The future after Lambeth for Anglicans

Monday, 25th August 2008
By Graham Kings

Africa’s wisdom emerges especially in her proverbs. I love this Kiswahili saying which comes from the market place: haba na haba hujaza kibaba. It translates literally as ‘little by little fills the tin’. Its meaning concerns patience.

An ironic Kikuyu proverb, also from Kenya, runs: mubundi mwega no kinyothi. In its literal sense, it is intriguing: ‘the only good craftsman is the barber’. Its meaning is evoked by comparison with others. For example, the cobbler takes your shoes and repairs them in his own time. The barber, however, can’t take your head off, and so has to cut your hair there and then. Its meaning concerns urgency.

Patience and urgency came together in the substance and context of the Lambeth Conference. The Windsor Process and the Anglican Covenant, the Gafcon shadow conference in Jerusalem, and the three Presidential Addresses by the Archbishop of Canterbury, including the announcement of the Pastoral Forum, were all closely related. the rest