by E. T. Malone, Jr. 
Lambeth Conference Communications

Story-telling has emerged as a key aspect of the Lambeth Conference Bible studies that reaches across differences of culture and race and binds together bishops and spouses from widely divergent cultures. 

But as bishops and spouses from North America, Europe and Australia have listened to stories from their African and Asian counterparts about their Christian witness in the face of wars, violence, suppression, and threats of death, they have often asked themselves, "What can we say to compare to this?"

"We Westerners have been forced to examine our own lives and experiences, to search for what are really the crucial issues and questions in our own cultures, and evaluate how we've dealt with them," said Connie Johnson, spouse of Bishop Robert Johnson (North Carolina) and convener of one of the Spouses' Programme Bible studies. 

Different kinds of challenge

"Soldiers don't come to my door and threaten to cut me to pieces for singing Christian hymns," she said. "There is nothing that dramatic. What is worse, perhaps, is dealing with a secular culture that is indifferent to religion, that doesn't even care what we do."

Spouses from developed nations, "are so in awe of those who put their lives on the line, whether it's in Africa, or Palestine, or in Northern Ireland," Connie Johnson observed. "It is very different, I think, to be faithful in the subtle situation at home, in a way perhaps even more difficult."

The group of 10 bishops' spouses that has met daily through the course of the conference "has been a rich, rich Bible study," she said. "We have benefited and learned from the diversity, even though we have vast differences in theological perspective and in our views of the roles of a bishop's spouse. Our group is in many ways a cross section of the Lambeth Conference."

Despite the widely varied cultures, Connie Johnson said, the group has been struck by how strongly all of the women care for each other. "We wish that the whole Conference could be brought to that level. We've had our disagreements, but they were about ideas. We've never lost our love for one another."

The routine of the 90-minute studies includes announcements, Morning Prayer, Bible study, story telling, and coffee.

The Bible study group includes Peggy Buchanan (spouse of Bishop John C. Buchanan, West Missouri, USA), Alice Neumbe-Muwombi (spouse of Bishop Nathan Muwombi, North Mbale, Uganda), Lydia Dharmaraj (spouse of Bishop Jason Dharmaraj, Tirunelveli, South India), Dorothy Piper (spouse of Bishop Reg Piper, Wollongong, Australia), Kirsten Peterson (spouse of Canon John Peterson, Anglican Communion secretary-general), Blessing Moughereh (spouse of Bishop Vincent Moughereh, Ughelli, Nigeria), Christine Eames (spouse of Archbishop Robert Eames, Armagh, Ireland), Anne Taylor (spouse of Bishop Humphrey Taylor, Selby, England), and Alice Jean Finlay (spouse of Bishop Terence E. Finlay, Toronto, Canada).