It is important not to take ourselves too seriously, as Roland Walls , the prophet of the "Order of the blanket” (or leader of the Community of the Transfiguration) told me once "It is all for joy!” These words were good preparation for being part of the Lambeth Market Place and Fringe for the first time in my life, as part of my role of National Coordinator for Inclusive Church

Ever since my student days at New College Edinburgh I have had a high regard for the Festival phenomenon of the Fringe. Each summer if I was broke, or if no-one had invited me to the real Festival, or if I had forgotten to buy a ticket in advance, there was always the Fringe: spilling out over the streets, showering the city with leaflets, annoying and inspiring official festival goers in equal measure with the uneven quality of its events and its sheer "pushy- ness”

The Fringe at Lambeth had similar effects. Interspersed between the money making tills of the Market Place - where Holy Socks vied with Celtic Tapestries and Purple Shirts for sale, forming something like Harry Potter's magic market - stood the serious minded prophetic fringe of the Anglican Church, peddling everything from rainbow ribbons , to TEC necklaces,  to new books (all that was missing were the so-called conservatives - where were they? We missed them!)

Sometimes we annoyed people: the Lambeth Witness , the daily newspaper of the Inclusive Church Network was removed three times from its stand in one college hall, and one day a bishop remonstrated that he had been chased by hoards of pestering gay activists (difficult one that - if I counted more than 30 present over the whole site on any one day I will eat my hat )

But more often, from the pre conference meeting for senior women held at Cuddesdon, to the afternoon of African dancing and speaking in which many of us heard what it is like to be Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgendered in Africa for the first time in our lives, to the voices of Richard Burridge and Nomfundo Walaza speaking from the same platform in such a way as to increase dialogue about justice seeking and peace making between representatives of all the different groups meeting at the Conference the life of the Fringe was inspiring.

What is hard but essential to try to describe is that we were Church alongside everyone else being Church. We were not there only to protest, or to throw stones or to plead our special case as somehow outside looking in. We were ourselves "inside” living the life of the Church ourselves. When we read in John's Gospel every day how those on the fringes of successful society, - the servants, the compromised, the ill, the broken - often understood who Jesus was before the rest of his followers did we feel we were in the right place, bearing witness to the overwhelming love of God which we had seen and known in our own lives and which we were dying to tell others about. It was that love which had sent us all there - otherwise there must be more comfortable ways to spend a week or three!

The day had its own quasi monastic patterns for Fringe as well as Conference  - daily prayer and Bible Study, eating together, organising events, reviewing the day, attending press briefings, hearing people speak to us from across the whole Communion, meeting Bishops to talk at the stall or over coffee or meal and , for those of us with cars , endless shunting of guest from plane to train to house or hotel. One night I found myself at midnight with a distinguished guest who was not even sure which village he was staying in never mind which house!

Was it worth it? What did we achieve? As the good news of a conference of leaders who heard each other rather than preparing something to show the press leaks out and spreads with hope across the Anglican Communion we had our own victories too, as these volunteers suggest

" Lambeth has been a very special time for me - the people, the conversations, Bible Studies and so much more - they have played a significant part in my spiritual journey, more than anyone will ever know”

"I came home exhausted, but wouldn't have missed it for anything. I had the most amazing conversations and it made me proud and humble to belong to the Anglican Communion”

What did I learn? That as the official stars of the Church play out their roles on stages fraught with tension, and those who mistakenly believe God to be entirely caught up in the present human moment pour over blogs to find her there, God goes on before us and may be experienced wherever the Church worships, rejoices, welcomes, challenges, protests, receives, nurtures, just is itself. It is all in the end for joy - even the Lambeth Conference and its wayward colourful children - the Market Place and Fringe. Now has anyone seen those newspapers or one hundred marauding protesters?..................

Revd Clare Herbert , National Coordinator of Inclusive Church