Tales from Canterbury Cathedral

This marks the beginning of a two week Anglican Pilgrimage at Canterbury Cathedral. This is a gathering of 33 seminarians or recently ordained priests from all over the Anglican Communion. We have participants from North America, South America, Australia, Africa, and Asia. There are so many differences among this group, yet I already see so much commonality. I am looking forward to learning from my new friends.

Monday was a day of arrivals for most of the participants. As people arrived, lunch or afternoon tea or dinner became a time of informal introductions. Tuesday will begin the formal program. Even this informal meeting time has brought several observations that I want to share. These simple observations indicate the great fruit that will become evident in the future discussions.

First observation: English speaking countries have fewer multi-lingual residents. It is not unusual for non-primary English speaking countries to master three or four languages. In English-primary countries being bi-lingual is still unique.

Second observation: When meeting each other the participants from African nations would note, when a border was shared, that “you are my neighbor.” Even those who do not share a border were “my brother.” This is not the type of response Americans have shared with people from neighboring states or Canada or Mexico. The sense of “neighbor” differs. It causes me to ponder the sense of neighbor that Christ envisioned.

This final observation struck me personally as I move from the corporate world to the world of faith. A fellow MBA holder commented that Bishops and clergy are now more comfortable with the language of business rather than the discussion of the Holy Spirit. Growth projections, revenue, marketing have replaced the role of the Holy Spirit. This type of discussion and language is more comfortable for most people. It avoids the uneasy and uncertain discussion around theological reasoning. After all, how do you graph the Holy Spirit?

I wonder what we are protecting our selves from by retreating to the language of the secular corporate world. What are those around us loosing when clergy don’t invite them into the language and world of faith? Is it opening communication to use business language and tactics, or is it compromising the Church?

From Canterbury Cathedral I wish you Peace and Blessings,