proposed conference; to be present but ment to all God’s people. We are hopeful
unable to participate in sacramental fel- for the future because our confidence is Canada
lowship would all the more painfully not in ourselves but in Jesus the Christ
Greenhouse gas
demonstrate our brokenness. The polari- who gave his life that we might have life
zation surrounding the Lambeth meet- [see John 10.10].
ing has been exacerbated because we are
With apologies to all bishops, priests,
also unable to take part in an event from The Global South Steering Committee
deacons and friends who enjoy hobbies
which a number of our own bishops have
(GSSC) comprises:
been arbitrarily excluded while those
President:
H
obbies are great, I suppose; we all
know that more than a few take
whose actions have precipitated our cur- Most Revd Peter J. Akinola, innocent relief from the daily grind by
rent crisis are included. Primate of All Nigeria; pottering about in the garden, collecting
General Secretary:
toys and various memorabilia, or what-
11. We have received requests from
Most Revd John Chew,
ever takes their fancy. It is good harmless
around the Communion to call a gath-
Bishop of Singapore;
stuff and not without precedent in the
ering of Anglican Communion leaders.
Treasurer:
Church; the mind springs to bee-keeping
We expect to call a Fourth Global South
Most Revd Mouneer Anis,
monks, model-railway collecting bishops
Encounter to bring together faithful
Bishop of Diocese of Egypt;
and scuba-diving priests. Nothing wrong
Anglican leaders across the Communion
Most Revd Emmanuel Kolini,
with this; better than falling prey to the
to renew our focus on the apostolic faith
Province of Rwanda;
perennial lure of vicious amusement in
and our common mission. its several debilitating forms.
Most Revd Drexel Gomez,
Even so, suspicion is aroused when
12. This is a critical time for the Angli-
Province of the West Indies;
extramural pursuits take over, and we
can Communion and one that will shape
Most Revd Bernard Malango,
see to our horror that the hobby has
our future for many years to come. We
Province of Central Africa;
become the man, to say nothing of the
are praying for all those in leadership that Most Revd Gregory Venables, job. We would look askance, I think, at
the decisions made and the actions taken
Province of the Southern Cone
the priest who sacrificed the Mass on the
will bring glory to God and encourage- altar of his train set, or at the bishop who
indulged his taste for Bluegrass at the
expense of his diocese. All this is obvious
enough and shouldn’t need saying, but it
seems that it does because North Ameri-
can Anglicanism has succumbed to the
heady siren call of rampant, wild hob-
byism. The urgent, pressing need to pro-
claim the Gospel and build the Church
has been supplanted by a leisure pursuit,
by an earnest fascination with social and
biological engineering.
Biology
These, to be sure, are interesting things;
whence the mysterious attraction felt by
elderly bishops for other men? No one
knows; perhaps it is a matter of chromo-
somes and DNA, maybe it is some other
thing altogether.
It is a tremendous mystery and one
which has consumed our part of the
Church to the endless employment of pri-
mates, bishops, priests, laity, lawyers and
journalists, to say nothing of conventions
and synods. But this is only the glamorous
tip of the socio-biological iceberg; there
is plenty more, famously championed by
TEC’s Presiding Bishop, +KJS, who told
us last year that, ‘This Church has said
that our larger vision will be framed…
by the vision of shalom embedded in the
Millennium Development Goals.’ What
are these MDGs? Something to do with
the Creeds and Person of Christ? Not a
bit of it; they are a suite of worthy causes
embraced by the United Nations, which
aim to:
Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger,
provide universal primary education,
August 2007
■
newdirections
■
21
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