Starting every day with Eucharist and Bible Study from now on. The Bible Studies are prepared by a team of scholars from this diocese and they are working with 2 Corinthians. Today we had 2 Corinthians 3: 1-6. I find it very moving to be part of a small group of 6 people from all over the globe sharing our faith journeys by considering the Scriptures each day.
Then we moved on to our final workshop with a Network. I chose the Peace and Justice Network in which we were asked to list the issues in our country. We heard about war, internal fighting, interfaith strife, destruction of environment by transnational companies, lack of drinkable water, and many other problems. This network is now resetting its agenda for future work. After morning coffee, we changed our seating to be in regional groups, to listen to the work of the Anglican Alliance. The alliance was formed by the ACC three years ago at the meeting in Jamaica. It is headed by Sally Keeble, a very able person with background in development and government.
The alliance works at letting the world know about the relief and development work being done by Anglicans around the world. You can interact with the map on the Anglican Communion website. Her request was that we tell the story of the work that we do as a way of showing how we carry out Jesus’ directive to care for those in need.
After lunch we dealt with the resolutions from the networks about the work they will be taking forward for the next three years. Here we ran into the inevitable questions about procedure since Provinces all have different rules of order. The Secretary General was very helpful in reviewing the rules for this meeting to solve the dilemma. Late in the afternoon we were introduced to the report of IASCUFO – a BIG document, which includes the work on the Anglican Covenant, the Instruments of Communion, and the ecumenical dialogues. We spend more time on each of those over the next several days.
After dinner, we had the first of the three public presentations at this meeting, this one on stopping physical abuse by working with the men who have been abusers. Although we were all quite tired by this time of day, it was good to hear about the program that is having success in transforming lives that were broken and destructive into lives full of joy, men able to live with their families in love and peace!
