Lambeth - Interview: Sue Parks Lambeth Conference Organiser

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Lambeth Daily
Interview: Sue Parks Lambeth Conference Organiser
Posted On : July 20, 2008 3:24 PM | Posted By : Webmaster
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I’m bringing together all the planning and 
organisation of the Lambeth Conference to make it 
happen. It’s like putting the pieces of a great 
big jigsaw together, with a little team of three other people.

We started off with a blank sheet of paper, about 
three years ago - although the University of Kent 
had been booked as the venue some time before 
that - and we’ve been working with an enormous 
number of committees and individuals.

It’s been a three-year full-time contract for 
three of us, and we were joined by a fourth 
person in January. I won’t be doing it again. I’ll be too old by the next one.

My background is in working with Christian 
mission agencies. I was the director of SPCK 
Worldwide, and Feed the Minds, which meant I had 
a lot of experience of working and travelling 
around the Anglican Communion, which I thoroughly 
enjoyed. The Archbishop was keen to have someone 
who knew and was known in the Anglican Communion.

My job has been to take all the ideas and vision 
of the design group, working with Archbishop 
Rowan, and to mould it into a programme, and deliver it.

In fact, it is really two conferences, because 
there’s the spouses’ conference as well. And then 
there’s the transport side of it to organise - 
getting all those people here, especially those 
who are travelling on a bursary.

I suppose one of the worst moments was when the 
events manager of Canterbury Cathedral looked at 
the long-range weather forecast for the summer 
and saw lots of rain predicted. Today [last 
Friday] we’re putting up a marquee to hold 1500 
people, because the university doesn’t have a 
venue big enough to hold everyone.

But the organisation hasn’t been too terrible. 
There has been an enormous amount of good will, 
and I’ve really enjoyed working with such a wide 
range of people. I’ve travelled round the world 
talking to bishops and some spouses, and 
encountered a lot of good will there, too; so 
there’s that side of things, as well as delivering the Conference.

The sheer volume of minutiae has been 
overwhelming in recent weeks: tying up people’s 
travel arrangements and enquiries. Three-quarters 
of the people coming will never have been to a 
Lambeth Conference before. Still, we’ve had a great deal of fun along the way.

We didn’t know from the start what was happening 
about numbers and politics, but once Archbishop 
Rowan’s invitations had been sent out, and the 
replies started to come in, and we saw we had 
enough beds filled to make the Conference viable, 
we just tried to make the best Conference we 
could for the Archbishop. We could see from early on there was a huge take-up.

There is an irony, because I’m actually from the 
diocese of Sydney. The fact that my own bishops 
aren’t coming is a disappointment.

It’s been our policy not to comment on numbers. 
It’s been amazing to see what appeared in the 
press, because only three of us knew who were 
coming. Now it stands at 650 bishops and 570 
spouses - but each day we get more registrations. 
Some of that’s cultural, but some have changed 
their minds since GAFCON. Only one has pulled out because of GAFCON.

None of us have had a lot of time off since 
January. And hay fever in Kent is also an issue. 
. . But I’m going away in September, and will be 
going to New Zealand for a month in December to stay with some good friends.

I don’t know what I’ll do next. I’ll look for 
something after the Conference is over.

I wanted to be a social worker in my teens, to 
help people; but I somehow ended up studying the 
wrong subjects at school for various reasons. So 
the world has probably been spared that.

I ended up in education, though. I studied 
librarianship and worked in all aspects, from 
pre-school to teaching librarianship at 
university level. I’m sad that I’ve lost touch 
with much of children’s literature, because I’ve 
always enjoyed it: it’s very nuanced and fun.

Because I’m travelling so much these days, crime 
fiction has become my mainstay. And, like half 
the world, I really enjoy The No. 1 Ladies’ 
Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. From 
my travels I can say it rings very true to life.

I’m on my own in Britain. My family is in 
Australia. I have strong friendships in both, and 
I make a strong investment of time and energy to 
bridge my two worlds. I don’t have any big 
regrets - but the distance between my two 
different worlds means I have to find ways of trying to bridge that gap.

I suppose my most important choice was choosing 
to take a full-time job in Britain. That’s what 
started me off in this second career.

“She did what she could, and was a reasonable 
human being”  - that’s about the level of my aspirations for an epitaph.

Monica Furlong was an inspiration to me. I got to 
know her in the early ’80s when she was in 
Australia, and she was one of the few people I 
knew in Britain when I first came here. I spent a 
lot of time with her, and I miss her intellect, 
her conversation, and the reading she gave us all.

All the catering at the University of Kent is 
Fairtrade, and Canterbury is a Fairtrade city. 
We’re also doing our best to be environmentally 
friendly at the Conference and not to leave too 
big a carbon footprint. We’ve identified two 
projects in Bangladesh and Burundi which people 
will be invited to contribute to through 
Christian Aid, to offset their travel. I buy 
Fairtrade coffee to use at home, but I don’t have a favourite brand.

I’ve always found joy and solace in the Psalms, 
particularly the ones in praise of God and creation.

I really enjoy relaxing with friends.

Injustice is what makes me angry: seeing what 
people do to each other, whether it’s hearing 
this morning that another young person has been 
knifed by some others, or what systems do to brutalise people.

I tend to pray about situations of injustice, 
because I’ve travelled extensively for the last 
ten or 12 years, and seen how people live in 
different parts of the world. Then there are 
people I know whose lives I’m in awe of, in terms 
of what they do and are. I see both together — 
situations of despair, and people living 
according to Kingdom values and doing 
extraordinary things because of their faith. They 
are humbling. They are signs of hope.

I want to pass on the question of who I’d like to 
get locked in a church with. Well . . . I’m sad 
that people from my home diocese aren’t coming to 
Lambeth. I’d like to ask them, what are they 
fearful of about engaging with this? What could 
they bring from their own experience of faith?

Article from Church Times by Terence Handley MacMath