Island music

August 1, 2008 – 4:45 pm by tess sison
The Melanesian brothers and sisters treated harried journalists to some wonderful music from the Solomon Islands shortly before the regular media briefing at 1:30 p.m. What a balm for the soul it was to hear them play the bamboo drums and flute and to watch them dance gracefully under a tree on the grounds near the university's Darwin College. The music they played was composed by a young Melanesian named Comins Kalimana,  a Melanesian brother named Daniel told us. They've done the same for Lambeth Conference delegates and you can watch the clip, courtesy of the Lambeth 2008 Web site, http://www.aco.org/daily/soundslides/2/  

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Narrowcasting

July 31, 2008 – 11:37 am by tess sison
From our very limited view - that is the press conference site aptly called The Missing Link - we are being given an image of a Lambeth Conference that is going along just dandy, thank you very much. Today's discussions were about the much-ballyhooed topic of human sexuality. Well, folks, we are told everything's quiet on the bishops' front. "no hissing and no booeing" that characterized Lambeth '98. It's not that we doubt that, as Archbishop Philip Aspinall, primate of the Church of Australia and official spokesperson of the Lambeth Conference, said, this Lambeth is "dramatically" more different than the previous one where bishops didn't behave like bishops. True, we were provided two speakers - Bishop Colin Johnson, representing the Anglican Church of Canada, and Arcbbishop Ian Earnest, primate of the Indian Ocean, and chair of the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa (CAPA). The impression being, that Bishop Johnson represents ...

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Toronto alert

July 31, 2008 – 6:28 am by tess sison
We've been told that one of the speaker's at this afternoon's press conference on sexuality will be the diocesan bishop of Toronto, Colin Johnson. There will, of course, be a story on the Journal Web site about the press confence, where we will be briefed about how the bishops have responded to the following questions in their discussion (indaba) and Bible Study groups: 1. How has the Communion's engagement with same-sex issues impacted my diocese's participation in God's mission? 2. What do I need from my fellow bishops to enable me to be true to my role as a leader in God's mission? 3. What am I prepared to offer my fellow bishops to help them? I understand that an audio of the press conference will also be made available to the diocese of Toronto Web site.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Weary and silly

July 30, 2008 – 6:14 pm by tess sison
We would have completed two General Synods plus some by now. Today, the 16th day of the 20th day of the conference, weariness is setting in on most of us. I have seen some men/women in purple skip some sessions - they either sneak into the student residences where they are billeted (perhaps for a quick snooze) or I see them hop on the Unibus (that'll take you to the city centre) or a cab. Who can blame them, really? The schedule has been gruelling. To think that previous Lambeth Conferences were five-week marathons.  Even reporters are dying to go home. "I'll be damned if I remember who I work for," said one. "I've hit the wall. That's it. I don't care anymore," said another. The weariness is offset by the fact that some have taken it upon themselves to provide some kind of entertainment at the media centre. One reporter ...

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Spouses’ photo shoot

July 28, 2008 – 9:45 am by tess sison

Posted in Photos | No Comments »

The Mighty 18

July 28, 2008 – 7:45 am by tess sison
Watch out for our story in the Anglican Journal about the 18 women bishops attending the Lambeth Conference. That's 18 out of 670 bishops. After the main bishops' photo shoot, the women bishops were photographed separately on the same grassy spot where the 11 women bishops stood in 1998, the first time they were invited to the conference. The media asked the bishops to go off into some distance and then walk towards us so that our photos would have movement. As they came nearer and nearer, one of them (I don't know who, busy as I was just trying to get all of them in the frame) asked in jest, "Shall we run over them?"  Since all I had was something akin to a point and shoot camera, it was hard to make out where the women bishops were in the sea of male bishops. But the photographer for The Telegraph managed to ...

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Where’s Gene?

July 28, 2008 – 7:00 am by tess sison
The fears expressed internally by some Lambeth organizers that Gene Robinson, the openly gay bishop of New Hampshire who was excluded from the Lambeth Conference, would take the attention away from the conference are looking more and more unfounded each day. Sure, he has stepped foot at the conference Marketplace, which is open to the public,  (and it happened when we were in the middle of a press conference at the other end of the sprawling University of Kent campus), has held an alternative Opening Service at a local church here, and has been giving interviews to some media (our requests have gone unanswered, so far.) But other than that, he hasn't been seen walking around the campus. Accredited Media are barred from covering the bishops' and most spouses' sessions but are quite free to walk around the campus and eat in the restaurants. Not so, Gene Robinson, since he isn't here on ...

Posted in Bishop Gene Robinson, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Bishops’ photo shoot

July 27, 2008 – 8:23 am by tess sison

Posted in Bishops, Canadian bishops, Photos | 1 Comment »

Bishops’ photo shoot

July 26, 2008 – 6:59 pm by tess sison
The official photo session of bishops this afternoon felt like Commencement Day. Most bishops opted to wear their convocation robes and everyone was in high spirits. Proud families - in this case, the bishops' spouses, who were in a roped-in area couldn't stop taking photographs. After four (or was it six shots?), more private photo sessions took place on the grounds. A lot of bishops opted to have their photographs taken alongside their "favourite professor," in this case the Archbishop of Canterbury. Eileen Scully, co-ordinator for worship and ministry of the Anglican Church of Canada, who is here doing various work for the conference, decided to be a mother hen (forgive the term, Eileen) and gathered the Canadian bishops for a provincial photo session. She enlisted the help of Canon Jim Rosenthal, communications director of the Anglican Communion office, who had been coordinating the day's photo shoot with a bullhorn. The Canadian bishops ...

Posted in Canadian bishops, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Kent Village

July 25, 2008 – 7:08 pm by tess sison
The University of Kent is beginning to resemble a village. Halfway through the 20-day conference, delegates, participants and "others" (that would be us, in the media), are getting accustomed to their surroundings. We are settling in, so to speak. Even though most of us miss home, we're not as catatonic as we were last week. I see a group of African spouses sharing a good laugh under the shade of trees and much as I would love to join them I wouldn't want to scare them with my turquoise lanyard ("Avoid, bad media," some have been told), so I stay away and watch them from a distance. I wonder what they're talking about. I wonder if at some point their thoughts and conversations shift to loved ones back home. It's not easy to be away of one's comfort zone for this long. Some bishops and spouses been stocking up on provisions at the grocery near ...

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »