Long Day

We started our day as usual with Eucharist, and then began our day with an announcement that we would be going late into the evening, as we are behind schedule. Not a surprise. We have an ambitious schedule as to resolutions for this gathering.

Perhaps the most contentious legislation is the response to the Windsor Report. Three of those pieces of legislation were voted on today. The first one being a leftover from debate the day before. It was one that was brought before us that attempted to put several subjects into one resolution. The topics being discussed were:

Ordination of Bishops

Same Sex Unions

Apology for the pain the resolution causes to our Gay and Lesbian members for the pain that the resolution might cause.

For many those subjects were the focus of this convention. The resolution that was put before us combined too many subjects, and was ambiguous at best in many ways.

With regard to Ordination of Bishops, it did not clearly state anything that would be acceptible to either side. In fact, all of the resolutions with in the overall legislation had that ambiguity.

It was something that was debated for several hours, and when it came time to vote on it, it was soundly defeated by both of the sides on this issue. When the dioceses of Fort Worth and Newark agree on anything it shows that the legislation was not acceptible to those who felt strongly on both sides. The middle of the road people voted for it, however the combination of the people on both sides (and some of the middle ground) combined to defeat it.

Two other resolutions on windsor were accepted as written. We have one last full day ahead of us, and I am looking forward to returning home to Nebraska. Truly this week was an example of how the Ostrich is an animal built by committee.

The reality is that this is a very complex issue for our church, and an inadequate response can and will cause more damage to our church than taking the time to make it right.

We finally finished our business at 9:30 ET and are resting up for the whirlwind of the last day.

More tomorrow,

Grant

It's a Girl

IT’S A GIRL!
There are pink buttons on lapels throughout the Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio that read, “It’s a girl!” It is indeed! … and in many ways still unbelievable. I wake up in the morning and still think that there will be a recount or resolution to amend the vote … or something that will shatter this glorious bubble. But thanks be to God … it looks like it will stand!
By pure accident, I was seated next to our new girl, Presiding Bishop-Elect, Katharine Jefferts Schori at the Women’s Caucus breakfast the morning of her election. I was impressed by her complimentary balance of intellect and pastoral nature and most impressed by her humility.
One of the award recipients at the Women’s Caucus breakfast, in accepting her award, reflected on the first time she heard a woman celebrant say the words of consecration, “this is my body which is given for you …” and she realized that it was for her … a girl. Bishop Katherine and I looked at each other with tears in our eyes because we knew exactly how she felt and we were reminded of the fact that there are still many women who have not yet heard the words spoken in their own voice.
The ECW celebrated with great jubilation the 30 years of the ordination of women in the Episcopal Church here at GC. They made a paper chain with the names of the women ordained in their dioceses which stretched around the ECW meeting space at the convention center. Our ECW will be bringing home our piece of the chain to display at Annual Council.
The E3 Youth Event and the Young Adult Programs have come to an end, but not before they witnessed this historic moment. The young girls here at convention were all in tears following the announcement and they know now that they can be anything in the Church!
When I left the House of Deputies today, weighed down by the often tedious debate on resolutions that move so painfully slow at times, I got on the bus headed for my hotel. I sat next to a quiet man from the Diocese of Nevada whose name on his badge read, Richard Schori (the husband of our new PB-Elect). He too, was still in unbelief. Words from the mouth of the one who knows her best said, “Katherine is fearless and faithful … and we are in for the time of our lives.”
It is indeed a girl! It has already been the time of my life to simply be present and to witness this historic moment in the life of our church that only 30 years would have been unbelievable.
The Spirit is alive and well in the Episcopal Church and I have never been more humbled to be an Episcopalian. Pray that the Spirit may continue to lead and guide us into the reign of God.

Judi

Holy Buckets

I came to General Convention expecting it to be one where there were few surprises. We would gather to endorse much if not all of the Windsor recommendations, we would elect a Presiding Bishop and get back to being the Episcopal Church and that would be that.

Then today happened, and I could not be more excited about the future of the Episcopal Church. We elected a fantastically gifted woman to become Presiding Bishop, who accepted this great honor by speaking to the assemble masses in both English and Spanish. As someone who I was talking to said, it was an amazing way to celebrate the diversity of our church and still listen to what God was calling us to be. One of the Bishops who was not elected spoke of today as one of the best of his life. That is an incredible statement.

I looked across the aisle to my mother who is a priest deputy from Southern Ohio and we both mouthed "Wow!!" to each other because it was not the outcome we expected. Given the way the Deputies voted to consent to the PB election, all but 14 in the lay and 13 in the clergy voted with a majority in support of the election, this was what God was calling us to do as a church. I know some will not like the choice, and we need to be pastoral and understanding to them. Other celebrate this as the "end of the question on women's ordination."

Whatever it is I cannot wait to see our new PB take her seat among the leaders of Christianity as the first female leader of a major denomination. Both conservatives and liberals speak of her gifts as being the ones we need for our church right now. That says something about how gifted she must be to win over people who would normally not vote in that way.

Grant

Early Wakeup

I have found myself learning about the church and myself as this convention continues. I testified at my first hearing about expressing regret for slavery, and it was an amazing experience. I would not have stood up to talk were it not for the time when the Archbishop of York came forward to speak.

As he came forward, he came with several people. In my mind's eye, I looked beyond him to see who was the Archbishop. I had expected him to be an old white man. I had always pictured that position to be held that way. I was a bit shocked at how wrong I was, and how inadvertantly I had succumbed to a level of predjudice. It was painful to realize I had predjudice at all. I saw myself as a "new age sensitive guy" someone who didn't fall to the sins of racism. Boy was I wrong.

As I got my breath back at the growing I needed to do, I began to listen closely to the words of the Archbishop. He was and is a very gifted man. He told of a story that goes something like this.

When I am happy, I am black
When I am sick, I am black
When I am sad, I am black
When I go out in the sun, I am Black
When I am jaundiced, I am Black

When you are happy, you are white
When you are sick, you are green
When you are sad, you are blue
When you are out in the sun, your are tan
When you are jaundiced, you are yellow

And you have the audacity to call me colored.

I have a bit of growning to do in how I respond to and view my brothers and sisters in Christ. What do I bring with me that forms my view of my fellow Christians? I am excited by the reality that I am not where I want to be, and challenged by the world I am looking at with new eyes.

Grant

how slow can it go?

One of the first things we have learned at GC2006 is that it takes a while to do anything. We spend more time figuring out how we are going to vote (paper or electronically) and hearing ammendments to the various legislation upon which we are deciding. We have hearings on all of the legislation and then come together again to discuss it as a body. It then involves another round of ammendments and then we spend more time on the voting of those ammendments. It is amazing how long everything takes. It took an incredible amount of time to realize that very few people know how to vote electronically. I am having an incredible amount of fun watching this whole process. We are already a day behind on our schedule and no one seems to be fazed by that reality. In fact, I am finding out that this is a regular occurence in the House of Deputies. It makes me wonder how our government functions if they work in a similar way.

At times it is like some surreal experience in which we live in a constant state of ammendments and motions.

Perhaps the most important thing that we do is interact with each other in and out of session. We gather and realize how fantastic the Anglican Communion is in action. We get to know the whole of who we are by what we do out of session. One of the most amazing things is how the exhibit hall is laid out. We have a catholic exhibit right across from integrity. Where else can we find a group of disparate beliefs gathering in the same room.

While this is a rather strange post, it describes what is happening here. We are coming together as a church that has so much to offer, and so much to figure out together. We are going to make some statements about who we are, and who we want to be. Some of them are contentious and others are not. It sounds confusing and it is, but it is a great reflection of who we are, we are a people of faith who have conflicting beliefs in the application of that faith and come together to celebrate that conflict.

Grant

Well we have arrived in Columbus, registered, and begun to get to know the spirit of Convention. Immediately as one enters it becomes like a combination of old home week and a carnival. It is amazing how many faces and names are familiar, and how small our church becomes. One cannot walk through the room without knowing someone or running into someone who knows someone you know. There are about three degrees of separation between everyone. The other thing that has become apparent is how much is going on in one place. Between the hearings, getting to know our fellow deputies, and the myriad of other things happening it becomes clear that information overload will occur daily. There seems to be an aura of community at convention at the beginning, and I hope that continues to be the order of the day. God Bless

Grant+