There was a boy carrying a large bunch of bananas on his head as he walked along a road in Africa when a car passed him. The car slowed and offered him a lift which he gratefully accepted, although he kept the bananas on his head even when he was travelling along on the car. Thus, said Margaret Sentamu, are many of we, the spouses here at Lambeth, for although we have left various burdens behind, we still carry some of them with us, just like the boy with the bananas on his head.

Margaret Sentamu was speaking on the second morning of the Spouses Conference as the spouses were encouraged to tell their stories to each other. She was followed by Benita Rumalshah, from the Diocese of Peshawar in Pakistan, who spoke of the Church’s work with those who had suffered in the aftermath of the earthquake there.

Linda Baines then introduced the conference vine, which would be used throughout the conference as a visual sign that the spouses were firmly rooted in Christ.

She invited each member to make a leaf, from material in shoe boxes on the tables, to be placed on the vine which Linda had made and brought to the Conference. She spoke of the vine which would come to represent the different places from which the spouses had journeyed and invited the spouses to make leaves that used colours and material from their own part of the world.

At the end of the conference the vine will be photographed and the photograph will be made into a bookmark for all the spouses to take home as a reminder.