Seven whole days

You might recall that the preacher at Sunday morning’s opening Eucharist in Canterbury Cathedral ended his sermon with a bit of chant, done in a Buddhist style. Bob Duncan had this to say: [the chant is] “very, very troubling” since it was an “invocation of something other than the God we know… to have a Buddhist chant at an Anglican sermon does not reflect the God we believe in.”

Hmm. This is the text that was chanted:

I take refuge in God the Father
I take refuge in God the Son
I take refuge in God the Holy Spirit
I take refuge in the One Triune God.

Oops! So Bishop Duncan doesn’t believe in the Triune God? Or he felt that it was OK to pontificate before having the facts in hand? Either way, this shows that the right-wing secessionists are more eager to grab headlines than to speak the truth. Sad, really.

Thanks, Bishop Alan, for bothering to learn and to speak the truth.

ASBO Jesus showing what is too often true.

Yesterday was a great day. If I have some time later, I’ll write about my own experience of it. For now, let me commend to you this BBC video (thanks, Mary!). Also, you might like to read a few blog entries.

Here’s another video report.

One of the legions of 7WD Honorary Investigators has sent in a photo. This photo clearly shows that the bunnies may be up to more than we had feared. In addition to sabotaging the library, it seems that they might be planning (highly) irregular consecrations. I think RAFCON may be more real than I thought.

Stay tuned for updates. For now, I’m going to station someone in the Marketplace to doorstop the Wippell stall.

(By the way, if you want to be an Honorary Investigator, just send me a rumor or a photo!)

The right-wing media would like you to believe that people are just about to pack their bags and head home. Instead, most of us are packing our things to head to London tomorrow for a walk to highlight awareness of the poor and of the Millennium Development Goals, followed by lunch at Lambeth Palace. Then people are headed over to Buckingham Palace for a Garden Party with the Queen and 2,000 of her best friends. I’ll be photographing the walk. For the Lambeth Palace portion of the trip, I’m to be atop Morton’s Tower to photograph approaching and rallying bishops. Then I get to shed my photo equipment, don a cassock, and attend the party at Buckingham Palace. But I have digressed into my preview of tomorrow.

Back to the right-wing media. They want you to think that the Anglican Communion is in meltdown. I have personally not heard any hint of this from any bishop. Today I spoke with a number of bishops, including some from provinces that we are told should be eager to stir things up. Instead, they actually seem to be trying to let the Holy Spirit into this process (though the process does have its frustrations!). Of course, this does not fit the script of media, so they need to invent wild stories and provoke controversy.

Bishop Alan (the blogging Bishop of Buckingham) gets the mood right, I think:

The press is sometimes making the news as much as reporting it, sometimes in the tradition of journalists who used to give out stones to Northern Ireland youths to provide pictures for the evening news. Shame on them. What is actually going on in here is generally delightful, global in scale, light of touch, with a lot of laughter, prayer and joy in one another. Journalists are naturally drawn to the extremes to make a story, but there is far more energy around the great unacknowledged centre.

Let’s pray that this spirit continues. Maybe a public action in support of MDGs couple with cucumber sandwiches on the Queen’s lawn will be a good break for these bishops, who have been working very hard.

I had a few minutes to walk around in town with my camera. No time to get some great shots, but I wanted to at least post a few things to show that this city is really extraordinarily ancient and beautiful. I hope I’ll have some time next week for more shots, perhaps away from the main street. I have a few other pics from by Canterbury/London trip here. My official Lambeth Conference photos are over here (along with other official photographers’ work).

Here on 7WD, a commenter has given an likely explanation for the feathery remains found near Dave Walker’s on-campus cartoon castle. It seems that there is a cat (named “Sushi”) roaming the grounds. This cat, a lover a raw food, is said to enjoy consuming rabbits and birds. So Dave appears to be off the hook on that one.

However, it seems that there are still mysteries with the stage adjoining Dave’s drawing domicile. This photo was snapped two days ago:

No one has yet offered a credible explanation for this activity, which does not bode well. Any time you see or hear something you don’t understand, you should be suspicious. I’ve learned this from Anglican bloggers. Security has been increased around the stage.

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Sorry, I got behind on my scenes from the Lambeth Conference. Basically, it’s been insanely busy here, though I have hope that tomorrow and Friday will be calmer. Thursday is “London day,” which is an entity unto itself.

Anyway, Sunday was a spectacular day, in every possible way. Perhaps I’ll have more to write about what was great about it. Others have already done so. Go look at the Lambeth 2008 flickr set (look at the July 20 sets), which has some stunning images from Sunday. My fellow photographer Chris was inside the Cathedral, perched high up on some scaffolding. James was right outside getting some great shots. I was fortunate to be able to go inside the Cathedral and attend the worship service.

These are some photos from my camera.

The Archbishop of Canterbury after Sunday's opening service. ACNS/Gunn

Bishops after Sunday's service. ACNS/Gunn

Brian McLaren address the Conference. ACNS/Gunn

Some spouses enjoy the weather and the view of Canterbury Cathedral. ACNS/Gunn

After a recent post on the importance of “exclusives” I thought I better post one pronto. I have heard it from a highly placed source in the Church of England — or someone who at least knows people who know people who are high up in the church — that there is a big problem here at the University of Kent.

Anyone who has even been to the Lambeth Conference 2008 will know that the place is teeming with rabbits. Lots and lots of rabbits. If there were rabbits with purple fur, they could start RAFCON. But I digress.

Apparently these rabbits have to live somewhere. Many of them are said to live under the library. Now we are getting to the exclusive (though the possible formation of RAFCON is a secondary exclusive). I have heard that the warren of rabbit tunnels is causing problems of the structure of the university library.

So basically, the university is engaged in a bitter fight between books and rabbits. No one knows yet which will prevail. Remember, tell all your friends you heard it first here at 7WD.

Photo from flickr user benc.

I’ve been paying lots of attention to the media here, trying to learn the ways of the British press. What I’ve noticed is that writers here really value “exclusives.” To prove this, I will recount a tale that happened here in Canterury (though I don’t think it really qualifies as a Canterbury tale, if you get my meaning).

One of my friends was speaking with a major reporter’s minion here at the Lambeth Conference. I had told my friend about something that happened in one of the “closed” plenary sessions. This event had been covered, so I had not disclosed anything secret. In any case, I had written about this detail on my blog. You can scour 7WD for the last 7D if you want to try and guess what it is. I’ll give a prize if you are right.

Anyway, this was the conversation (with stage directions):

Minion: So, what’s been going on?

Friend: Oh, I don’t really know.

Minion: Well, what are people talking about?

Friend: Lots of things.

M: Like what? Can you think of something interesting that’s happened?

F: Well, [event] happened at [session]

M: Really?

M scribbles feverish note.

F: But I think a friend of mine might have blogged it.

M scratches out note and walks away.

I am not making this up. So it’s only news if no one else has written about it. This helps to explain the ridiculous stories that circulate here. Reporters in the British press apparently have to write “exclusives” which just invites speculative writing. One very well-known journalist pretty much told me this when we were chatting in Dar es Salaam.

What’s my point? Don’t believe everything you read from the Lambeth Conference. Much of it will be rubbish.

My friend, the infamous cartoonist Dave Walker, seems to have been up to something on the stage next to his tent. I have one more post on that subject, which may emerge tomorrow. I’m just checking my facts to ensure that he does not sue me. Ordinarily, I might think this is a paranoid fear, but Mark Brewer’s antics make any other thoughts about lawsuits seem rational.

Dave has now removed the content, but earlier today he had indicated receipt of a “cease and desist” order from Mark Brewer, the owner of the former SPCK bookshops here. Matt Wardman summarizes thus:

Dave Walker, the official Lambeth Conference Cartoonist in Residence, has taken 75 posts down on his blog after being threatened with Libel Action by the new owner of SPCK – the oldest chain of Anglican Bookshops. He has been reporting the story of alleged mismanagement for two years.

Already there are a lot Industrial Tribunals from ex-employees, among other things.

You can check the Google cache and read lots of news accounts to get the skinny. Basically, I gather that SPCK sold off their bookshops to someone who’s engaged in business practices that have irritated lots of people — and have caused people to lose their jobs. Dave Walker had been following the story. Mr. Brewer does not seem to enjoy the light of truth shining on his business enterprises.

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I don’t usually pay much attention to David Virtue. When I finish reading his ranting, I’m often not in a good mood. However, he is well connected to the conservative machine, so I check him out for the news that he often manages to offer before others. I was surprised by some of his “reporting” from the Lambeth Conference. Even by his standards, he’s really started to go overboard.

I’ll take just one posting, as an example, and do some fact-checking.

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