Doing Theology,  No. 21 October 2007

A bi-monthly theological reflection from the
School of Ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina


Meditation on cattle prices in Botswana

Odd how, when you’re very tired, you can become absorbed in things you otherwise would never have even noticed. It has been a long day, and after driving a winding road with cliffs above and below (and with few guardrails), I am back at my hotel overlooking the small city of Zomba, Malawi, a long sliver of a country nestled between Mozambique, Zambia, and Tanzania. I drop onto the bed, turn on the TV, and for quite a while, I discover in retrospect, I have been concentrating on regional economic reports. The abbatoirs in Francistown and Gaborone, in nearby Botswana, have seen a substantial drop in prices for prime 0 tooth and prime 2 tooth – that’s cows – from yesterday to today. Why, I wonder? And what’s the difference between 0 tooth and 2 tooth anyway?

I start the day with meetings with the new administrator for an African Anglican theological education network that I used to serve in Kenya. We talk about his vision for the network, about a consultation the network wants African archbishops to have with principals of African theological colleges, about publications and accounts and all that. We plan for his visit to the chairperson for the network, a dean in Ghana. We meet other faculty at Leonard Kamungu Theological College, and end with a dinner at his home with his family and college staff. There are many greetings and words of welcome. Tomorrow will be much the same, except I now learn I am to speak to their students too.

I am in sublime ignorance of what the House of Bishops has been concluding at their crucial meetings, certainly know nothing of what they say might mean for our future life as a communion. What I am aware of is how our being related is not only to be embraced but actually is embraced, all over the world and throughout the Anglican Communion. Some of our archbishops may sadly decide that they cannot receive the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ while kneeling next to other archbishops, but fellow Anglicans in communities we may never before have heard of welcome others, including us Episcopalians, into their homes, saying “you have honored us by your presence, you are our brothers and sisters in Christ.” It happens again and again, no doubt it will happen next week in Botswana with Bishop Curry’s arrival, and will with you and me whenever we open our doors to sojourners among us. Maybe these small moments of biblical hospitality are where God is truly found these days.

As I end this day, I hope so.

 Yours faithfully,
Leon Spencer