Press Releases25 Jul 08

Interviews from Lambeth: The Bishop of Limerick

Interviews from Lambeth: a series of interviews with the Church of Ireland bishops attending the conference

The Bishop of Limerick, the Rt Revd Trevor Williams

The new Bishop of Limerick, the Rt Revd Trevor Williams, talks to Church of Ireland Press Officer, Paul Harron, about his Lambeth Conference experience and the Walk of Witness in London yesterday.

PH: Yesterday (Thursday 24th July) was designated as ‘London Day’ for the Conference. You went on the Walk of Witness from Whitehall to Lambeth Palace to highlight the Millennium Development Goals. Can you describe that event?

BTW: It seemed like there was an endless stream of purple in the heart of London as we marched to campaign for the Millennium Development Goals, raising awareness of demands on the world leaders to radically reduce poverty, increase development and improve education (see relevant story). Being part of that – and this conference – proved an incredible insight into the sheer size of the Anglican Communion and what it means to be part of it. There is an amazing richness of diversity within it.

I must say that I have never seen the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, just so animated and passionate as he was at the rally’s culmination at Lambeth Palace. He really came alive and talked with real empathy about the world’s children. He praised the walkers and acknowledged the amazing impact of the churches worldwide, urging us all to go back to our politicians and demand that that they push the world leaders when they meet again in September this year to make true commitments to the goals. He stressed how we need to be careful not to let the issues slip off the agenda.

PH: You mention the ‘rich diversity’ of the Conference: what impact does that have on you?

BTW: I’m aware that through such diversity we can learn from others, but Lambeth also speaks of the tension that can come from diversity. There are thousands of people here, so obviously we can’t all get to know each other, although we’re having many chance encounters day by day. The bible study and ‘indaba’ groups bring people together meaningfully – my own group is made up of bishops from the USA, Canada, Cameroon and Ireland. Through meeting we see what we hold in common: shared history, shared patterns of worship and the Anglican Communion structures. However, this gift of diversity within Anglicanism also throws up problems. There are bridges to cross – cross-cultural understandings to resolve.

I’m conscious of how someone working in Pakistan near Afghanistan, say, has to work within a very particular political and local context. Our discussions about homosexuality have to bear in mind the reality for those ministering in countries with strong Muslim majorities. Elsewhere, I’m aware of different sets of cultural difficulties around the same issue – for example, in Cameroon, where some of the imagery associated with the occult is gender-related and sexualised, which can cause confusion for Christians.

PH: Is anything emerging from your discussions with each other?

BTW: I sense that the emerging understanding is that the reality of Christian experience is the truth of relationship: with Jesus Christ primarily and then with each other. This morning we discussed what it means to have relationships as bishops with other churches – unity, in other words. The lines from the verse, ‘…the truth shall set you free’ (John 8:32) came up. For some, the emphasis was on ‘truth’, for others, ‘freedom’. It seems that texts and even creeds (formed in the teeth of conflict) – which are central to our beliefs and which define us as Anglicans – are sometimes inadequate alone in bringing us to understanding. We need to travel together.

What is emerging is that the homosexuality issue is not primarily moral or theological but one which we have to understand in terms of witness and service in the world. There are huge cultural gaps: people’s responses are different. Americans are responding to LGBT people within their own context, seeing it as responding pastorally and openly to the reality of the Anglican context in America over the past 30-40 years. For them, it is a pastoral necessity, while other cultures represented here find it impossible to take that on board within their own culture. So, by contrast, Sudanese Anglicans do not have that context – for example, a bishop I spoke to said he had never met a homosexual; they are also Christians dealing with living out their faith in a Muslim majority country. In some places it is not a problem, for others it would make the situation of the Christian church impossible. What we have in common, of course, is our common experience in Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.

PH: Are the stories of others having an impact on you?

BTW: In a group looking at the Church as peacemakers, it was amazing to hear from people from Central Africa what the churches were doing ‘on the ground’. I’ve listened to those from Mozambique, Sudan, Burundi and Zimbabwe. The story of one bishop from Mozambique – wearing a pectoral cross composed of decommissioned gun parts – was especially powerful. Through the initiative of the Church, guns have been surrendered – the decommissioning process was instigated by the Church along with an educational programme in a post-war situation. It has proved very effective, recovering guns in peace-time which could otherwise form a potentially violent threat.

I have also heard personal testimony of the incredible power of Christian faith in war-torn Sudan. One person was dragged from his church into the bush to be shot and forced to dig his own grave. He asked for a moment to pray in which he openly thanked God that he was ready to die and prayed for forgiveness for his persecutor. Prepared to die, the commander who had witnessed being prayed for threw his gun into the grave and the man found himself dismissed. Obviously this does not happen to everyone, but it does emphasise the huge courage and commitment of such Christians.

PH: Is there much interest in Ireland, and how are Irish bishops contributing to the conference?

BTW: There is a great interest in the Irish situation and indeed knowledge of it. People are keen to listen to our experience of violence and I have been speaking of the Northern Irish context as well as being able to talk about the Hard Gospel project, where we realised that first we had to learn about and direct our thinking to ourselves. This has been received as a learning point for others.

PH: This is, of course, your first Lambeth Conference and you have literally just been consecrated as a bishop. What is it like for you from that point of view?

BTW: Well, it’s mainly about queues! I can see why it’s so long – we literally need a week of it to cope with the waiting (which forces us to talk to each other of course). It is a fantastic experience. It makes me understand my membership of the Church of Ireland and the value of the Anglican Communion in a whole new way. I am making good links – for the long-term – with others, not least the Bishop of Cape Town, South Africa, with whose diocese we are going to form a link in Limerick. As a new bishop, it is an induction process of huge proportions – I couldn’t have asked for more.