An evolving Anglican identity

A new chapter of Canterbury tales begins next week as modern religious pilgrims travel to the ancient cathedral site in southeast England.

More than 650 bishops of the worldwide Anglican Communion will gather for the Lambeth Conference, which the Archbishop of Canterbury has convened every decade or so for the past 140 years.

The event is a long way from the Diocese of Olympia, but the 33,000 Episcopalians in its Western Washington boundaries wonder about the fate of their extended kinship with 77 million Anglicans in 164 countries.

Growth among Anglicans, the planet's third-largest affiliation of Christian churches, has been in Africa and Latin America, and along with bishops from England, Australia and Asia, there is deep resentment of the United States and Canada.

Both North American countries have accepted female priests and bishops, ordained gays and blessed same-sex unions.

Last month, a rival conference of bishops and church leaders met in Jerusalem as the Global Anglican Future Conference. Many expected them to split off in a new direction, but they did not, for now. So all eyes turn toward Lambeth, and what might come next.

Fathoming a new Anglican identity will not be easy, because the conference in Canterbury is rigorously designed not to point in any direction or leave any discernible fingerprints.

Business meetings with parliamentary procedure and resolutions that live to haunt another day were scrapped in favor of small group discussions and intense get-acquainted sessions. The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, describes them as conversations that go to the root of the words, "to spend time with."

Each day, eight groups of five will merge into gatherings of 40 for Indaba, a Zulu word for purposeful conversation among leaders, a suggestion from one of the African designers of the conference.

Getting to know you, getting to know all about you.

Call this approach the sound of musing, and a huge act of faith by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. He is the symbol of the international Anglican Church, of which he is not formally in charge, or the last word. The fact that there are lots of bishops and no pope is kind of the point.

In a broadly circulated text, Williams described an Anglican tradition that "has tried to find a way of being a Church that is neither tightly centralized nor just a loose federation of essentially independent bodies."

Reconciling "our local identities and our personal preferences" in that union is at the heart of a wrenching dispute, a theological clash of civilizations.

The U.S. church began ordaining women as parish priests in 1976. In New Hampshire, the Rev. Gene Robinson, an openly gay priest, was consecrated bishop in 2003. In 2006, Schori was installed as presiding bishop of 2.4 million Episcopalians. A former oceanographer raised in Seattle, she reflects changes in U.S. parish life and culture: wife, mother, scientist, pilot and theologian.

As a cradle Episcopalian, and the father of two daughters, I considered it a proud moment for the church. For others, it was flatly scandalous, especially across the Anglican Communion.

Only last week, the Anglican Church in Britain approved the appointment of female bishops — in 2014. After the vote, traditionalists on the losing side said they would explore ties to the Roman Catholic Church.

The Lambeth Conference is by invitation only. The 1998 conference decided to open the gathering to women bishops. So the Rt. Rev. Bavi Edna "Nedi" Rivera, number two in the Diocese of Olympia, is officially welcome and attending. The bishop for Western Washington, the Rt. Rev. Gregory H. Rickel, is also traveling to Canterbury.

Two bishops were not invited. One is an American priest consecrated a bishop by the Church of Nigeria, a recent ploy by conservative church dissidents. The other is the New Hampshire bishop with a gay partner. He is expected at Lambeth, but is not part of formal sessions.

The 2008 conference is rooted in the idea that a better understanding of God's shared mission will come from private, intense discussions. Finding common ground over tea.

Here is a topic: The door is open and the table is set for all.

Discuss among yourselves.

Lance Dickie's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is ldickie@seattletimes.com; for a podcast Q&A with the author, go to www.seattletimes.com/edcetera