Primates meeting Day 3 – the first press conference

The first press conference was held at 6.30pm Monday in a smart conference room off the foyer of the Helnan Palestine Hotel. Archbishop Phillip Aspinall, the Primate of Australia, is the archbishop delegated to report the deliberations of the Primates to the media.

The meeting started with a good atmosphere, he said. There are tensions and issues we have to face but not the level of anxiety there has been at previous meetings. There is a lower level of anxiety and the Lambeth Conference in July last year may have made a difference. At Lambeth relationships were deepened and the bishops present showed that they are deeply committed to the Communion.

The Primates began with a quiet morning on Sunday. Archbishop Rowan focussed on the third chapter of the book of Revelation, the letters to the churches at Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea, to churches that were in a spot of bother or trouble. Is their experience a reflection of life in our churches now, he asked. The letters are salutary for us. He reminded the Primates of the note of promise which ends these letters.

I will follow this opening blog on the first press conference with a number of reports focussing on the Sexuality and Mission presentations, the Covenant, the Role of Primates and the other Instruments and Schism, ending with a commentary on the way in which some commentators cast other members of the Communion in a shockingly un-Christian light.

Primates' Meeting Day 2 St Mark's Cathedral Dedication

The Primates emerged from their secluded out of town hotel on Sunday evening to attend the Installation of the Very Revd Dr Samy Fawzy Shehata as Dean of St Mark’s Pro-Cathedral in Alexandria. The buzz and bustle of local life around the Cathedral is in marked contrast to the serenity of the Montaza Gardens. During the service the Muslim call to prayer could be heard along with the sounds of street life.

The local congregation filled the pews that were not already occupied by the Primates. This was clearly a great occasion for them, to have their Dean installed in the presence of Archbishop Rowan and the Primates (not forgetting Colin and me). The service was in Arabic, with a thoughtfully provided accurate English written translation.

For me the highlight of the service was the singing of an Arabic hymn around the theme `You have said Come to me all you heavy laden and I will give you rest’ - the joy and energy in the singing lifted my spirit, and maybe in another setting would have called forth a dance. Would have been great to see the Primates free to dance in praise to God!

++Rowan preached the sermon – he spoke of the busy-ness in church life, where people are busy doing things for God, whereas the most important work that takes place in church is Jesus praying. When we recognize that Jesus is praying in our neighbour who is praying, then our perspective will change. While the primary audience was the local congregation, and the need for the Cathedral to be recognised as a place where Jesus is praying, it could perhaps be understood as a challenge to the whole Communion, and to the Primates in particular, to put less reliance on structure and hierarchy (the busy-ness of people) and to recognize that we are a community where Jesus is praying.

Pity that we sang Onward Christian Soldiers as final hymn – this area has seen more than its fair share of religious wars and the words of the hymn jarred with me; there are surely other more helpful metaphors of the Christian life.

Egypt was among the first countries to adopt Christianity; tradition has it that St Mark began to preach here in 45CE, and Christianity became the state religion in the 4th Century. Word quickly got round the staff in our small very friendly downtown hotel that they were extending hospitality to two out and proud Christians. By sign language one of the housekeepers told me she was Anglican, and greeted me with hugs; she then brought another Christian colleague to greet me as well. Our presence seemed to be an encouragement to them.

Primates meeting Day 2 - the GAFCON paper

There was speculation before the Primates meeting, and even a statement in The Living Church this week by Bishop Bob Duncan that the GAFCON Primates will present a paper and make the case of an alternative Anglican Province in North America.

Canon Kearon apparently confirmed last Wednesday before staff left for Egypt that no paper had so far been received from the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) Primates.

We can confirm that neither Bishop Martyn Minns nor Bishop Bob Duncan are here in person to present a paper, and no paper has been formally presented for reception. The meeting agenda is flexible, however, and if some of the Global South Primates wished to present such a document, I am sure space would be found in the timetable.

Primates meeting Day 2 - behind the lens and laptop

I’m never sure what my place and role is at meetings like this. In some people’s minds, it’s clearly for the big boys (and they are nearly all boys, of course). For a few of the Primates I know well, it’s a meeting of friends in Christ, which to me, is how it ought to be. Riazat Butt from the Guardian, Christine Codner and one or two other staff members, and Brenda Harrison from CA are the only women present among the men.

I am here primarily to meet and converse with people and build relationships. The other media people are here to report and blog, and you will be reading their reports elsewhere. Some have their own style. I am often as fascinated by what is happening on my side of the fence, where the pictures are being taken from and reports filed.

The images here can speak volumes. So here’s George Conger of Living Church and the Church of England Newspaper and David Virtue of Virtueonline. One likes big equipment (and takes much better photos than me as a result) and the other likes nestling his laptop, throughout a service if necessary, to the point of rising to say the creed with it.


















Both are staying at the Helnan Palestine hotel where the rate we were quoted is £250 a night, though if we had booked early enough (and CA had the money) we might have been given the reduced rate of £90 a night.

Primates meeting Day 2 - What has changed?

I can only speculate on what has changed at this Primates’ meeting and what the reasons might be. We have moved on from where we were two years ago. The work that has been done by Archbishop Rowan, the staff at Lambeth Palace and the Anglican Communion Office in relation to the Lambeth Conference, but more especially I suspect, in quiet work building relationships and understanding behind the scenes, have radically changed the dynamics. However the conservatives might like to spin it, last year’s Lambeth Conference was a great success despite the absence of nearly a third of the bishops.

The Primates no longer need to protect themselves behind a security ring. It’s worth pondering what they thought they needed to protect themselves from two years ago – dangerous interference by Scott Gunn, Caro Hall, Davis Mac-Iyalla and Colin Coward? Or interference by Bishop Martyn Minns and Canon Chris Sugden?

Conversations with some of the Primates and staff members reveal that changes have been taking place behind the scenes. According to one source, every Primate present in the hotel on Sunday morning was present at the Communion service and received communion, including those who absented themselves from Lambeth. The Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, Katherine Jefferts Schori wasn’t present – she doesn’t arrive until today, but Archbishop Fred Hiltz of Canada was. One reason for refusing to come to Lambeth was the presence of those who had consented to Gene Robinson’s election and consecration. Will full participation in communion continue once Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori has arrived?

In my Sunday blog, I assumed that we would meet most of the American and UK conservatives who have regularly been present on the outside of these meetings – Bishop Martyn Minns, Bishop David Anderson, Canon Chris Sugden – I was wrong – they are not here – only David V and George C. I was told yesterday that they were given strict instructions not to come, probably by the Archbishop to whom they owe prime allegiance.

Their decision not to come reflects a profound change of authority and tactics within the broad conservative coalition.

One corner might be represented by Bishop Martyn Minns and his determination to misrepresent the issue facing the Communion as a battle between tired, old colonial powers who have lost their Christian vision (coupled with an increasingly direct attack on the status and authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury) and the numerical and spiritual ascendancy of the Global South Provinces. Canon Chris Sugden of Anglican Mainstream is a key supporter in this strategy.

A second corner might be represented by Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables of the Southern Cone, who has taken a number of dissenting North American bishops and dioceses under his wing. The advice from this corner is that the conservatives have to respect the processes of the Anglican Communion and the four instruments of unity which are the only bodies where authority is rooted.

The third corner might be represented by Archbishop Peter Akinola, who greeted me warmly in the foyer of the Helnan Palestine Hotel yesterday. Archbishop Peter articulates the view of many that the ordination and consecration of lesbian and gay priests and bishops and the blessing of gay relationships is contrary to church tradition and the teaching of scripture. We respect the integrity of this position while radically disagreeing with it. Changing Attitude has always been ready to engage with the process initiated by the Primates in the Windsor Report. It seems that African and other Primates and bishops are now willing to return to full engagement. For us, this includes the listening process which has been categorically rejected by many of them.

Some of the anger and frustration that many African Primates and bishops felt with The Episcopal Church following Bishop Gene Robinson’s consecration seems to have been played out. I detect a real willingness to move on now from reactions to an event that happened in 2003. The signs are that every Primate is now willing to return to the table laid out by Archbishop Rowan, where a welcome has always been guaranteed. Still on that table are the Windsor Report and the Covenant. Changing Attitude disagrees strongly with both documents if their intention is to inhibit the full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the Communion.

We support both documents if they are able to focus our hearts and minds on the mission and ministry of the church in Christ Jesus. We have always seen the way forward as one which will take time, as all of us, reacting to the events of the last 6 years from different standpoints, come to a common heart and mind through dialogue and the building of new understanding through relationship.

The advantage of having come to Alexandria is that personal conversation and encounter is the only way to grow together and achieve a real change of heart on all sides. This is what is already happening for us. I am picking up signs of a movement of real change away from the threats of schism and splits of recent years, back to the centre, to a focus on Christ who draws all people to himself in unity and a respect for the integrity of the Anglican Communion.

Primates meeting Day 2

It took some time yesterday to find the Helnan Palestine Hotel. The non-English speaking cab driver knew where the Montazah Palace Gardens were, and took us there through heavy traffic on the road fronting the sea. We eventually tracked the hotel down, hidden at the far end of the gardens at the tip of the Peninsular. You have to pay, E£5, or 50pence, to enter the gardens, and the entry fee combined with the hidden location and the three mile cab ride from downtown means the Primates are as distanced from the town centre of Alexandria as they were in Dar es Salaam.

Having reached the hotel, the environment is very different from Dar. There are no security guards and no security at all beyond the hotel’s futile security arch. The Primates are meeting in a room directly off the hotel lobby, and access is fully open. The first person I sighted on arrival in the hotel lobby was David Virtue, sitting blogging – no change from Tanzania there. Communion Office staff began to appear, and then various Primates, gathering their belongings in preparation for the coach ride to St Mark’s Pro-Cathedral where they were participating in a service of dedication.

What does this radical change in security arrangements mean? Why was it felt to be so necessary just two years ago for the Primates to meet in an exclusive environment and to be protected by a permanent squad of security men, who challenged anyone daring to come too close. Very few Primates in Dar es Salaam ventured from their side of the hotel to the public domain.

There are very few reporters here – David Virtue for Virtueonline, George Conger for the Living Church and Church of England Newspaper, Riazat Butt for the Guardian, Matthew Davies for the Episcopal News Service and Paul Feheley for the Anglican Church of Canada. They are all familiar faces, and friends to one degree or another. Perhaps the lack of interest by the media is one reason for reduced security, but I think it represents the beginning of a sea change in the Communion, about which, more later.

Alexandria Primates meeting Day 1

I arrived in Alexandria with Brenda Harrison by train from Cairo this morning, after sightseeing on Saturday. We visited the pyramids at Giza, me on horseback, Brenda on a camel.

We moved on after 3 hours hard riding south to the stepped pyramid, the first to have been built in 2650BCE. Sandstorms swept across during the visit making the experience less than ideal. Here by the sea, the sea and sky are both crystal clear blue. We hope this is a good omen for the Primates meeting, blue skies and clear thinking.

We returned to Cairo, to the Coptic quarter, where there are a number of Coptic churches, one proclaiming to be one of the places where Mary, Joseph and Jesus stayed on their escape to Egypt.

In the departure lounge at Heathrow we met Carlos Touche Porter, the Presiding Bishop of the Anglican Church of Mexico and David Craig and Christine Codner, both members of staff at the Anglican Communion office. There is a service at the Pro-cathedral at 6.30pm followed by a photo-call.

I have applied for press accreditation but not received a response. Brenda and I sat and wondered who from the British press might be present, but couldn’t think of any. It seems unlikely that any American journalists will think the meeting worth covering, and I doubt it will have the same interest for local journalists as the last meeting in Tanzania.

My assumption is that many of our friends from the conservative pressure groups will be here. We are here from Changing Attitude to pray for the Primates, to remind them that there are many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Anglicans in every Province of our Communion, and our presence should be recognised and respected.