Welcome to the conference

Welcome! It's a great joy to be able to say to all of you - be welcome, in the name of God and on behalf of Inclusive Church. You have come from far and wide, from the other side of the world and from down the road, from cathedrals and colleges, parishes and pubs, it's very good to see so many people here.

We've been planning this conference for 18 months, and it's hard to believe it's finally here. It's been a lot of hard work and a lot of fun. Throughout it we've tried to hold to the original intention - which was, as it says in the conference publicity, that the conference should be

"A celebration and recovery of the traditional breadth and diversity of Anglicanism. The time has come for us to re-articulate our theological credentials as Anglicans, for whom inclusiveness, acceptance and listening to other points of view and tradition are not optional extras, but central to our Christian identity.”

Above all, a celebration; of love, life and the Gospel.

So my first hope, for all of us, is that we should enjoy ourselves, in the fullest sense of the word - to fill ourselves, and others, with joy.

But my second hope is slightly more complex.

The more I think about this conference, the more I think that we are doing something which has never been done before. We are here from a huge variety of faith backgrounds - nearly all Anglican, yes, but within that we have evangelicals and liberals, catholics and Christian agnostics. We have people who are fired up about a particular injustice, whether it's to do with women, lesbian or gay people, black and minority ethnic people or something else; and people who are, simply, deeply concerned about the way they see the Church of England and the Communion going.

People often say to me, "what is Inclusive Church”? I have a standard answer, which involves giving this sentence: IC is

"...a network of individuals and organisations whose make-up reflects the

breadth and scope of the Church of England and beyond. We come from

differing traditions and differing locations but we are united in one aim:

To celebrate and maintain the traditional inclusivity and diversity of the

Anglican Communion. "

Yes, they say, and what does that mean? Are you a pressure group or a lobby group or a prayer group or something else?

All of the above, I say. Above all, we believe that the Gospel as it has been received by the Church of England and across the Communion has something special to say about the love of God and the love of Jesus Christ. Something about welcome; something about openness, and something about including everyone, regardless of who, what or why they are.

Inclusive Church is about ecclesiology. Which sounds dry but, being translated, means it's about the kind of church we believe best serves the Gospel. And how do we enable that kind of church to thrive?

I have a cautious, cautious optimism about the way the Communion is going. It may just be, in spite of all the news that hits Thinking Anglicans, that we're starting to turn a corner and that the future is more positive than the past. And in that context, Drenched in Grace is very timely.

I'm reading the work of Walter Wink at the moment, who's an American theologian. He has a great deal to say about institutions and structures - how they can be both forces for good and forces for evil- in theological shorthand, how they are good, fallen and requiring redemption.

But one question he asks is, what is an organisation's vocation? To what is it called, by God? It's not a question I'd thought about before in terms of institutions - only in terms of people - but it's a good question -

What is Inclusive Church's vocation? If we know what our aim is - "to celebrate and maintain the traditional inclusivity and diversity of the Church of England” - what does that mean and how are we called to do it? In the book of Revelation, the writer writes "to the angel of the church at Smyrna, or of Philadelphia” - who is our angel?

So my second hope is for us, as an organisation, to discover more fully our vocation. I have ideas about what it may be - but I'm hoping more becomes clear over the next few days. Conservatives often have a simple, clear message which by dint of repetition becomes received as Truth. Do we? And if so, what is it?

My third hope is that through this conference we can offer more, more profoundly, to the church and the world around us. Clare since she's started as Coordinator has been going round talking to people to get their impressions of IC's work. She gets back, very clearly, that we're perceived as a gay pressure group. Which I think is an unfair perception - our recent work has been much more around the Anglican Communion and the inclusive gospel - but if that's the perception it needs to be looked at.

We have planned the conference with the very deliberate intention of putting inclusion in context. All the keynote speakers are coming at the gospel from the widest perspective; broadly following the scripture, reason and tradtion paradigm so that everything we hope for grows out of our fundamental understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We've tried to pick up individual issues in the workshops, where as you know we've offered a wide range of subjects from War to including Transgendered people and from Hymns to the Millennium Development Goals - I'm aware that one that's missing is the environment, but that's partly because we thought you would be very aware of the issues around that. By the way, we have offset our estimate of the emissions from this conference (apart from the hot air!) so it is, at least, carbon neutral.

So we've tried to combine the universal and the particular. And my hope is that this approach can turn into some concrete things which everyone can take away. By which I don't necessarily mean a shopping list of actions for Clare and Brenda - they're both part time! But there are 180 of us here; we're here because we care; so there must be many things which we can do, together and separately, to take forward our hopes and dreams for the church and the world. Clare has prepared a questionnaire to start you thinking, which is on your tables - please take it away and think about it, and use that and other ways - conversations, sessions, meals and drinks - to think about how we can move constructively into 2008. It's not just about Lambeth - it's about the church as a whole.

So. Hope 1 - enjoy ourselves

Hope 2 - Uncover our vocation

Hope 3 - Offer practical support to the church and the world

And my fear? I was wondering about this, and then over lunch on Sunday it became clear.

I want, deliberately, to use oppositional language now. Because there are, clearly, those who would have us all out of the church - all of us, because we want the church to be inclusive. The first rule of any engagement is not to allow your opponent to choose the battle ground. To a large extent the battle ground has been chosen by others - it is the inclusion of women and black and minority ethnic people , the recognition of LGBT people. We have been responding to attack rather than leading on inclusion. We have been unable to welcome our brothers and sisters, especially those who disagree with us so profoundly. So my fear for the conference is that the corrosive effect of racism, sexism and homophobia will drag us down and we'll spend the whole time talking about church politics instead of about our vision of the gospel. My fear is that we will remain in the valleys instead of lifting up our eyes to the hills; from there is our help to come.

Finally, a word about the structure and planning.

You'll have realised that the whole three days is within the context of the Eucharist. This is the Gathering, which continues this evening with Jenny's keynote address. Tomorrow morning we break open the Word and we celebrate Baptism, with help from Sharon and Louis. The workshops represent our intercessions for the church and the world. After the intercessions, we have a fringe meeting - attendance is voluntary - which will be run by Davies Mac-Iyalla from Nigeria, Scott Gunn from the US and Clare Herbert from Soho, looking at international Anglicanism and preparations for the Lambeth Conference.

Lucy offers the Peace which we will be sharing, in a number of ways  for the rest of the day (including the cabaret!). On Friday we have the plenary session and then move into the prayer of consecration, at which Clare will preside, and finally Mark will send us out into the world - renewed, refreshed, and full of hope. Or that's the plan.

There is a bookshop - good books, please use it. Wippells have a stall; you can buy your birettas there.

And absolutely finally - some introductions. First, the conference planning team, Would you all please stand. Thanks…. Comments, questions, anything to us please! Conference office next to main entrance.

Second, keynote speakers.

Scott is blogging. And Savi. Simon is our Church Times reporter.

Two chaplains - Brother Philip and Sister Rosemary

Third, IC's executive. Please stand.

Fourth, workshop leaders.

Finally, all of you. So I want to say thank you to all of you - thank you for your confidence in booking - thank you for coming - and thank you for all you are going to give and receive in the next three days.