climb out of despondency but found I could not do it alone. The reclaiming

of some of my priestly call came when the pity party ended, and I began to consider the possibility of something new emerging in my priestly call through the workings of the Holy Spirit. I needed others who would take the time to walk with me and, even though it was awkward at first, I began to reach out to colleagues.

Another significant step in reclaiming my priestly identity came in a serendipitous moment on Christmas Eve. Entering the narthex of St Peter’s in Chattanooga with my family, the Rev. Carter Paden III spotted me and, with a huge grin, asked, “You want to ‘suit up’?” I turned to my spouse with a questioning look. She nodded, then in a quiet yet clear voice said, “Go on”.

I needed her permission. She had walked the journey with me and had every right to be involved in the decision. It was now time for me to be at the altar again, even though I still have epilepsy. The “outward and visible sign” of my vocation, my clerical collar, is coming off the dresser and going back around my neck again as I continue to regain my identity.

I cannot emphasize enough how other Episcopalians have a profound part in our healing when it feels that our dignity has been stripped from us, and in our nakedness of disability we are unintentionally separated from the church that once called us to exercise our gift of priesthood.

We clergy who are on disability offer our gift of weakness to the church, to be a visible symbol of the wounded Christ in a world filled with millions of people living with disabilities. In the broadest interpretation of the word, you can “call” us to come back and participate.

And in so doing, we can begin to explore a new call in the context of our community, the Episcopal Church. After all, calls to ministry are best discerned through the community.

The Rev. George L. Choyce lives in Signal Mountain, Tenn., in the Diocese of East Tennessee.

This article was first publishing in The Episcopal Journal

p ro f i l e

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I had to find a way to climb out of despondency but found I could not do it alone.



The Holy Bible – Beyond Ourselvesby a.c. thiselton

I AM GLAD to welcome the report The Bible in the Life of the Church. I especially welcome the dual emphasis on the community and the individual. Certainly this is not the first report of its kind. In 1994 the Pontifical Biblical Commission presented a report which commended “the study of the Bible as ... the soul of theology’. The greatest difference from our present report is perhaps the more detailed and closer survey not only of historical-critical methods but also of the hermeneutics of narrative, rhetorical analysis, the canonical approach, the influence of reception of the text, patristic exegesis, and a host of such methods.

Before this, Frederick Borsch edited Anglicanism and the Bible (1984), which considered the Bible in worship, the Bible at the

Reformation, historical criticism, and other approaches. The present report indeed laments and regrets gaps “between ‘the Academy and the pew’ or between the ‘scholar’ and the ‘ordinary Christian”. But its mood is perhaps lamentation and regret rather than rectification. In this respect it may seem to lag behind the other two efforts.

One of the report’s most helpful emphases is “reading the Bible together” (p. 20). But together means more than in groups. It means a togetherness both in time and space: scholars and congregations in space, and Church Fathers, Reformers, and modern insights in time. This is easier than it used to be, in days of electronic communication and correspondence courses.

Reader-response theory may be one of several ways in which we can seriously involve the reader. Moderate and informed versions of this do not simply provide the

reader with “what we want.” If there is a possible weakness in the report, it may be oversensitive concern to

provide “what we want.” If the Bible is to transform us, in some sense it must be what Luther called “our adversary,” not simply confirming us in what we already think. Indeed Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: “If it is I who say where God will be, I will always find a God who in some way corresponds to me, is agreeable to Æ

If the Bible is to transform us, in some sense it must be what Luther called “our adversary,” not simply confirming us in what we already think.

f e at u r e


negative mood laments that we cannot do much about gaps that have arisen between scholars and the pew. This problem calls for action, rather than only regret.

In this respect, regional reflections from South Sudan constitute one of the most helpful responses. These draw a contrast between bad theology and the trustworthiness of the Bible, and commend that we should more frequently read the Bible as a whole (p. 28). This touches on a canonical approach to Scripture, which Brevard S. Childs pioneered. South Sudan also calls for a study of Hebrew and Greek, which in turn suggests that improved ministerial training should be very high on our agenda. This is one of the practical proposals.

Reflections from Hong Kong and the Philippines take up, in effect, the point made by Bonhoeffer about “looking beyond ourselves” (p. 32). If the Bible is to be transformative,

we must reach out beyond our small, narcissistic world, bounded by self-centred interests. Long ago this was one of C.H. Dodd’s primary arguments for the authority and importance of the Bible.

I find the summary of principles at the end of the report helpful, especially the seven principles listed on page 42. I very much hope and pray that all this positive work will be studied and taken seriously.

The Revd Anthony Thiselton is emeritus professor of Christian theology, University of Nottingham, and canon theologian emeritus of Southwell and Nottingham, and of Leicester.

– This article first appeared in The Living Church magazine (http://www.livingchurch.org) and is one in a series of articles written on the Bible in the Life of the Church project

If the Bible is to be transformative, we must reach out beyond our small, narcissistic world, bounded by self-centred interests.

Æ

f e at u r e

me, fits in with my nature. But if it is God who says where he will be ... that place is the cross of Christ” (Meditating on the Word,Cowley, 1986, p. 45).

Reflections by Australian Anglicans help us to some extent by emphasising the Lectionary (p. 25). The Lectionary does not allow us simply to select our favourite passages or chapters. However, these reflections rightly warn us to take account of divisions between thoughtful Christianity and popular Christianity. Reader-response approaches admittedly work only with a thoughtful biblical readership.

If we wish to reach popular readers more effectively, we need to make more use of sophisticated narrative theory. The report appears to neglect the huge resources of narrative theory, which literary theory has developed. Not all narratives are chronological accounts to be replicated. The purposes of biblical narrative are multiple. We can draw on the nature of narrative worlds. Although these were first promoted by the philosophers Martin Heidegger and H.G. Gadamer, millions experience narrative worlds every day in TV soaps, films, and serial stories. Parables of reversal and deliberate changes in narrative speed (including flashbacks and other devices) can achieve defamiliarisation of supposedly over-familiar texts. Too many readers think that they already know what the Bible is about before they actually read it. It might have been helpful to explore the treasure trove of narrative theory. Robert Alt, Wesley Kort, Paul Ricoeur, and many others have shed a flood of light on what would otherwise seem humdrum or routine biblical passages.

Theories of metaphor provide another way of undermining what are supposedly over-familiar readings of material. Creative metaphors expand our horizons. The world of hermeneutics teams with such resources, but the report seems to mention only a very few specifically and in detail. The positive mood of the report is to undertake serious study and engagement with the Bible. That is good. Its more

US


Being the perfect godfather

I DON’T THINK I’d have accepted the editor’s invitation to write this article if it hadn’t been for an unexpected and delightful e-mail I received a couple of days previously. It was from my own godfather, letting me know that he was on his way northward from Dorset, where he now lives, to God’s own county of Moray to see some old friends, and he hoped we could meet for dinner in Edinburgh on 15 September, my birthday. Nothing very remarkable in that,

you may think. But I’m 61 on 15 September – rather on the old side to fit the conventional picture of a godson – and my godfather is 91 and puzzled that I still haven’t caught up with such modern technology as Skype.

My relationship with him is now my longest-standing close human bond – older than that with my wife or my sister or my very oldest friends, the ones with whom I started primary school. My godfather served beside my father

GARY BRIDGMAN/WIKIPEDIA

Æ

...as I know, there is no way for a godparent to cease to be a godparent, or a godchild to cease to be a godchild. The relationship between godparent and godchild is for life.

f e at u r e

Detail from the “Baptism Window” at St. Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Memphis, Tennessee, created by Len R. Howard

Prof Robin Angus is a godparent and a godchild in the Scottish Episcopal Church



Jesus’s absence until after their first day’s journey. They simply assume that he’s somewhere in the group of travellers, among their relatives and friends. After his parents’ three-day search, Jesus is discovered and the somewhat ominous ‘then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them’ leads me to wonder if Mary, that notably forceful and determined character, gave him the rough edge of her tongue and grounded him for a while until, maybe, some of those ‘relatives and friends’put in a good word for him.

If so, it would have been thoroughly godparental of them. If the extended family is the natural pattern of Christian upbringing, godfathers and godmothers have a unique role within it. To begin with, the relationship between godparent and godchild is a direct one. To be an uncle or an aunt, you first of all have to be a parent’s brother or sister. However, your godparents are yours in an individual and distinctive way. While they will often be family friends, their relationship with you gives you a special claim on them and gives them a special duty towards you which is not shared with your siblings. What’s more, like Holy Orders, the character godparenthood conveys is indelible. Nowadays you can divorce a spouse with relative ease and in the USA there has even been

If the extended family is the natural pattern of Christian upbringing, godfathers and godmothers have a unique role within it.

Æ

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in the RAF before I was born, and his wife, who died last year after more than 60 years of happy and devoted marriage, was my much-loved godmother. They were truly wonderful godparents. We shared holidays with them, and there were the fun outings when they were stationed near us at RAF Kinloss and we would set off for Findhorn or Burghead or Hopeman or Pluscarden.

They never missed a single birthday or Christmas, and I have the evidence to prove it. Edward Bear, now much worn with loving but still treasured, was their gift when I was a year or two old. And next time I have to put on a dinner jacket, the onyx cufflinks they gave me for my 21 st will be proudly on display. My godfather’s RAF service abroad brought presents with an eastern flavour, from Hong Kong and Singapore.Then in my secondary school days, which coincided with his time at the Air Ministry in London, the first day covers he faithfully sent made me the envy of my stamp-collecting friends. My godmother and he had a golden touch with presents, which were often surprising and even slightly conspiratorial with the unacknowledged wishes of a growing boy – a jersey I particularly liked, my first fashionable tie.

But there’s far more to godparenthood than birthday presents. Much is written these days bemoaning the supposed demise of family values and the nuclear family, but there is nothing especially Christian about the nuclear family. The Prayer Book baptismal service does speak of how Jesus at Nazareth shared the life of an earthly home, which can give us a sentimental picture of a cosy Holy Family – Jesus, Mary and Joseph, living next to the carpenter’s shop and devotedly engrossed in one another. But there is another picture of Our Lord’s family in the Gospels, and it’s of an extended family – so much so that on the way back from celebrating the Passover in Jerusalem, Mary and Joseph don’t even notice

talk of allowing children to divorce their parents. But as far as I know, there is no way for a godparent to cease to be a godparent, or a godchild to cease to be a godchild. The relationship between godparent and godchild is for life.

Fans of Game of Thrones will be familiar with the character called ‘the Hand of the King’. The Hand of the King exercises some of the King’s powers on the King’s behalf, but an important thing about him is that he is not the King. He can therefore do things the King can’t do, or not do things the King might feel obliged to do were the decision his directly. And he can receive confidences one might hesitate to offer to the King himself. There are similarities there to the role of a godparent, although I would hesitate to press them too far.

Godparents provide a’safe place’, with adult experience and adult resources. Young people face too much judgementalism to need, or deserve, more of the same from their godparents. Sometimes a steadying word may be appropriate, Æ



past, present and future

but understanding and practical

help are much more important

than advice. Above all, godparents

by their very nature provide what

psychologists call ‘Unconditional

It involves prayer and commitment. It can be expensive in terms of time and emotion. But being a godchild and being a godparent have brought me huge joy.

Positive Regard’. Although geographical distance or other factors may mean that occasions of contact may be few or irregular, godchildren know absolutely that they have at all times that unconditional positive regard, and that they have it as of right.

Christian godparenthood, like Matrimony in the Prayer Book,’is not by any to betaken in hand unadvisedly, lightly, or wantonly; but reverently, discreetly, advisedly, soberly, and in the fear of God’. It’s not something you take on to oblige a friend by making up the numbers at a christening. It involves prayer and commitment. It can be expensive in terms of time

and emotion. But being a godchild and being a godparent have brought me huge joy.

As I look forward to my birthday dinner with my godfather, I look forward also to dining with my own godchildren when I, too, am 91. If I dine with each of them individually, it will take well over a week and damage irreparably what by then is left of my liver, but at 91 I won’t care. And while

there’s no way I can ever repay my godfather what I owe him, what I can do - and what I’ve tried to do with my own godchildren - is pass on to them something of what I’ve received from him. ‘Don’t give it back – pass it on!’ God parentaI giving, like other kinds of Christian giving, has nothing to do with repayment and everything to do with taking one’s place in the apostolic succession of love and commitment that stretches from before Pentecost to the glorious fulfilment of all things which we, as Christians, eagerly await.

Æ



past, present and future

materials such as food and clothing, as well as equipment for those living in temporary accommodation. Many victims lost everything they owned and were grateful to receive basic provisions.

Later on the NSKK focused on rehabilitation work which included repairs of affected church buildings and schools, supporting psycho-social activities such as providing toy libraries, and supporting vocational training institutions for people with mental disabilities. Issho Ni Aruko also supported some of the country’s 6,000 Filipino migrants with Japanese language courses, and training that would allow students to become teachers and nurses.

Project staff also helped to improve conditions for older people who found themselves facing the future living in temporary accommodation.

Several short-term initiatives included providing grants and volunteers to allow seaweed farmers in Jyu-san Hama to relaunch their business. The Church also put on summer schools for pupils unable to attend regular school, and programmes for the children of migrants who themselves were attending courses.

This first phase of Issho ni Aruko ended in May of this year. As well as continuing some of this

rehabilitation work, the other major focus for Phase II is addressing the lack of clear information regarding the impact of nuclear fallout. Believing there has been a lot of misinformation and hysteria

...the impact of the NSKK’s work has been felt by many thousands of those affected by the disaster.

around the nuclear disaster, we are propagating a more measured and fact-based perspective. The NSKK is also working with children unable to relocate from contaminated areas, to take them on trips to clean areas where they can relax and play without fear of radiation.

IN 2011, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake off the north-eastern coast of Japan triggered a devastating tsunami and wrecked a nuclear power plant. More than 18,500 people died and 400,000 were displaced. Along with the Government and other humanitarian agencies, the Anglican Church in Japan, Nippon Sei Ko Kai (NSKK) launched a major relief and recovery operation. We called it Issho Ni Aruko (Let us walk together).

Anglicans only make up 1 per cent of Japan’s population and the NSKK only has 243 clergy. Nevertheless, the impact of the NSKK’s work has been felt by many thousands of those affected by the disaster.

With significant support in the form of volunteers, prayer and 538 million Yen in donations from across the NSKK and other parts of the Anglican Communion, our Church was able to undertake a range of projects for affected communities—most of which are in the strip between the ocean and the mountains. Our particular focus has been on supporting migrants, elderly people, children and those people with disabilities.

Initally, Issho Ni Aruko staff and volunteers collected and distributed much-needed relief

The amazing results of walking together Partners in Mission Secretary Shinya Samuel Yawata gives thanks to all those who supported the Anglican Church in Japan, and offers an overview of Phase I of the Province’s post-disaster work.

Packing cookies is one of the vocational training programmes

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Busan puts on an impressive show

PHOTO CREDIT

THE WCC AS a life-experience almost defies description. There are thousands of us, meeting and mingling everywhere – in various hotels, in the huge conference centre, in worship and over meals.

The daily Bible studies and ecumenical conversations give delegates a chance to talk about their beliefs, and to listen to the wisdom of other traditions. The call to “get into small groups for discussion” was worth it to hear how different the Bible seems, depending on how we read it.

For me there are three highlights so far: the evening meeting of Anglicans, hosted by the Bishop of Busan, the Rt Revd Onesimus Dong-sin Park, at a hotel. The Archbishop of Canterbury preached at a Eucharist for All Saints’; and the large congregation were all seated around circular tables through the room. As we began to filter up for communion, at a nod from the head waiter, the staff began doing the rounds of our tables,

weaving in and out between the lines of communicants to set out glasses, and fill them with wine. This was both hilarious and rather wonderful, as it tied together the two kinds of meal in which we were sharing. Surely Jesus would have appreciated that.

Second, was the worship at the Anglican Cathedral in Busan. With an excellent choir to lead us, we belted out old High Church Anglican favourites such as “Faith of our fathers” in English and Korean. The service depended on faultless team-work from Bishop Park (as celebrant), and the Bishop of Connor, [Church of Ireland] the Rt Revd Alan Aberneth, who preached; both were assisted by a translator.

The Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Revd Thabo Makgoba, gave the blessing. In one respect, it was rather like a wedding: the photos seemed to take longer than the service.

And last, my third highlight is the committee work. I have

never said this about a committee before. I will probably never do so again. But the one on which I served was something special, and, in the end, gloriously positive. The 25 committee members (all from different nations and denominations) had a horrible task: to whittle down a long list of names and choose 150 people for the central committee that would begin to plan the next WCC (to take place in eight years’ time).

The objective – to get the perfect result for ever country, every Church, and every interest group – was impossible. Yet four days of meetings eventually bore fruit. When we finally reached our goal there was an outburst of joy and (inevitably) more photos.

Dr Hammond was a Church of England representative at the WCC

This article is courtesy of the

Church Times newspaper

www.churchtimes.co.uk

Cally Hammond enjoys her WCC committee work


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The photo that caught the editor’s eye this quarter is from Asia. It seems that the lure of the camera was too much for two cheerful members of the Singapore Diocese of the Church of the Province of South East Asia. Turn to the back cover for a closer look.

We would love to see more of your moments of Anglican Communion life, wherever you are. If you think you have a photo that might be our next Communion Snapshot, either upload it to www.flickr.com/groups/anglicanworld or email it to [email protected]

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The next Archbishop of CanterburyWhat do we know about Justin Welby?

100 years of Anglicans in IranA century of highs and lows for laity and clergy

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