By the Lambeth Conference Communications News Team

The Lambeth Conference heeded the words of St. Mark and "came then apart to rest awhile" in a vigil which began at 3:30 p.m., Thursday (July 30), and continued through the Friday morning Eucharist.

Business of the conference effectively ceased with the commencement of the first service, and speech was kept at a minimum. Simple meals were served in the dining halls and some conference participants fasted during the period.

The Archbishop of Canterbury said he hoped Lambeth participants would "see this as a spiritual oasis in our programme to prepare us for the final eight or nine days when we form our resolutions on a spiritual cushion of prayer and meditation."

The opening liturgy included a meditation the nature and power of love by Jean Vanier, founder and director of the L'Arche network of communities for people with learning and other disabilities, who was accompanied by members of the Canterbury community of L'Arche. He said he felt humbled to be the voice of those who have no voice to the "good shepherds of the Anglican Communion."

People "with mental handicaps, disabilities, are amongst the most oppressed people of our world. I have visited institutions, asylums which are really places of death. . . places where these very special people are crushed and hurt, broken, with no voice. And yet, they are precious people," he said.

Responding out of ministries

Speaking in Spanish, Bishop David Andres Alvarez-Velazquez of Puerto Rico, in the first of three responses, told of the beginning of an AIDS ministry for children in his diocese because of one child who died of the disease, a girl named Libertad. "Today our diocese cares for more than 350 children with AIDS," at nine centers throughout Puerto Rico, Bishop Alvarez.

The vision presented by Jean Vanier speaks to "our particular ministries: holiness, the life and the ministry of a bishop, pastoral care," he said. "The real world of the North and the South needs holiness."

In the second response, the Moderator of the United Church of Bangladesh, Bishop Barnabas Dwijen Mondal, said that as a tiny minority in the Islamic land Christians face a "very difficult spiritual and cultural identity crisis." He said he also struggles with the question of how far the church can go in absorbing cultural values before its very identity is threatened.

On the other hand, the church, if it is to attract members, must provide a worship experience that is "more of an encounter than a formality." The attraction of the cross must be seen as not just a symbol of membership, an emblem of our pride, he said, but embraced as "a way of life."

Bishop Thomas Shaw of Massachusetts (United States), for 23 years a member of the Society of St. John the Evangelist (SSJE) and its former superior, said how deeply he resonated to Jean Vanier's words about community and holiness. "If you had asked me all those years ago why I was entering a religious community . . . I would have told you I wanted more time to pray, a much more simple life style . . . a more intense form of community," he said.

"I now know there was a deeper reason. I now know that the Spirit was opening me to the abundant presence of God everywhere in this world," he said.

Bishop Shaw described how his order has turned its monastery into a place of hospitality, receiving the pilgrim, the stranger. "The desire of every Christian, male or female, old or young, black or white, gay or straight, poor or rich, sick or well is . . . to find the 'God who is above all and through all and in all.' So my brothers and I . . . have opened our doors to that desire."

The drama of reconciliation

The meditations were followed by a mime performance by members of the Canterbury L'Arche community. Brandishing swords, halberds, and battle pendants, two teams of performers in red and blue t-shirts engaged in an allegorical battle focused on the theme of reconciliation.

A Service of Light liturgy, delivered in French and English, concluded the service. As the lights dimmed, the two halls were illuminated by thousands of candles of the congregation, who sang "The Light of Christ has come into the world."

In a moving homily at the beginning of the second service, Jean Vanier challenged the conference participants to adopt patterns of servant-leadership. Explaining the biblical account of Jesus washing his disciples' feet, Jean Vanier suggested that the bishops should expect the unexpected: "Jesus is always surprising us. He doesn't like it when we fall into little habits."

The ritual, he said, "was a gesture of communion," but also a lesson. "He's teaching us how he wants us to exercise authority," Jean Vanier said. "Jesus is saying we must be all of us together servants of each other." It was crucial that the disciples understood, Jesus was saying, "my message turns everything upside down."

For bishops, but also for all people because "each one of us exercising power in some way," the ritual holds a powerful message that "we are called to walk the downward path, we are called to be small."

The solemnity created by Jean Vanier's measured words, occasional music of guitar, oboe and voice, and the soft lighting in the plenary halls set a stage for two concluding ceremonies of commitment and discipleship. First, members of the congregation were invited to come forward to write on slips of paper any hindrances to their spiritual journeys. Many paused to kneel in prayer as well after depositing their paper slips, which were finally carried outside and ignited.

Jean Vanier, Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, and his wife, Eileen, led the first group of 12 participants in the foot-washing ritual. Kneeling before Archbishop Carey, Jean Vanier washed both his feet in a basin, then bent his head as Archbishop Carey embraced him in prayer. Archbishop Carey washed his wife's feet, and the pattern continued, mirrored at multiple stations throughout the hall until hundreds of bishops, their spouses, staff and guests had been joined in the communion of mutual service.

Katie Sheered, Nan Cobbey, Susie Erdey, Allan Reeder, David Skidmore, James Thrall, and Vincente Echerri contributed to this article.