Joel Edwards reflects on his time at Lambeth Conference 2008...
I arrived as a Lambeth Conference guest having seriously misjudged the dress code. As my train pulled in to Canterbury East station I put on my sensible tie in order to blend in nicely. To my surprise I was instead confronted by throngs of bishops strolling about in shades, shorts and T-shirts.
It typified the relaxed nature of a high profile event that had gone out of its way to be both eclectic and hospitable. I arrived on the night Cardinal Diaz, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples to the Vatican, gave a popular plenary address. I was told that the night before Brian MClaren had gone down a storm. During the time I was there, the prophesied blood bath seemed as incongruous as a heavyweight boxing championship on the deck of a cruise ship.
But the undercurrents were real. They swept through the orchestrated Bible studies and Indaba groups of 40 people. In my group I sat in the company of eight or nine bishops. Painful issues were poured into John’s Gospel and the story of the woman caught in the act of adultery. Some apologised, others brought powerful anecdotes and some said they didn’t know quite what to do. Everyone was being real.
And our Indaba Group seemed the perfect prelude to the Walk of Witness that followed the next day, because the entire session was committed to challenging bishops about their response to the 
Millennium Development Goals. When I walked amongst a benign swarm of purple cassocks, flanked by people of other faiths, I really didn’t feel as though the Anglican Communion was carrying out a mass diversion from real issues. I was ecstatic about the fact that it had linked arms with Micah Challenge in a high profile presence to talk about something other than sex. And we all hoped everyone would notice.
I left the bishops and their other guests at Lambeth Palace having heard a rousing speech from the Archbishop, and the best speech anyone present had ever heard from the Prime Minister. It came far too late for the Scottish by-election the following day but it certainly came from his head and heart.
And I left knowing what everybody else knew: behind the cordial and creative programming there was real business to be done and Lambeth 2008 does not have the luxury of indecisiveness. There is now a level of urgency that means either some people will cry or everyone will. We need to pray for the Archbishop and the Communion. We need to pray for all Anglicans everywhere who carry this painful conversation on all our behalves. And we need to pray knowing that whatever the outcome, no one should doubt that there still exists a kingdom of power and love present in broken jars of clay.
Joel Edwards, 29 July 2008
