It is a great privilege to be asked to speak at the Episcopal Church Club in Philadelphia. I have known about the Club for many years and it is an honour to be asked to be here today. In particular, I want to thank Reg Schneider for her invitation and Phil McMaster for welcoming me so warmly. As the Inquiry reported last Saturday, your Bishop and I have been friends for years and it is an honour to be with him in the Diocese of Philadelphia. It was Charles' father who had enough trust in a young deacon to make him a Canon Theologian of Western Michigan. It is because of Bishop Bennison that I have been able to serve the Church in the two positions that I have held since Western Michigan. It is great to be with you today. I also want to acknowledge the presence of Bishop Alan Bartlett who has been a long time friend since our Jerusalem days.

Today I have divided my speech into three parts - I am very Trinitarian.

• First, to look at the Anglican Communion and to do that I am going to ask you to go on a journey with me;
• Second, to introduce you to the Compass Rose Society; and
• Third, to look at the Anglican Communion after the Lambeth Conference.

Travel with me to Honduras

For some in our Anglican family around the world, life is lived in the midst of upheaval, death, destruction and despair. The people of Central America, especially Honduras, have suffered greatly. Hurricane Mitch took its toll. Yet Anglican Bishop Leo Frade, in his sermon on Christ the King just a couple of months ago, offered his people a firm message. For us, Bishop Frade's words touch at the very heart of Advent.

Bishop Frade asked:

If Christ is our King, then how come are we facing so many problems and encountering such horrible predicaments?

How can we see God's kingdom in death and destruction? It's hard to see it in failures and broken dreams? How could I explain about God's sovereignty and almighty power to that poor man who presented me with his dead child whom he had just pulled from the waters. "Monseqor pray for him, he is my only child. Do something, please bishop, do something!!!"

The only thing I could do was to cry and get really mad at God. Why? Why Lord? Where is your kingdom? Where was God's kingdom when the bulldozers opened a huge hole to bury hundreds of bodies wrapped in black garbage bags piled on top of each other in a mass grave? Where was God?

Bishop Frade continued:

Yes, I was able to do something in the midst of my tears and anger when I consoled that poor desperate man. I cried with him the tears that God was also shedding for that dead baby. I hugged him with the love that God can give us when we are embraced by his truth. The words I could give him were the ones I had read over and over again but suddenly they acquired a new meaning of hope for us.

Yes, let's proclaim it to the people who live in the houses that survived and to the people who fared well in this deadly hurricane. But we must also tell the same story to those who are now living in tents made out of plastic bags and cartons along the roads; to those that are still looking for their lost relatives; to those who are hungry, thirsty, naked and sick. Yes, let's tell them that God loves them; that Christ the King cares for them and has not forgotten them.

Travel with me to Sudan

As the Archbishop's party made their way to Bishop Daniel's house, it was Bishop Daniel who was tragically killed three months ago in a car crash, and whose wife was murdered only a year ago. This is a land where there is no sanitation; basically no food; certainly no water; none of the comforts that we enjoy day by day, Jim Rosenthal, my press officer, asked the Bishop, "Sunday, tomorrow, is New Year's Day. I can't wait for the Eucharist. How many do you think will be attending?" "Ah," the Bishop said, "Well, tomorrow we literally expect thousands of people to be here at the Cathedral." The Cathedral probably seated about 400. The next day the crowd estimated was nearly 20,000. Bishop Daniel added, "Well, Jim, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but there will be no celebration of the Holy Eucharist. No Holy Communion." Being curious, Jim asked, "Why?" The Bishop hung his head and said, humbly, "You see we have no bread or wine."

Travel with me to Nigeria where I was this last week. Those of us who are Americans know that Nigeria is one of those places that often the government tells people, "Do not travel there." Every airport in the United States tells people not to travel to Lagos. So, we went to Kano's Airport in Northern Nigeria. I am glad that I went, and with me was a group of people who are members of the Compass Rose Society. The Compass Rose is based on an awareness and a commitment to working with the Church around the world and supporting the ministry of the Office of the Anglican Communion in London. The Compass Rose, of course, is the symbol of the Anglican Communion and it is something with which I hope you will all become familiar in the days ahead.

The trip to Nigeria was startling, inspiring and frightening. Startling because it was one of those places that I wasn't sure what to expect. We hear stories that the Church is growing in this part of the world and indeed there is truly evidence of that and thanks be to God for that. But we also found sights that would probably horrify everybody sitting in this congregation this morning. What do I mean? Let me tell you. Congregations were meeting in makeshift huts, which did not enable the Church to have a vital witness in their particular community. Yet in this predominantly Muslim area, people of the Muslim faith are often found in beautiful places of worship and in a situation where international help is in abundance from the Muslim community. Where are we? Do we understand ourselves as a global family? Do we understand that our brothers and sisters in places like Nigeria in the Diocese of Kaduna need our help?

The reality is the meeting I had at St Andrew's Church, Chinka. It was an event I will never forget as long as I live. We were confronted with a reality that I never thought I would ever see. While we were having our little prayer service, where we were warmly received, about 40 people of that congregation were standing outside bargaining, literally bargaining over the cost of a rat. A rat. We saw people fighting, negotiating and struggling over who had the best rat to sell. What was the rat for? It was for food. Food, protein! Can you imagine that this is what our fellow Anglican Christians in this part of the world look to for their daily sustenance? It is something that I cannot and will not accept. I ask you to join me in that outreach.

One of the important programs for "hands on involvement" in the Anglican Communion is the Compass Rose Society. A Society made up of dioceses, parishes and individuals who want to enhance the ministry of the Anglican Communion by enabling our wonderful story to be told. The Compass Rose Society enables the Communion to do its ministry.

The Diocese of Philadelphia is a member because the Bishop has used funds, given to him at the time of his Visitations, to support the outreach ministry of the Anglican Communion. St Luke's, Germantown, is a member of the Society. The benefits of joining are multifold. First off, members enable the Communion to do its work, and secondly, members are able to travel, sometimes with the Archbishop of Canterbury and always with the Secretary General, as visits are made to the Communion; hence nine members of the Compass Rose Society joined me in Kaduna.

This is a great opportunity to get involved in the Communion. For parishes, the priest, spouse and two more people, are invited to join all trips and meetings. For individual memberships, two people can take advantage of the trip and meetings. Next October we will have our Annual Meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace and then we will be going on to Jerusalem for a week's visit to that province. Chairman Arafat has said he would meet with us. Last year we were in Northern Ireland for four days meeting the different leaders of the peace process with Archbishop Robin Eames. You can imagine the thrill for the Compass Rose Society members when Trimble and Hume won the Nobel Peace Prize two weeks later.

I hope each of you will seriously consider joining this exciting program in the Anglican Communion. To join will give you experiences to share in your ministry that you have never had before.

You will be able to help us plot the way into the future...

The Anglican Communion after the Lambeth Conference

Lambeth has become a symbol of the Anglican Communion as the home and office of the work of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Lambeth Conferences were called by that name because of the fact that they were held at Lambeth Palace. But increasingly, as the Conference became more and more a voice for the bishops of the Communion, the Conferences grew. By 1958 they began to be held at Church House in Westminster, the official headquarters of the Church of England, the "815" of the American Church; then in1978 the Conference moved to the University of Kent campus at Canterbury, giving a whole new dimension to what it means to gather as a community of Anglican bishops around the world.

The great movement in 1998 of course was that this Archbishop of Canterbury decided to invite everybody. He invited every bishop in the Communion. Previously only diocesan bishops were given the right to come to Lambeth, but now every bishop was invited and it was definitely a sea of purple for three weeks plus in the tiny city of Canterbury.

But what impact did this meeting of some 750 bishops and 600 spouses, for the first time having male spouses and for the first time having female bishops, what impact did this meeting have on the Church in general, the Church around the world? The reality is that the impact has been overwhelming. Some bishops say that it was the best Lambeth Conference ever.

Lambeth had a chock-filled schedule of worship, daily Eucharists, daily matins, daily Evensongs and bible studies. Besides the worship and work sessions, each day was full with activities, which consumed, hour by hour, day by day and week by week, the bishops' time and their spouses' time and their energy. Facilities were good, organisation, as Secretary I have to say, was not bad, but the reality is many people reacted very differently to what transpired. Thus today's topic; where is the Anglican Communion following the 13th Lambeth Conference.

What is the Anglican Communion? Archbishop Carey says the Communion is something that is in formation. We are forming a Communion, becoming a Communion. How are we doing this? Most of the emphasis on the Communion comes from our office, the Anglican Communion Office and what we try to do through our ecumenical work, our networks, and through communication, especially through the printed word, especially our magazine 'Anglican World', which I trust you all receive, or through our advances in telecommunication. We are trying to tell the story of what it means to be a global family of Christians.

The Anglican Church is the most geographically dispersed Church, other than the Roman Catholic Church, in the world. We are found in 164 countries. The Church speaks many languages, it is multi-cultural, it is multi-ethnic, it is multi-racial. It's everywhere. It has been planted literally everywhere. But what does this mean? Is there a need to keep it together, is there a need to have a focus? Obviously when an Archbishop of Canterbury visits one of the Provinces or a diocese, great celebrations and great festivities occur. What does this mean?

A recent report of the Inter Anglican Theological and Doctrinal Commission calls for us to look at the entire workings of the Anglican Communion and what we call the Instruments of Unity. They are the Archbishop of Canterbury in his international role; the Anglican Consultative Council, which is a group of clergy, laity and bishops that meets every two or three years in different parts of the Communion; the Primates - all the Archbishops or Presiding Bishops - they meet every couple of years; and of course the Lambeth Conference itself which meets every ten years. I believe there will be another Instrument of Unity if the Anglican Congress is re-instituted. Some are saying maybe its time to change the structure, change the way we do our business, change our whole concept of what it means to be a Church gathered together.

I think if they were asked, bishops would vote overwhelmingly to stop having resolutions at Lambeth Conferences because they seem superfluous when there is no agreement on some of the issues that face us today. We must come to grips with the fact that there are Churches within the Anglican Communion that no longer use liturgy, there are places in the Communion where there is a total lack of theological education and hence parishes and dioceses are served by clergy and bishops who lack theological training. These problems are not in any one part of the Communion. In various parts of the Communion we find a different approach to what the faith and practice of the church is.

There was a time when on every Sunday morning in every Anglican Church in every part of the world, one heard the words:

"Almighty God, unto all hearts are open, all desires known and from whom no secrets are hid, cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy Holy Name through Christ our Lord. Amen."

Friends you don't hear that any more. Some of you do but the point is the Common Prayer, which we once cherished, and I am not a traditionalist in this particular realm, the Common Prayer we once shared is no more. So what is it that binds us together? It certainly is not an understanding of the Eucharist, the divergence of feelings on that and the frequency of celebrations varies from Province to Province. Priesthood. Again some will accept the ordination of women to the priesthood, some will never accept the ordination of women to the priesthood. What does it all mean and how do we define it as Anglicans? What does a Lambeth Conference have to say to people of such diversity? How do we have diversity in unity that allows for any unity whatsoever?

None of this should come a surprise. If you are wagging your heads and saying how we can call ourselves an Anglican Communion, I ask you to stop and think. There is not a single Church which is not facing this same dilemma. As you know, the Anglican Communion is very active in ecumenical affairs. There are groups in the Orthodox Church that would not meet together because of their divergence of views on doctrinal matters. If one has any notion that the Roman Catholic Church is united in its approach to issues and doctrinal matters, I suggest you visit places like England and then visit an average Roman Catholic Church in suburban Philadelphia. See if there is anything similar about them at all other than the basic form of Eucharistic worship, which is important, but is pretty basic.

Divergence, diversity, convergence and community are something that we need to pray about. The Anglican Communion for too long has been silent when it comes to the needs of the world. The Lutheran World Federation and Roman Catholic relief agencies are found almost instantaneously in situations where things are desperate. Often we have no way of actually providing care or assistance on an international level.

Thank God for the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief but even with the PBFWR people do not know that it is an Episcopal and Anglican organisation that is assisting the people. Frankly, in some of the more rural and more basic communities, people join the Church where they feel the people are being helped. This has been told to us forthrightly in places like Rwanda and other parts of Africa where, although Anglican assistance has been given through other agencies, for the most part people feel we have done nothing. So a little bit of flag waving doesn't hurt. But do we have the right to flag wave; do we have the right to call ourselves an Anglican Communion? What influence did the Lambeth Conference have on this whole idea, this whole notion of being an Anglican Communion?

I think we are in a better place than we were before last year's Lambeth Conference. Now indeed, there have been those who have been vociferous and have made it clear that they feel that bonds of unity have been shattered. But if you think about it, and if you think about the pledge that the Communion has now made to be involved in dialogue and conversation about issues, even as volatile as homosexuality, then we are in a place where we should be grateful and thank God. We have to remember there are many fellow Christians who simply could never get even that far on any of the issues that could possibly divide us. The point of dialogue and understanding, and the point of being able to sit down together and say this is what I believe, I ask you to respect. I ask you to understand the need for dialogue no matter what side of any issue you may fall.

One of the more dramatic parts of Lambeth 1998 was, of course, its emphasis on International Debt. You might say well "here is something obviously everyone can be unanimous about, everybody wants to help the debt burdened countries be relieved of the pressures that on them by International Debt". Trust me, there are Anglicans out there who do not feel that way at all. There may be some in this room who might not feel that way. The reality is, again, even on an issue like International Debt, we must discuss, we must talk, we must learn, we must share with each other. What does it mean to a Church to support the call for Jubilee, the call for forgiveness, the call for relief? What does it mean to side with the underprivileged, the people that Mary sings of in her Magnificat?

Lambeth Conference 1998 took time to hear from youth from around the Communion which was a significant step towards a realisation that the young people of our Church are the Church of today, not necessarily the Church just of tomorrow, but of today. We need to support them in their leadership capabilities now. We also spent time looking at how we make moral decisions in life. But most important of all is the call that the Lambeth Conference 1998 has given us to try to become a more doctrinally defined Church. This, you may say, is treading on dangerous territory. Indeed, I believe it is, but there has to be a distinction why someone is an Anglican and why someone is a Roman Catholic or why someone is a Baptist. If there is no reason for Anglicanism to exist because we have all become Roman Catholics or Baptists, then maybe we ought to think about that to see where energies, talents, time and treasure are going.

What is this supposed to be saying to the world of today? This is especially true in our need for understanding who we are in our inter-faith dialogue. No one respects someone who does not know what they believe. Indeed, I hope that through the continuing work of the Inter-Anglican Theological and Doctrinal Commission we can have some guidance in this area. I encourage you to look at several of the recent documents that have come out of the work of the Anglican Communion, most importantly the Virginia Report, which is found in a book called "Witnessing as Anglicans in the Third Millennium". Also I might bring to your attention the fact that soon the official Lambeth Conference Report will be available and this again will help in understanding what the Conference tried to do, what it did, and what it hopes to inspire for the future.

Where will we be as a group of Christians celebrating the millennium of the birth of Christ? Where are we in our understanding of our mission role to a broken, sinful and needy world? Where are we in a world that is full of advances in technology, wonderment and excitement? Where is the Church in all this, where are we as individuals? Where is our faith being nurtured, how are we being supported on our own individual journeys of faith? What is the health of our parish, diocese of national Church? Where are we going, what is it we are trying to do? Does being an Anglican make a difference? Is there something we are proud of? Is there something we relate to that says "Voila, this is what an Anglican is, this is what an Anglican Christian believes, this is what a member of the Communion wants to portray to the global world."

The experiences of Lambeth, and the other instruments of unity, are enabling us to continue the constant need to embrace each other, to understand each other and to hold dear to that which holds us together. To be interdependent upon each other.

In conclusion, I would like to share with you one more story. Although many of the stories that the bishops told stand out in my mind, one has profoundly affected me. That was the story about Bishop Iraj from Iran. During the bible study he told of his experience when the Iranian forces, during the revolution, came to his home and arrested him. Bishop Iraj said: "Well, the experience which I had [after being arrested by the Iranian forces] was that I am really nobody ... and ... it was helpful, because usually we are not conscious how much pride is in us. And so that experience brought me down in the earth."

Bishop Iraj continued: "I sometimes felt [in jail] a little lonely. And the thing I needed to do was to cry. I could not. I walked around my cell and asked God, please, give me some tears. And suddenly tears gushed out. And I was released. And I was joyful. I could sing. That released some of my tensions which had been accumulated within me."

The story of Bishop Iraj helps us to recall what the Lambeth Conference is all about. The Lambeth Conference helps us to go into this 1999 world of poverty; of hunger; of loneliness; of pain; and of suffering.

The Lambeth Conference helps us to go into this 1999 world because that is where Jesus is.