Article: The Journey of Christ Church, Plano: Part V

When I was at Lambeth I sensed a kind of timelessness. There are portraits of past Archbishops lining the dark, wide hallways. There are old, musty smells in the curtains and furniture. I was offered tea (but took coffee) in a great library filled with large tables and tall windows and old pieces of art. I've been in dozens of corporate headquarters for American enterprises in my ministry. This headquarters said something to me that no other American organization would ever want to say. The stone edifice, the creaky floors, the polite staff, and the great hallways of historic archbishops - they all said "Wait." Not "lead," not "charge!" [...]

I offer this anecdote because my meeting at Lambeth showed me two things that I could not have discerned in any other way than through a personal visit. The first thing I felt was the vast cultural distance between my 24 years of 'renewal-based evangelical Episcopalian ministry" and the Lambeth culture of a 'state church.' [...]

We are not anything like the 'established' Church of England. The culture of Lambeth is of a state church where clergy have their 'livings' and people, priests, and centuries come and go. It is the 'established' church. And it seems very content to wait and wait. Read more