Saturday was a day for committee meetings, orientation, speeches from the President of the House of Deputies, Julia Ayala Harris and Presiding Bishop Michael Curry to a joint session of Deputies and Bishops, and a revival in the YUM Center attended by several thousand Episcopalians and friends.
I was appointed to legislative committee 9, “Evangelism and the Future Church”. Like all legislative committees we had met several times since January via Zoom and held hearings on a couple of resolutions. I may sound like a “get off my lawn” guy, but I find the zoom meetings to be lacking in many ways. Last General Convention (GC), in 2022, all meetings were done this way due to the ongoing pandemic. This time around the leadership decided to use a similar method for most of our work on legislation, with some in person meetings taking place now at GC. In theory, the online committee meetings should allow a much broader participation as anyone could sign up to “observe” or make comments at online meetings. In practice, my committee this GC and the previous one rarely had other folks show up to engage or testify, and the truth is not everyone can set aside a couple of hours multiple times over several months for the online meetings. I support trying to shorten GC as much as possible, but I think this problem is better solved by limiting the number of resolutions, allowing a shorter GC, like this one, to address them as needed.
That’s my soap box for today. My committee met in person Saturday morning and we were joined by numerous deputies, church staff, and bishops where we learned from each other about creative church starts and redevelopments. It was inspirational and delightful to gather that way, and certainly much more productive.
On Friday we heard from the three candidates for President of the House of Deputies in an open forum which got somewhat contentious. This election will be interesting! It is VERY rare to have an incumbent president opposed for another term and at this point I have no idea if there is a front runner. Our President, Julia Ayala Harris, was elected at the last GC and is eligible for two more 3 year terms. She is opposed by current Vice President of the House of Deputies, the Reverend Racher Taber-Hamilton, and by deputy Dr. Zena Link. Stay tuned! We also had a forum with all five candidates for Presiding Bishop asking questions they drew from a fish bowl. I found the questions pretty disappointing but I was glad to hear from all five, it is a very interesting and diverse slate. The House of Bishops will elect the new Presiding Bishop on Wednesday.
Last night we gathered for an Episcopal revival, the 27th revival led by our soon outgoing Presiding Bishop, the Most Reverend Michael Curry. It was a lot of fun, very uplifting and inspiring. The music was great, the YUM Center (where the Louisville Cardinals basketball team plays) was rocking, and Bishop Curry delivered as always a powerful sermon in his unique and beloved style. He will be sorely missed.
Today we have the opening Eucharist, followed by our first legislative session. Our practice in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast is to gather at lunch each day (starting today) to discuss resolutions coming up and share information regarding our work as deputies. We have a great team, and we are humbled to represent our diocese in this work.
I will have more information as convention unfolds regarding resolutions and elections. I have been unable to upload photos for some reason but hope to get that resolved soon. Thanks for reading.
