Episcopal News Service Monday, September 25, 2006
London Bishop delivers seventh annual Hobart lecture
By Neva Rae Fox
[ENS] Reflecting on his theme, "The Return of the Hidden God: Renewing our Partnership in the Gospel," Bishop Richard Chartres of London initiated the Seventh Annual Hobart Lecture September 20 in the Episcopal Diocese of New York with the similarities between his home and New York City.
"We are both set in a cosmopolitan context, the home of international organizations, a hub of communications and center of financial services in the global economy of our wired up world," he noted.
The Hobart Lecture is an annual address sponsored by the Episcopal Diocese of New York and presented to acknowledge and encourage the pastoral ministry of the Church. The series is named for Bishop John Henry Hobart, the Third Bishop of New York (1816-1830), who is remembered and cited for his unfailing energy, his personal integrity, and his dedication to mission.
Addressing nearly 150 people, Chartres raised some of the issues facing both countries today. "In contemporary North Western Europe, perhaps more than in the U.S. as a whole, God for the moment is largely hidden from our view. Continental Europeans to a greater extent than we island folk sometimes actually worry that God has too much prominence in American public life."
He lamented, "The absence of God is itself very eloquent and a human society living without any rooting in God and attempting instead to possess fullness of life by accumulation soon exhibits symptoms of distress."
Full story and photograph:
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_78084_ENG_HTM.htm
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