wfn.org | Intimidating stories of witnessing in developing nations

["Lambeth98" <storm@indigo.ie>]

ACNS LC078 - 3 August 1998

Bible studies offer intimidating stories of
witnessing in developing nations 

by E. T. Malone, Jr. 
Lambeth Conference Communications

Story-telling has emerged as a key aspect of the Lambeth
Conference Bible studies that reaches across differences of
culture and race and binds together bishops and spouses from
widely divergent cultures. 

But as bishops and spouses from North America, Europe and
Australia have listened to stories from their African and Asian
counterparts about their Christian witness in the face of wars,
violence, suppression, and threats of death, they have often
asked themselves, "What can we say to compare to this?"

"We Westerners have been forced to examine our own lives and
experiences, to search for what are really the crucial issues and
questions in our own cultures, and evaluate how we've dealt with
them," said Connie Johnson, spouse of Bishop  Robert Johnson
(North Carolina) and convener of one of the Spouses' Programme
Bible studies. 

Different kinds of challenge

"Soldiers don't come to my door and threaten to cut me to pieces
for singing Christian hymns," she said. "There is nothing that
dramatic. What is worse, perhaps, is dealing with a secular
culture that is indifferent to religion, that doesn't even care
what we do."

Spouses from developed nations, "are so in awe of those who put
their lives on the line, whether it's in Africa, or Palestine, or
in Northern Ireland," Connie Johnson observed. "It is very
different, I think, to be faithful in the subtle situation at
home, in a way perhaps even more difficult."

The group of 10 bishops' spouses that has met daily through the
course of the conference "has been a rich, rich Bible study," she
said. "We have benefited and learned from the diversity, even
though we have vast differences in theological perspective and in
our views of the roles of a bishop's spouse. Our group is in many
ways a cross section of the Lambeth Conference."

Despite the widely varied cultures, Connie Johnson said, the
group has been struck by how strongly all of the women care for
each other. "We wish that the whole Conference could be brought
to that level. We've had our disagreements, but they were about
ideas. We've never lost our love for one another."

The routine of the 90-minute studies includes announcements,
Morning Prayer, Bible study, story telling, and coffee.

The Bible study group includes Peggy Buchanan (spouse of Bishop
John C. Buchanan, West Missouri, USA), Alice Neumbe-Muwombi
(spouse of Bishop Nathan Muwombi, North Mbale, Uganda), Lydia
Dharmaraj (spouse of Bishop Jason Dharmaraj, Tirunelveli, South
India), Dorothy Piper (spouse of Bishop Reg Piper, Wollongong,
Australia), Kirsten Peterson (spouse of Canon John Peterson,
Anglican Communion secretary-general), Blessing Moughereh (spouse
of Bishop Vincent Moughereh, Ughelli, Nigeria), Christine Eames
(spouse of Archbishop Robert Eames, Armagh, Ireland), Anne Taylor
(spouse of Bishop Humphrey Taylor, Selby, England), and Alice
Jean Finlay (spouse of Bishop Terence E. Finlay, Toronto,
Canada). 

For further information, contact:

   Lambeth Conference Communications
   Canterbury Business School
   University of Kent at Canterbury
   Telephone: 01227 827348/9
   Fax: 01227 828085
   Mobile: 0374 800212

   http://www.lambethconference.org