Here we are almost a month post GC2006. What an interesting time! Being at GC and being front and center for many of the committee hearings and all of the floor debates, I am constantly shocked by what I hear and read about what we did. So much is inaccurate, so much is subject to wide interpretations. For the most part, I am disheartened by actions taken by various entities and individuals in our church. And I remained amazed at how sexuality completely captures such passion and violent opinions. Would that mission and evanglism, would that love of neighbor, would that the teachings of Christ, like Matthew 5, Matthew 25, Matthew 28, would rule the day.
I have also been struck by how our readings this summer speak so much about reconciliation, about unity, about how our baptism unites us and how we are to be MINISTERS of reconciliation, not ambassadors of division.
I come from the Southern Baptist church. Much of that upbringing still informs me. But one aspect of congregationalist churches is the issue of schism. You get enough people mad at the pastor or upset over the color they painted the walls, and they just leave to start another church. There is no sense of a greater structure, of ecclesial bodies, of Bishops or others in authority. And quite often (I dare say almost without fail), when a church splits in anger, they form an angry church. From that comes, later, another split and another and another. It is a very slippery slope.
As Episcopalians / Anglicans try to figure all this out, I wonder about the long range repurcussions. I wonder about folks wanting to line up under Akinola, until he does something they don’t like. I wonder about people who want to choose their bishop, based on criteria they define today, and what happens in 10 years when the church has new people and there are new bishops, do they just choose again? Is that very Anglican, or catholic, at all? Slippery slope.

I keep hearing from “left” side and “right” side folks of what we did or did not do at GC. The special commission on Windsor, and the legislative committee at GC, worked so very hard. They tried to respond and yet be sensitive to various opinions. They presented to us A161, which addressed (not harshly enough in some opinions) the election of Bishops whose manner of life is a problem for the Communion AND also addressed a moratorium (not those words) on blessing same sex unions. One thing I hear constantly from the “conservatives” is how SSUs were not even addressed. This is wrong. A161 addressed them – taking language from A162 (which was combined with A161) the resolution stated :
” The amended A161 had called for The Episcopal Church to “not proceed to develop or authorize Rites for the Blessings of same-sex unions”; to maintain a “breadth of responses” for the pastoral care of gays and lesbians; to offer its regret to the Anglican Communion for the actions of 74th General Convention; to urge dioceses to “refrain from the nomination, election, consent to, and consecration of bishops whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church”; and to apologize to those “hurt by these decisions.”

The debate on this resolution was fascinating. Those in full support of Gene Robinson and SSUs were adamantly opposed. Those from the right, very surprisingly, also opposed it (saying it did not go far enough). That was an amazing turn. The “right” folks worked together, called for a vote by orders, and really worked to defeat A161 which, IMHO, did address the Windsor Report, offering regret, promising not to develop rites, and urging refraining from electing gay bishops. This was a well done, difficult-to-achieve resolution and, again in my opinion, brought us as close in line with Windsor as possible for our GC. The conservatives fought it tooth and nail. Some of the liberal members of the special committee spoke for passing the resolution, willing to give up what they considered progress for the greater good of unity and the communion.
So it is disingenuous for conservatives to complain about the lack of resolutions on same sex blessings, when it was the conservatives who fought to defeat the one resolution brought forward dealing with it.
The election of Presiding Bishop was the other amazing thing. I have heard from three Bishops now who report that a group of conservative Bishops, including some retired bishops, once they saw “their” candidate, Charles Jenkins, would not win, voted for Jefforts-Schiori intentionally to cause division and schism in the ECUSA and the Anglican Communion. It is their place to name names, but all three reported this as hearing it first hand.
Folks, this is a sad, sad thing to learn. That Bishops of our church would do something to intentionally cause a split in our church, and do so while hiding behind a secret ballot, is unbelievable. Yet, as in the Joseph story, God can make for good that humans intend for ill. I pray that is the case here, but shame on them for lowering to such levels.
I also decry Bishop Chane and others who, following GC, declared they would just ignore what GC had agreed to. This is just as grievous as the conservative plot to defeat all WR resolutions and elect a woman PB, just to cause trouble. Our church should be ashamed.
The good news is this diverse center, many of whom disagree with each other on sexuality issues, yet believe we can still be the church together, that our unity (see John 17) takes priority, that Jesus told us to be as one SO THAT the world will know who he is. The above actions don’t show us as one. Yet many of us believe we can do so.
I also want to come against the way people talk about each other. The stereotypes and really harsh language about those whom which we disagree must stop – we are baptized Christians and should act like it! I am sick of conservatives saying that someone who believes that SSUs could be something that the church can bless, based on their own scriptural and theological reasoning’s and a sense of the Holy Spirit’s presence, that such beliefs equates to that person being anti-Christian, a non-believer, someone who does not agree with the Creeds or the resurrection, etc. This is patently untrue. Those, like Spong, who deny the resurrection, surely they are not Christian. That does not mean all “left” or “liberal” people fall into that camp. And most of the moderates I know profess the Creedal beliefs without hesitation.
I also point out that some in the “liberal” camp put no credence in the Bible or the teachings of the church. They don’t allow for the deep, passionate feelings of those on the “right”. They are unwilling to listen to their deep held beliefs in Scripture and what the authority of the Bible means to them, and how some of the actions of this church shake that to their core. Their feelings of pain, abandonment, confusion, anger are legitimate responses to this shaking up of their core beliefs. To discount that is unfair and of no use for us in this time of strife.
“From now on consider no one from a human point of view”, Paul to Corinth. Paul to Ephesus in this week’s reading says, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.”

Both groups into one, by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace. The wall has already been broken down. We, the church, need to realize that.

I know, I know. My adoring public has waited anxiously for me to post since leaving for the Episcopal General Convention 2006. I did intend to post during GC, but I was always just too tired! Here are some initial thoughts:
The process is, well, to me, VERY FRUSTRATING! To veterans of GC (this was my 1st time), they just smiled and laughed and nodded, knowingly. It is a legislative process, with committees assigned “legislation” (resolution) to work on, hold hearings on, amend or change or recommend discharge, etc. The committees meet every day, early and late. They debate resolutions assigned to them amongst themselves, and they schedule hearings where anyone can sign up to speak to resolutions. These hearings are posted daily so you can track resolutions you are interested in and be at those committee hearings, speak if you desire, etc.
Our deputation had 7 of 8 deputies assigned to committees, three of them as vice-chairs. We rock! Those of us not on committees were free agents and divided up to follow different resoltuons. I focused on the Evangelism committee and also committee 26, who had the very difficult task of dealing with Windsor Report resolutions.
The committee work is ok, sometimes a struggle but a good way to have different voices heard. It’s the House of Deputies floor stuff that drove me insane! When you have over 800 deputies on the floor at once, with a high percentage of large egos, it can get nuts. Obviously there are some people who feel no resolution is worth anything if THEY don’t get up to address it. There are others who gleefully wait for their turn at the mic to “move the question” – and thank God for them! I got so tired of debate where people just said the same things over and over and over – look, if your thought has been addressed – KEEP IT TO YOURSELF! The other frustating part was when people would propose amendments that drastically changed resolutions, instead of doing so at committee hearings.
Again, the process is difficult for me. But maybe that’s just me.

In addition to that, the other enlightenment was for me to see how much time we spend majoring in the minors. Everyone’s pet issue is addressed. Often it’s hard to see a connection between one more resolution on global warming and how the Mission of Christ is to be addressed by our church. I missed hearing a lot about Jesus. Instead I heard a lot about Iraq and reperations and environmental waste from Katrina (more on that later) and on and on and on. For instance, the Liturgy and Worship committee had 50 resolutions to deal with. Some of them on some important stuff. Yet on the HoD floor deputies wanted to spend time debating the appropriate date for the feast day of Thurgood Marshall – GO TO THE COMMITTEE MEETING FOLKS and talk about that. Sigh.

The most exciting part of GC was the announcement and then reception of the new Presiding Bishop, The Right Rev. Katherine Jefforts-Schiori. I will have more to say about her election, and the really disappointing behavior of certain bishops in the voting, but for now I can say the Spirit was really alive in the room as the election results were announced and SHOCKED all of us. I don’t know her well, or know much about her, so I will withold any judgement of her. Bottom line, she won – and although some intended her election for ill, God, I pray, intends it for good. I heard that line in the Bible…..

More later, friends.

It’s not that often in life when the “rest of the world” actually gets to see and understand what you already know. But that happened in the life of my family this week.
My LW was honored as the Hero of the Week by our local TV station. They have been selecting folks each week for acts above and beyond the call of duty during and after Hurricane Katrina (or as we call it “the storm”. We almost never say the name of it down here).
My LW is an RN and lost her job from the storm. She had been on enough Honduras medical missions to know how to setup and run a medical clinic, so with our Bishop’s permission, she did so. Beginning in a school gym (where we now hold church) without walls and missing some roof, she took some donated meds and with the help of some medical folks who showed up out of nowhere (initially from Virginia and from Meridian, MS), they got busy. They saw 350 patients the 1st day!
A web of docs and other medical personnel from all over the country was soon established – I cannot even describe to you how MUCH she was on her cell phone every day and night coordinating the army of volunteers. They came from everywhere and each of them was deeply touched by the work. When the free clinic was finally merged into a local clinic that she helped setup nearby, they had seen over 22,000 patients for free medical and mental health care. It was an amazing operation, truly amazing.
I am proud of my hero – I hope you are too. To see the video just go to here.

Returned from D.C. Wednesday night. 6 adults and 31 teens! We stayed at the National Cathedral and did a “pilgrimage” there Sat. nite. Had the place to ourselves, it was pretty cool. It’s an awesome cathedral (duh). Attended church there on Sunday, then we went to the National Zoo for a few hours. It was WAY TOO HOT and WAY TOO CROWDED. From there to Union Station where we took a trolley tour called Monuments by Moonlight. It was awesome. Our guide, Sooner Steve, was the best. We saw so much but as the evening wore on the kids kinda faded. It was a great tour though.
Monday morning (Memorial Day) we split into 3 groups for some service work. My daughter and I took the senior high kids to serve breakfast at So Others May Eat. We left at 620 am. Worked hard and served over 350 folks. Had a good time, I was proud of all of them.
Monday afternoon we did shopping / bowling / movie. Got home late and played some games (gargoyles is a fav of this bunch).
Tuesday was our final day. We went to the National Mall and split into groups based on interest. My group did the Holocaust Museum – it is an amazing and sobering place. I highly recommend it. We also did Air and Space (I loved it). Others did Natural History and Art Museum.
THat night we drove to Baltimore and took in Camden Yards, watching a great game b/t Orioles and Tampa. The kids loved it and we had perfect seats.
Wed. we flew back home and SLEPT a while!
Our Pentecost service was wonderful, with a baptism of the sweetest baby! We had our “traditional” Pentecost picnic and shared it with the wonderful volunteers of Camp Coast Care.
In between returning from DC and Sunday, I drove to Jackson for a GC2006 meeting (I am an alternate deputy), then after church drove an hour to do some family stuff with the LW’s family. On the road tooooo much, for sure. I leave Sunday after church for General Convention and will post thoughts from there as often as I can…….

And it’s only Wednesday….
Church on Sunday. This time, did NOT give a 100 word sermon!
Much to the disappointment of some of my folks! Monday in the office trying to complete a funeral bulletin for my aunt’s service on Tuesday, and a complete program for an ordination on Wednesday. Finished both late.
Tuesday to Meridian where I celebrated and preached the funeral of my wonderful Aunt Sharlie. Got lots of great help from family members, her other nephews, some grand nieces and nephews. Church was packed, which was very sweet since she had not lived in that town for 30 years. We had a private ceremony at the cemetary for family afterwards. It’s quite difficult to do these services for loved ones, but an honor as well. And some sweet older lady on the way out said “I’ve been going to funerals in the Episcopal church for 63 years and that was the best funeral homily I’ve ever heard”! I am sure my aunt got a kick out of that.
Wednesday we transformed the gym once again, adding seating and decorating with a red backdrop and actually used a red frontal that an adopting church sent us. The place looked GOOD! We had a packed house as we welcomed The Reverend Patrick Sanders, former youth minister of my church and the Episcopal church’s newest transitional deacon. The service went VERY well, it’s a LOT of work to put an ordination together – he was very appreciative and it was a great night. Wonderful reception afterwards in a tent in front of the school. I was so very proud of my folks – altar guild, hospitality, choir, verger, many hard workers to make this a special night for Patrick and his family.
Lots to do in the office tomorrow, around awards day at my son’s school. Then get ready to leave, again! Accompanying our youth group to D.C., leaving 5 am Saturday morning and returning Wednesday. Wish me luck!! Think I should go to bed…..