Dear Sisters and Brothers.

       I have been packing, photocopying my passport, sending emergency contact info to children, and doing the thousand things that must be done before flying away across the ocean. That is what I will do bright and early tomorrow morning. I confess if it were truly up to me, I'd prefer to be heading up to Galilee for the next three weeks instead of the campus of the University of Kent. I do not know what things will be like there. I do not know how this will go. But I have come to believe it is important for us here in Nevada that I go to Lambeth to meet with fellow bishops from around the world. I hope I can bring something of your spirit to them and they will share some grace which I may bring back to you.

      It is yet to appear what that grace will be. It may be the from the substantive sessions. For example we will be studying the "I am" statements of Jesus in John's Gospel. I will be teaching on that topic at St. Peter's in September. The grace may come from the Lambeth session on the place of the Church in saving our sacred eco-system. That will be the theme of our Diocesan Convention in October. But the most important grace may be in the new Lambeth process -- "Indaba Groups." The term "indaba" is South African. It means a gathering for purposeful, serious conversation. Instead of legistlative sessions with parliamentary procedure, we will converse with our hearts and minds as open as God enables us. The end product will not be resoutions, communiques, or encyclicals. Instead it will be reflection papers summarizing the insights, hopes, and concerns expressed. We hope to face the hard issues -- not avoid them and not necessarily resolve them so that they go away. We hope to simply work with them and deepen our relationships in the process. Maybe we could try "Indaba groups" here in Nevada. I don't yet know how they work or even whether they work, but I hope to learn.

      The goal of the Lambeth conference this year is to inspire and empower bishops for mission. The Angican Consultative Council has defined five "marks of mission." They are:

              To proclaim the good news of the kingdom

               To teach, nurture, and baptize new believers

               To respond to human need by loving service

                To seek to transform unjust structures of society

              To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and to sustain and renew the life of the earth.

I hope we can come away from Lambeth with renewed zeal for the mission and better ideas for how to effectively achieve our goals. The marks of mission are not abstractions. We can plant them in Nevada soil.

          There has been some anxiety floating about concerning the Anglican Covenant which would strengthen our ties with other national churches in the Communion. There is no plan for this Lambeth Conference to adopt a Covenant. However the idea of a covenant will be discussed. You have all heard me say, or read me quoted as saying, I am "adamantly opposed" to the Covenant if we are talking about the first draft that was circulated. Since then, there has been a second draft. I am still opposed -- but the second draft is a world the size of Jupiter better than the first draft. We gave our input and the drafters heard us. They made it better, but not yet good enough. Lambeth will be an occasion for more discussion, more input. We can expect a third and still better draft. Whether it will be something we can live with is still unknown.

         I will be reporting in from Lambeth from time to time on this web page. In the meantime, I ask for your prayers and invite you to join in the Bible study proposed on the web site www.lambethconference.org. I also hope many of you will join the bishops "virtually" in our march in support of the Millennium Development Goals. You have probably gotten the directions for that already. If not, go to www.episcopalchurch.org or www.e4gr.org. Your participation in the Lambeth Conference thorugh prayer, study, and theological reflection is every bit as important as mine. I hope that the whole Anglican world may pray together and emerge from prayer united to proclaim the God's love to a borken world in the name of Christ Jesus.

                                                                                                                                Blessings always,

                                                                                                                                 BD