One of the interesting things that has been put in place by the organizers/designers of this meeting has been the addition of Regional Meetings…as a region (in our case, North America), we have gathered now three times to discuss topics from our somewhat common position geographically. So, we’ve been meeting with our colleagues from The Episcopal Church. The discussions have been fruitful and energetic. We have dug deeply into the topics of the agenda, yesterday, into the environmental concerns. We are keeping notes of our work, and have taken the interesting step of seeing whether we can meet as a group mid-way between the ACC meetings, to keep ourselves on track with what we say we might do to respond to these topics. I’m taking on organizing the meetings…many timetables to juggle, including the Presiding Bishop of TEC and the Chair of its House of Deputies. But I think it will give us more of a sense of being active members of this Council, rather than simply people who go to meetings. And when the meetings are every 3 1/2 to 4 years, it’s hard to keep a sense of continuity.
The exciting discussion yesterday was about the project called The Bible in the Life of the Church. This action resulted from a decision last meeting that at the core of our difficulties as a Communion is that we read the Bible differently around the world, and expect different things from our reading. The report is superbly written and organized; the process over the three years across the world was clearly done with finesse and care. And our discussion took off…much talk about context and text and the interaction between the two.
In the core of the report are two Bible studies that should be great to use for Lent this year. And the resource list is quite available, even on a memory key (which my copy of the report was missing so will need to go a-hunting for one today). We as a church will be richly blessed by this. And we have also been richly blessed by the depth to which our discussion has gone in response to it. The plenary has some great ideas to extend the project, and we will today or Monday have more time to make a resolution about an extension of this work that will really sing.
A report on Christian Zionism has been also dealt with yesterday, something I found very interesting and helpful. But, as all things about Israel, it is loaded with what we often call hot potatoes, so we need to have more plenary discussion about it before it is “received.”
And last night, we trekked off in buses again, this time to be guests of the Tikanga Polynesia, the Pacific Islands part of the three-part Aoteoroa, New Zealand, and Polynesia Church. Greeting by colorfully dressed Islanders singing away as we entered the hall, the evening was a huge and energetic entertainment/feast/almost poem! The feast was obviously prepared by the people…much fish, spicy veggies, and suckling pigs roasted for our eating pleasure. My venture into trying something new was a coconut milk, corned beef, mixture in a tora leaf (I know I haven’t spelled that correctly) and steamed, and it was delicious.
But what was thrilling was the stage show, mostly fairly young people with a few scattered elders, telling and singing and dancing the story of creation, and then sharing with us a variety of dances from the key islands…Samoa, Tonga, Fiji. The citing of the dancing done by men as well as women was amazing, the most different one for us was the dancing done by men while sitting…arms and hands and voices giving us the effect of an overwhelming energy and power. And the women’s main dances were wonderful stories told by really graceful delicate hand motions, and very slow, elegant body movement. We even had a hulu, but a much more vigorous one than I remember from Hawaii. I was sitting beside Turi Hollis, who was able to keep answering my questions about whose island was performing and the meaning of the dance…but it would have been stupendous even if I didn’t have that information.
I keep remembering the impact of reading Coming of Age in Samoa when I was much much younger, and now am able to see some of the women and men of modern Samoa celebrating their roots. Margaret Mead would have been delighted!
Again, I pinch myself at what I’ve been privileged to be part of.
God is good, and God’s people are good too, in their varied ways!
Many blessings.
