Sunny in London!

The sun is finally shining here but it is really cold and windy. The rain is to return by noon. This morning we are off via the Tube to Lambeth Palace to meet with the staff of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Quite a lovely morning is planned. Then we have a group lunch at a pub and have the afternoon off. I may feel Harrods calling me! At 5:00 we will be welcomed at Evensong at Westminster Abbey and that is it! Home to the hotel to pack. I'm on a shuttle at 8:30 tomorrow morning to Heathrow althoug my flight isn't until 1:00 - we are going together to save $.

We successfully managed the tube yesterday and even did some transfers. Fortunately we were in a "pack" so I didn't have to rely on my non-existant ability to manuever subways. As we made our way in the 35 mph winds and rain from the tube station to Elizabeth House we began to question why we had not taken taxis. Oh well. Its the Lutheran look with your hair standing on end. We met there with the council for Christian Unity of the Church of England. They normally are housed in Westminster Abbey but it is undergoing major renovation so they are in temporary digs for a year. As we sat in the small conference room our view was of the London Eye (ferris wheel). It was right outside the window so provided fun watching.

The conversations were warm as was the welcome of tea and biscuits. They are the ecumenical arm of the church and provide for official relationships, partnerships and dialogs. They spoke at length (three of them) about how they support local unity processes across England. They also talked of rethinking all of it in terms of the mission agenda in this country.

"The society has walked away from old Christendom models and is embracing a sort of spiritually without really understanding what that even is." (Paul Avis.)

He said that in the US there is some "social credit" given to those who do go to church. In England that is no longer the case and in fact may be a "social detrement." They now realize that England is once again a mission field. Randy Lee commented that there is an acceleration of privatized spirituality - just me and Jesus in the U.S.

The conversation moved into some fairly technical ecumenical jargon and concepts - the scary part was that I understood all of it! I later found myself explaining it to others in our group.

We had an interesting conversation about women clergy as they do ordain women but they are not allowed to become bishops. The conversation got a tad lively! They wondered if they had women bishops what would they do with parishes who did not accept them AND other bishops who would not accept them. It made us feel that we have come quite a ways in the ELCA. They estimate the 20 % of their church would not accept women clergy at all.

They served us little sandwiches and fruit and then we headed back out into the wild weather and underground to the tube for the ride from Waterloo Sations to Baker where we transferred to another line and ended up in Winterbourne. our meeting there was with the Anglican communion and Gregory cameron. The first thing he did was lift up the LWF decomentation series on Anglican Lutheran Agreements. He had a stack of them on the table to give to those in our group who didn't have them.

They are in new apace at St. Andrews House. As I sat there in the garden level meeting room I was having tea and shortbread cookies while looking out on a lovely garden of blooming hyacinths, flowering crabapple treees, daffodils and pots hanging on a brick wall. Lots of birds.

They are planning their annual conversation with the LWF in Geneva. They will meet with Ishmael and with Sven Oppegard (Our LWF Ecumenical staff person). They are bringing in the two bishops from Israel/Palestine (Munib) for conversations of support, shared work, etc.

a big question for them is how they develop the next generation of theological educators. that proved to be a good discussion. It was lead by one of their staff - a woman who looked like a street person until she opened her mouth and you heard what she had to say!!!

Once again we enjoyed tea and shortbread biscuits. Yum. Then we disbursed - some to Evensong, some to shop, others to nap. Sally Almen, Faith and I went back to the hotel and then up to Covent Garden and walked the shops, etc. Faith and I ended up having dinner at Wellingtons Pub on the corner just beyond the hotel. I may have had my fill of fish and chips and beer by the time we leave tomorrow.

So - thats the last post from this trip - thanks for taking the ride with me!