Meet a Bishop Before the Lambeth Conference

More than 600 bishops from all over the world have already booked in for the Lambeth Conference at Canterbury.  More are expected yet.  For the long weekend before the conference begins on July 16, we shall welcome fifteen or more bishops and their spouses to stay with us here in our diocese.

We shall have visitors from every continent (except Antarctica and Europe!), and so far five from Africa, two from Asia, seven from America, and one from Australasia. We are still hoping for two or three more to join us.   

Here is a reminder of two major diocesan events for us all:

Saturday July 12: A Diocesan Eucharist at Christ Church at 11.00am. After the service we shall all be able to mingle with our visitors over drinks in the Cathedral garden, before they and their hosts are entertained to lunch in the College Hall.

Monday July 14: The Diocesan Mothers’ Union has its summer meeting at Gerrards Cross, from early evening, focussing on the MU both here and world wide. 

There will be opportunities to meet our visitors more locally where they are staying.  They will be well spread around our diocese. Many of the bishops will be preaching in one of our parish churches on Sunday July 13: We shall publish details in The Door for July. We are not going to burden our visitors with too many engagements.  They have a demanding three weeks ahead, and we are being asked to give them space for rest and reflection before they arrive at Canterbury.

Oswald Swartz and his wife Yasmin, from our link diocese of Kimberley & Kuruman will be staying at Marlow.  Bishop Ossie is known to many of us already. Sadock Makaya and Editha from Tabora in Tanzania, will be at Deddington. 

Also from Africa, three bishops from the Democratic Republic of the Congo:  George Titre Ande and Maturu, from Aru, at Thatcham; Funga Botolome and Virginie from Kisangani, at North Leigh; Isingoma Kahwa and Mugisa from Boga, at Dorchester.  These three bishops and their wives will be delighted to meet people who speak some French and/or Swahili, but English is ok too.

Papahoti Lawrence and Shanthi from Nandyal, in the Church of South India, will be staying at Didcot St Peter; and Danilo Bustamente and Marilyn from the Southern Philippines, at Milton Keynes.

From America, we are expecting Jean Duracin and Marie Edith from Haiti, at Oxford St Michael; George Bruce and Theodora from Ontario (Kingston), at Earley St Nicolas; Clifton Daniel from East Carolina, at Risborough; Dena Harrison and her husband Larry from Texas, at Beaconsfield; Henry Parsley and Rebecca from Alabama, at Wokingham All Saints; Michael Klusmeyer and Marsha from West Virginia, at Oxford Christ Church; Michael Garrison and Carol from Western New York (state not city), at Radley. 

Richard Ellena and Hilary are from Nelson, New Zealand, and will be staying at St Leonard’s in the Wendover Deanery.  We may well have another visitor from Australia.

There is a Lambeth Conference web site, www.lambethconference.org. You can find out about many of our visitors and their church by googling ‘Diocese of ……’.

Canon Martin Peirce is a former Diocesan Director of Ordinands.