Say 'Mitre' please

Some of the assembled bishops


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29 July 2008

On a muggy, overcast afternoon, the bishops gathered in red and white rochet and chimere vestments for the traditional group photo. A large grandstand had been set up in a field overlooking Canterbury and its historic cathedral, and the more than 600 bishops climbed up the grandstand, herded by a photographer with a microphone.

Hymn-singing broke out during the line-up for the photo shoot, particularly 'Amazing Grace'.

Before taking the picture, the photographer told the bishops, "If you have dark glasses on, we can't force you to take them off, but no one will know who you are," to general laughter. The photo shoot was not mandatory and at a news conference a few days earlier, it was acknowledged that a small number of bishops might not participate because that did not want their boycotting primates to know that they had come to Lambeth.

Preparing to snap the picture, the photographer urged those bishops seated in the front row to put their knees and feet together, and he asked everyone to be sure they were looking between the two heads in front of them so that no one was obscured.

After the photo, the photographer said, "We will now bring you down in an orderly fashion," again to laughter. Groups of bishops posed for their own pictures, including the group of female bishops at Lambeth and the Canadian bishops. Two Korean bishops wanted to pose with the women bishops for a picture, too.

The bishops' spouses gathered for group photo at the same spot earlier in the day.

Words and photographs from Episcopal-life online.
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