I do not expect all the world's Anglican bishops to accept it, but I do ask them for understanding steeped in faithful dialogue. Reuel Howe wrote the following in 1963. I offer it for reflection as Lambeth approaches. Every person is a potential adversary, even those whom we love. Only through dialogue are we saved from the enmity toward one another.
Dialogue is to love what blood is to the body.
When the flow of blood stops, the body dies. When dialogue stops, love dies and resentment and hate are born. But dialogue can restore a dead relationship. May Reuel Howe's words be taken to Lambeth and placed in a frame beside every bishop who attends and represents each one of us in all our diversity and grace the people and clergy of the Body of Christ throughout the Anglican world.