India Oscar Kilo

Ten very productive and profoundly moving days with colleagues working in the Nandyal Diocese in Andhra Pradesh. It’s now three years since Lucy and I first visited, and it was good now to be among recognizable friends in places that now mean very much to us. Our hosts looked after us wonderfully. The four of us were profoundly struck by the warmth, dignity, hospitality and commitment to Christ of our hosts, often in circumstances that would easily drive others insane. Working results still need to be agreed and actioned, but the country was, as ever, crowded, beautiful, raw, elusive and subtle...

Nandyal Ahoy!

A busy week, with Bishop Lawrence of Nandyal visiting, and various meetings scoping the way forward for the relationship between our dioceses.

Historically, Nandyal was an Anglo-Catholic diocese that refused to go into the Church of North India in 1947, and only arrived in the Ecumenical Church of South India in the seventies, but is now fully integrated. I caught up with the Bishop after sharing Mothering Sundy at Chalfont St Peter:
It looks as though a developing Church link would have distinct themes:

1. Mission and Evangelism
   
   
2. Clergy spirituality development
   
   
3. Education at all levels
   
   
4. The renewal of a historical relationship
   
   
5. Leadership development
   
   
6. Concern for one world
   
   
7. A mixed economy in terms of brands of discipleship
   
   
8. an structurally Ecumenical partner diocese (with Methodists, Presbyterians and others)