Canterbury
by E.T. Malone, Jr.
Lambeth Conference Communications
In the Senate Building, an octagonal two-story structure on the University of Kent central campus, the Lambeth Conference has established a sacred place for prayer, meditation, and counseling. A sign on the door declares: "Sacred Place. All most welcome. Prayer, silence, rest, reflect."
Outside, to the right of the entrance, a ten-foot wooden cross rests against the building, as if to announce its purpose.
On the first floor is a small lobby and offices of members of the chaplaincy team, one of whom is available every day from 6:15 a.m. until 10:15 p.m. Night prayers are said at 9:45 p.m. In the foyer is a box for prayer requests and a table with books and pamphlets on silence, meditation, and spirituality-for use only in the building.
"It is amazing, the requests for prayers we have received in the box," said Lambeth Conference Chaplain Bishop Roger Herft of the Diocese of Newcastle, Australia. "These are not requests that are submitted for reading in a public service but to be offered up to God in private by the chaplains."
Visitors may select one of the pamphlets and take it up the winding stairs to the second floor. Waiting for them is an extraordinary collection of images, icons, and Bibles in the official languages of the Conference. The building contains two collections of original prayer icons loaned by the Andipa Gallery of London. Upstairs, in what appears to be a converted art gallery, alternating streamers of light brown and baige fabric descend from a gathering point under the skylight of the peaked roof, giving the sense of being inside a tent or pavilion.
The upper room contains a walkway surrounding a sunken floor. The images and icons are spread along the walkway, either on the wall or on easels. Several large terra cotta jars are filled with reed rushes. Pillows, small kneelers, and occasional chairs are arranged around the sides of the sunken floor. Both the walkway and floor are carpeted in soft fabric, and oriental style rugs are laid in a pattern on the floor. At the center is a circular rug on which rests a wooden stand containing three lecterns, each holding-at staggered heights-an open Bible in a different language. In late afternoon a shaft of light from one of the west windows points like a sundial in reverse to the center of the room.
Hanging directly overhead is a large, heavy wooden cross. The center of focus in the room, it is sometimes the very last thing noticed by visitors who have circled the walls closely inspecting the icons. And this can have a startling effect. The muted colors create a calming, peaceful atmosphere in the room, and many of the images and icons depict instances of nurturing and consolation.
From time to time women and men wander in slowly, as if in awe. Some fall immediately to their knees to pray, some circle the room viewing the icons or praying before them, and others simply sit and think in this sacred space at the heart of the Lambeth Conference.