Episcopal Press and News
Continuing Indaba bishops find 'excitement and hope' for communion's future
Episcopal News Service. November 23, 2010 [112310-05]
ENS staff
The Anglican bishops of Ho in Ghana, Mbeere in Kenya and Saldanha Bay in South Africa have committed themselves "to one another in the Indaba process by intensifying relationships across the communion, energizing local and global mission and enabling genuine conversation across differences," according to an Anglican Communion News Service release.
The bishops gathered Nov. 16-18 at St. Julian's Conference Center in Limuru, Kenya, to discuss their and their dioceses' involvement in the Anglican Communion's Continuing Indaba project.
The project emerged from relationships established during the Bible study and Indaba groups at the 2008 Lambeth Conference of bishops. Indaba, a Zulu word meaning purposeful discussion, formed the basis for groups of around 40 bishops that met each day during that conference.
Continuing Indaba was launched in 2009 following the Anglican Consultative Council's request and the call of the 2009 Primates Meeting for mutual listening.
The project, the second phase of a communion-wide Listening Process, is focused on developing the relational bonds of affection in the Anglican Communion for working in mission as equal partners in the Gospel. The first phase of the Listening Process culminated in the publication of "The Anglican Communion and Homosexuality" to enable listening and dialogue.
Diocese of Ho Bishop Matthias Medadues-Badohu, Diocese of Mbeere Bishop Moses Masamba Nthuka and Diocese of Saldanha Bay Bishop Raphael Hess have all participated in the project's initial planning pilot conversations.
"In our conversations concerning the Indaba process, we discovered that we have unique contextual interpretations of the concept of Indaba," the bishops said in a statement issued after their three days together.
In Ho, Indaba has a strong element of an end in sight, conversation does not go on forever; while in Mbeere, Indaba takes place when the time is right, and it focuses on the end while acknowledging a relevant appropriate process; and in Saldanha Bay, Indaba means keeping on talking without necessarily focusing on an outcome, their statement said.
The bishops said they have "excitement and hope for the future of the communion" because of their example of commitment to one another.
The bishops also said they to develop a covenant relationship, like those already existing in the partnerships between communion dioceses.
The pilot conversations the three bishops helped plan will involve typically a mix of eight lay and ordained participants from three dioceses all visiting the other dioceses to learn first-hand the challenges and opportunities of those contexts, according to their statement. The groups will also engage in facilitated conversations on a whole range of topics that have the potential to cause disunity in the body of Christ.
Four pilot conversations have already been announced. They are Hong Kong, Jamaica and Toronto; Delhi, Mumbai, New York and Derby; Western Tanganyika, Gloucester and El Camino Real; and Peru, Mexico and Southeast Florida.
More information on Continuing Indaba is available here or from Phil Groves or Angharad Parry Jones.