Past few days

The last few days have been a bit of a whirlwind. There have been final preparations for the beginning of the conference, the beginning of The Spouses Conference, the opening Eucharist, and lots of worship and singing.

All the bishops have commented how wonderful the retreat was and the spouses are beginning to get settled in. We have had few injuries, and all seems to be going well.

The Ecumenical Guests arrived Saturday. It is so much fun to see the attire of the leaders of the many different Christian traditions represented. From the Lutheran bishops who resemble Anglican bishops, to the Salvation Army representative's military based uniform to the beautiful and detailed robes of the orthodox representatives, it was a very interesting site. These guests were formally welcomed at worship that evening.

Two more points:
1. The ten foot fence:
There have been rumors of a ten foot fence which surrounds the "Big Top"- the large blue tent in which many conference events are held for the purpose of intimidating people.
This is not true... the fence is a bit under six and a half feet high and was required by the insurance company for the tent. There is a lot of expensive equipment in that tent such as lights, headsets, microphones, etc and no perfect way to secure it as it is a tent. While I'm sure the fence does provide some sort of "people" security as well, its primary purpose is to conform to the rules of the insurance company.

2. The HOB is deliberately excluding +Gene from attend an HOB meeting this morning.
Yes, +Gene is not invited to this gathering. The conference has scheduled provincial meetings for province (or region) of the Anglican Communion on campus as official conference events. Every event at Lambeth has a very specific requirement as to who is allowed in. Most events are exclusive.
Before every event at Lambeth Stewards are told who is allowed in (people are colour coded- bishops and bishop's spouses are on the same color but have different badges).
Because Bishop Robinson does not have a purple lanyard, he would not be allowed in to the room where the provincial gathering is being held.
There isn't anything we as stewards are allowed to do about it, it can only be taken up with the Lambeth Secretariat.
I agree that +Gene should be able to meet with his province, so please don't start with that. Simply, it is not the bishop's decision to make.

Lasty, if as you are reading this blog, you don't see something discussed that you would like to know about, please email me or post a reply, and I will be happy to talk about it. So much is going on at Lambeth that it is hard at times to distinguish between what people are hearing about/find interesting and otherwise.


In peace,
Allie
A Lambeth Steward