Maine bishops blog on Lambeth events N.H.’s Robinson shares experiences too

Maine’s two Episcopal bishops this week joined 650 other Episcopal and Anglican archbishops and bishops from across the globe as the Lambeth Conference opened at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England.

The conference is held once every 10 years.

The three-week-long conference began Wednesday and includes workshops, meetings and business sessions along with prayer and worship services. It will end Aug. 3.

Bishops Chilton Knudsen, 61, and Stephen Lane, 58, are blogging about their experiences on the Episcopal Diocese of Maine’s Web site, according to Heidi Shott, diocesan spokeswoman.

“Both bishops are armed with tiny Flip Video cameras that will allow them to instantly post to the Web,” Shott said Tuesday.

Lane posted his first video message Wednesday morning to Maine Episcopalians from the University of Kent, where he, Knudsen and other bishops are staying in the school’s dormitories.

This is Lane’s first trip to the conference. He was elected last year to succeed Knudsen, who is retiring in September. Lane was consecrated as bishop coadjutor in May at St. Luke’s Cathedral in Portland.

Ten years ago, Knudsen presided at the opening worship service at the Lambeth Conference, the first woman ever to do so. She too had been the bishop of Maine only a few months when she attended in 1998. While at that conference, Knudsen sent back several letters about her experiences that were posted on the diocese’s fledgling Web site. This year, Knudsen and Lane are expected several times a week to post video, photos and notes on their blog “Letters from Lambeth,” Shott said.

Media attention is expected to be intense as Anglicans around the world watch for signs of a possible schism over homosexuality. Talk of a split began in 2003 when the Diocese of New Hampshire elected the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson, an openly gay priest, as its bishop. Knudsen presided at his consecration and he presided with Knudsen at Lane’s consecration.

As many as 150 conservative bishops, primarily from Africa, have declined to attend the conference in protest over the presence of bishops who participated in Robinson’s consecration, according to Shott.

Robinson will not be allowed to participate in the conference but is in Canterbury and other cities participating in unofficial events. He too is blogging about his experiences on at a site called “Canterbury Tales from the Fringe.”

On Monday, he posted his reaction to being called a “heretic” the previous day by a heckler as he began to deliver his homily during a service at St. Mary’s Church, Putney, in the south London-based Diocese of Southwark. He wrote that it was his interaction with a young gay man and young lesbian woman with muscular dystrophy that buoyed his spirits.

“I remembered why I was here in London, why I was talking about God’s love for all of God’s children,” he wrote. “I remembered how many of God’s [gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender] children have never heard those words about themselves, or believed them.

“I was here for Emily, and Nick, and countless others I will never know,” Robinson said. “God loves them so much, and it must break God’s heart that they doubt it. My job is to help rid them of that doubt.”

Robinson is traveling with a bodyguard and has told the media that he has received death threats.

The conference, hosted by the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury has been held once a decade since 1878.

It originally was held at Lambeth Palace, the archbishop’s London residence. Today, 77 million members make up 44 separate and independent Anglican provinces, including the Episcopal Church. There are about 14,000 Episcopalians in 67 congregations in Maine.

jharrison@bangordailynews.net

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