Picture in your imagination, a huge, blue circus tent arcing up towards the sky. You follow a crowd ahead of you and, having passed a phalanx of Stewards dressed in high-visibility jackets, you enter the tent.

Straight in front of you is a stage, at its centre is an altar draped in a cream altar-cloth; to one side is a lectern. On the wall behind the altar is a large screen and on either flank, two further screens. The central one has on it a picture of a cross, the flanking ones are blank but the moment someone speaks from the lectern their moving image is beamed up in glorious techni-colour. When the Archbishop speaks you can see him three times over, once life-size and twice in gigantic close-up.

You take your place. To your left is a bishop from Australia; to your right, a bishop from Ghana. In front of you there are bishops from Japan, India, Korea, Polynesia, New Zealand; behind you there are bishops from Canada, England, Africa, Europe, the United States, the Middle East. People greet each other: ”G’Day”; “Hi”; “How are you doin’?”; ”Pleased to meet you”; ”Bon Jour”. (There’s a French speaking group as well as Spanish speakers and people speaking the myriad languages of Africa and the Indian sub-continent).

The auditorium becomes quiet. We sing a worship song and then wait. The Archbishop moves to the lectern and begins to speak.

It’s the final day of the Retreat part of the Conference, a time we have spent in a reflective mood. The themes chosen for the addresses have been about the work and ministry of bishops. To-day it’s an address on Leadership: “Only as a disciple can we lead; only as a learner can we teach.” And we can only offer leadership because ahead of us, through the Cross and Resurrection, walking on the royal road to heaven is Jesus. We do not take Christ with us He is always ahead of us beckoning us on to new possibilities. The Archbishop’s message is delivered with mellifluous sonority.

The bishops, hundreds of them, remain attentive and then it’s time for mid-day prayers with people from across the globe reading, praying, singing. The voices range from a rich Basso Profundo to a light Counter-Tenor.

Once the worship has ended, it’s out into the bright sunshine we go, where a friend tells me that a coach-load of Germans, lobbying about something or other, have been escorted from the Campus by police and security staff.

The Conference is now poised between the Retreat ending and the major service which will take place with solemnity and vigour in Canterbury Cathedral on Sunday.

On the lawns of the University, small groups of friends are in conversation. Some are enjoying catching up with each other’s news: “I haven’t seen you for ages. How are the children?” Others (and here I’m guessing, but I have been to a sufficient number of conferences to spot the signs), are engaged together so earnestly, their voices lowered, they must be trying to decide how to get their views across so that the Conference might take a new shape. How humans love the illicit thrill of plotting…

Nothing controversial has yet been aired at the Conference but the underlying issues remain. And what are they?

Top of the agenda is the use, abuse, status and authority of Scripture. That’s a perennial question which takes some unravelling because it is so deeply intertwined with culture and with varying concepts of what constitutes authority. The second issue is about human sexuality. The third issue involves the future shape and structures of the Anglican Communion. And this domestic agenda is set in the context of the big problems facing the world at the moment, such as climate change and the economic crisis, not to mention the tensions in the Middle East

But what underpins the Conference is the fact that all of us gathered together have been touched in some way or other by the life of Jesus Christ. He is the source of our life and our hope. He is the ground of our fellowship and although fragmentation is always a temptation, it must be our prayer that through patience and humility we shall gladly recognise His presence in each other and commit ourselves to those new things to which He constantly leads us..