General Convention, day 5

No picture today. The protestors have not returned.

Well, I missed day 4 on line. My parishioner Greg who is in seminary at CDSP came into town and I had a 'meeting' (read drinks) with some younger Black clergy about our frustrations with the identity politics being played out by our elders. (Yes, at 52 I can still talk about my elders in the situation. Sad, isn't it? Run to your next diocesan convention and run for GC deputy younger people! Your chances of getting elected are better than you think.)

In the morning, ++Rowan preached at the Eucharist and made a snide comment about things being okay unless we take some action that further strains the bonds of affection. Check out the video on the Episcopal Church General Convention web site at . It was hard not to hear his words as a subtle warning not to kill B033. At this point, though, I think he's gonna have to deal with the fact that we complied with the Windsor report 3 years ago and still had to deal with other dioceses intruding in our province.

Oh, and be sure to check out the Episcopal Church web page for reports about GC. I read all about the Young Adult Festival on line; I sure did not see them present at the actual event! Plus there are video links of the sermons and other things. Go to www.episcopalchurch.org/index.htm and click on the media links at the bottom of the page.

Anyway, the afternoon session in the Liturgy Committee on same sex unions went well, with the vast majority speaking in favor of creating some rite. And the evening session in the World Missions committee on B033 was similar. In the House legislative committee, we got to talk to our neighbor about how B033 affected our ministry. I talked with a woman from a small town in Oklahoma whose priest did nothing to prepare the congregation about sexuality. And, of course, Gene Robinson's consecration split the small congregation apart. Avoidance is not ministry people!

Oh, the electronic voting machines failed, so we had to put off the pension Fund Board vote. The next day, when we voted again, we had to spend 45 minutes voting, rather than giving ballots to some tellers to count. And there is no paper record of our individual votes! But I am ahead of myself.

Today we had out first really marathon session for four hours with one break. Whew!The highlight of it was our affirmation of the need to continue the antiracism work of the church. According to James, my parishioner who is working with the Integrity team, the House of Bishops kept going into executive session. They are taking up same sex blessings before we are, so that is probably the subject they wrestled with. If so, we will probably see it tomorrow.

Oh, and there was some asshole from Texas who kept trying to bully his way through Bonnie Anderson. As far as I can tell, someone needs to tell him to stop trying to control this strong and capable woman and start acknowledging her as president of the House of Deputies.

The highlight of the two days was the Integrity Eucharist. Creative, good music, Barbara Harris preaching and Gene Robinson celebrating. Well done folks. Even the biggest homophobe would have to admit they got this liturgy right. The whole thing was taped, so I assume there will be video on the integrityusa.org site if not the GC media site. Look for it. Still trying to get my alternative coalition going. We met tonight and are still considering what we are talking about. I think we are in the same struggle as people trying to define emergent. Something has to change but we are not quite sure what it is just yet.

More coming soon.