The importance of the Family in everyone’s lives was at the centre of a session for members of the Spouses Conference chaired by Bronwyn Fryar, the wife of the Bishop of Rockhampton in Australia. The speakers were Sonia Barron, the Church of England’s National Adviser to the Committee for Minority Ethnic Anglican Concerns, Dr Rosalyn Murphy, Curate at Saint Nicholas, Durham, England and Dr Sally Thompson Co-ordinator of the International Anglican Family Network (IAFN). 

Sonia Barron spoke of her own family and upbringing in Jamaica and England. She also spoke of the time that she spent as a missionary in Uganda and the significance of the Ugandan family who ‘adopted’ her and of her church family there. So important did they become that she was the ‘Matron of Honour’ when one of the daughters got married and she missed them enormously when she came home. 

Rosalyn Murphy addressed why family is so important and spoke of how we are all accountable to God and to each other and Sally Thompson shared information about the IAFN. Formed in 1988 at the Lambeth Conference, IAFN publishes a magazine three times a year which tells stories of family life from around the world. “We are all one family and we suffer the same difficulties despite differences in culture,” she said. Families can be a wonderful way of breaking down barriers between people as they often help conversations to start.

Sally Thompson spoke too of the way in which peer education can help in the fight against AIDS and when working with those in prison.

Following a time for questions and discussion, the spouses went to their Bible study groups. In the afternoon, they had their first self select sessions which included a session which aimed to offer the opportunity for the spouses to have further discussions on the issues raised in the family life plenary.