I told myself I only wanted to go because my mother would be thrilled. Not surprisingly, when I told others, no one believed me. I did wangle a ticket to the Garden Party but not to the luncheon and address by Tony Blair at Lambeth Palace, the home of the Careys. The bus ride into London was pleasant, almost giddy. I rode with the newly consecrated Bishop of Maine. It was the first time I had seen Chilton since her election. The only disconcerting note was that helicopters accompanied the fleet of busses.

Susie Erdy, I learned, also didn't have a ticket to the luncheon, so once the busses arrived at Lambeth Palace, we threaded our way through the massive security and walked across the Lambeth Bridge and up to Westminster Abbey. The important thing to see at the abbey are the new statues of 20th century martyrs over the west entrance. A trip to the gift shop was easily justified by wanting to get copies of the booklet describing them.

Susie and I then had a leisurely stroll over to Buckingham Palace, and after lunch went to the Buckingham Palace gift shop. Yes, it has come to that! Of course, I was happy to have an opportunity to buy a royal palaces tea towel and I thought Susie and I had an advantage of those who attended lunch at Lambeth Palace: we could get souvenirs.

Susie and I then went to stand in line with the British crowd awaiting entrance. While the buses from Lambeth whisked through the gates, about a thousand of us waited outside. The young priest and his wife who were ahead of us said that "Everyone in the Church of England is here.." I only saw only one woman not in a hat -- the female half of a clergy couple. I was wearing a simple gray suit, but Susie was resplendent in her hat and Laura Ashley dress.

Finally the line moved forward and we proceeded through the front entrance gates, through the courtyard in the middle of the palace, and then through various state rooms and out into the "garden." Of course, it's the size of a city park. There is a vast open area to the left of which, viewed from the palace, was a huge tent in which tea and cold drinks, as well as sweets and tiny sandwiches, were dispensed by a remarkably friendly staff. The royal tent was a distance to the right. One needed a special ticket for admission to that.

At the playing of "God Save the Queen" the royals arrived -- but only the Queen, Prince Philip and Prince Andrew that I recognized. The next hour was spent with the Queen moving around the grounds, escorted by the Archbishop of Canterbury. No doubt there were plain-clothes security guards, but otherwise it was simply two people in the middle of a crowd that usually numbered about 75. It was easy to get close to HRM (I was perhaps three feet away), but getting in front for the opportunity to shake her hand took time and a certain pushiness that I wasn't up to. Philip was escorted by the Archbishop of York and several men from the palace staff who lined people us to shake hands with him. I passed on that. I opted to meet Prince Andrew, who was being escorted by Jim Rosenthal, of all people! For Prince Andrew, we simply formed semi-circles one behind another, just as was done for Philip, but without staff assistance. Andrew was very engaging and was anxious to chat, in a superficial way, about the Conference.

For me the most valuable part of the day was connecting with the many American bishops I had not yet seen. After greeting Ken and Mariann Price (he was my parents' rector in West Virginia) and saying what a hoot it was to be with them at the palace, he said, "Yes, and I just can't remember the last time we were here."

At the end I took a walk all around the gardens. They are quite beautiful. The most outstanding part, the "border" is one of those marvelous English concoctions: from a distance it looks wild and unplanned but close up you can easily see the careful organization.

As we left the palace, the many folks who had brought cameras whisked them out for a quick picture or two. I could have kicked myself for obeying the rules and not bringing mine.

The next stop was a trip down the Thames on a series of boats. We took the busses to the dock (again with heavy security) and as we boarded the boat we were confronted with demonstrators from OutRage -- the secular lesgay group which disrupted the Archbishop's Easter sermon, among other activities. I was with Jan and Susie and I confess that I was not fully focussed on the demonstration as I was attempting to board the boat without the proper name tag. (Nametags were not required at the palace since about half of the folk were not Lambeth participants. All you needed there was a blue card which came with the invitation.) In any case, I smiled at them and Jan flashed a V sign, just as the person ahead of us was specifically asked to show his tag. (He had one.) Somehow I escaped a similar fate and felt almost giddy when I got on the boat. So did many of the bishops, and singing (in Spanish!) soon ensued.

A bishop sat next to me. Henry Paltridge, a New Zealander who was recently made Bishop of Meru in Kenya. We had a pleasant chat and I wondered how to bring up the gay issue. He soon gave me an opportunity: "Why do you think there is a police boat accompanying us?" he said. "It's probably because of the bomb threats," I replied. He talked about violence and the threat of violence being counterproductive and I agreed. Then I realized that he thought that the bomb threats had been from OutRage.. They weren't, I assured him (they have all been based on world political issues), and that gave me the opportunity to probably be the first gay Anglican to witness to him. He wasn't convinced, of course, but I hope it made some difference.

On the bus trip back, I rode with the Chancellor of the Church of England, and hence of the Lambeth Conference and the Anglican Communion, as well. We did not talk about lesgay issues, but we talked about a wide range of other subjects. He was delightful.

By the end of the day, the only thing left was to call my mother. As luck would have it, I only got her answering machine. I also called Scott. His reaction was, "So what!" Scott always keeps me grounded.

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