What if you could gather more than 100 people in five venues across four countries 11,000km apart?
What if you conducted your services in three languages, five churches and more than a dozen households, and your participants were aged 20 to 80+? And what if your participants included more than 40 young adults, two (lay) professors, one archbishop, four bishops, one dean, two archdeacons, approximately seven canons (lay and ordained) and laity of all ages from many different walks of life?
That’s what we did between 2-5 September for our third Link Summit, and none of these facts and figures (pretty amazing as they are) tell the half of it! The theme for the Summit was Being Human and, taking the Beatitudes as our core text, we aimed to take a serious look at what it means to be human in this part of the 21st century, particularly in our five priority areas, and how we can take up Jesus’ challenge to be salt, light and yeast for the human family.
Family is an important word for us in our Link - it’s getting on for 40 years old, and we have some Link "grannies" who’ve been in it from the start - one attending in Kimberley and one online!
Amongst the young people were some who are completely new to the link and others who were part of last year’s groundbreaking exchange visit. They reported on this joining both online and in the room to share their experiences.
The bonds that hold us together are like family bonds – there are long periods when we can’t see one another in person, but that doesn’t stop us keeping in touch. We rejoice when we are together but we aren’t such strangers that we can’t be cross with one another.
A first at this Summit was the generous gift of time from Mother Lynn (Bishop Brian’s wife) and the clergy spouses who cooked for us – the BEST Summit food ever.
The Bishop for the Link in our diocese is Bishop Mary; this was her first visit to the Diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman, and it was wonderful to benefit from her many gifts and to see the warm relationship developing between Bishop Brian and herself. Bishop Steven also participated online alongside Archbishop Thabo, with whom he has worked on questions about AI across the Anglican Communion. Bishop Brian is the Anglican Communion lead for safe Church, and his colleague Many Marshall from the Anglican Communion office also joined us during his session.
The young people who participated were great – they did an amazing job bringing their communities into the room in Kimberley when the technology failed us, they were active participants in our study groups, and they asked our bishops some testing questions in an open session, during which Bishop Brian and Bishop Mary engaged honestly and wholeheartedly with their concerns.
I could go on - but the final word must lie with David Brown, Vice Chair of the link on the Oxford side:
"It was quite simply four days of deep sharing of that love of Christ which binds us together as family."
The Revd Sue Booys is the Chair for the Kimberley & Kuruman - Oxford Diocesan link from the Oxford side.
Catch up on the Summit
The theme of 'family' resonated deeply with Bishop Mary - read her reflection on forming a family that delights in diversity.
You can read about the Summit online - and stay tuned for recorded highlights from the week's talks and discussions.