IT’S OVER! Yesterday morning I left campus, and am now back at the nice young man’s house in Milton Keynes, to return home on Wednesday. For the last couple of days we’ve had a kind of retreat to unwind after all the madness, and we shared some of it with the ABC. On Tuesday we had a morning with him, reflecting on what we had felt about the Conference and to share our experiences from the last few weeks. It was really something hearing him speak and want to listen to what we had to say. I had the opportunity to talk to him a bit during our coffee break, and so I took the chance to ask him how I could get his job. His reply was that you have to be a ‘personality’, as the ABC is seen as the voice for Christianity in England for those who are not clear on the boundaries between denominations. Aside from admin, the role of the ABC is almost to be the ‘comic vicar’, someone who will stand out and who people will notice. That this is an important part of being able to fulfil the duties of the office then I am rather relieved – I am not lacking in personality, and am more than willing to stand out as much as is necessary to further the positive view of the Church in the eyes of those who are not members, as well as promoting the common core of unity within the Anglican Communion.
The next day we went on a pilgrimage, following rather loosely the footsteps of Augustine, starting at the memorial cross on the Isle of Thanet, and ending at Augustine’s Abbey in Canterbury for an outdoors Mass with the ABC. I sat next to him on the coach on the way from Reculver to Canterbury, which was AWESOME. I decided not to ask him any awkward questions, because I figure he must be sick of them by now, so we chatted about Malawi, and about Julian of Norwich, and it was all pretty cool. That evening the bishop of Dover invited us all to his house for dinner as a way of saying thank you for all we had done during the Conference. REAL FOOD! Man, after eating so much Tex-Mex in Origins I was so glad to finally have some proper salad and some veggie lasagne…
Thursday, then, and we hopped on the bus to Dover Castle in some horrible drizzly foggy weather. If you go to Dover Castle, pay the extra few pounds to go in the WWII tunnels – they are tunnels built into the cliffs that were famously used for the organisation of the Dunkirk evacuation and are incredible. There is even a makeshift operating theatre. I love old buildings, but I wasn’t really in the mood to trek round the inside and look at a load of information boards, so Elizabeth and I bought a pair of wooden greatswords and had fun outside instead. Watched by some tourists… Once we got back there was some time for packing and general faffing around, then we were off to the Cathedral again, for ANOTHER proper meal. This is brilliant. We did a candlelight tour of the Cathedral, really a pilgrimage, which ended in Compline. It really struck me that this was the end. It was the last thing we’d ever do together as a group. It hit me all of a sudden, and I had to grab on to the steward standing next to me. Luckily it was my good mate Nick, and he managed to say something pretty comforting, but unfortunately I cannot remember it for the life of me. At least it helped at the time though. We got off the bus, back on campus, and Luiz gave a small speech, explaining how in Portuguese they have a noun that expresses missing someone, and also connotes belonging to them. This, followed by the ‘hug chain’ suggested by Ngira made everyone realise how final this was, and how much we were going to miss each other when we left the next morning. We’ve been through so much that no-one else will ever experience and it’s brought us all so close so quickly. Because it’s been so intense this month has felt like an eternity, and I don’t think any of us can really believe it’s over. I have so many new friends, so much more confidence, and a sofa to sleep on in over a dozen countries. It’s been a rollercoaster, fun and crazy and utterly exhilerating. Bring on 2018.
