Friday morning, after all the housekeeping stuff was taken care of, we entered the Committee of the Whole conversation designed to discuss 2006's B033. Essentially, the committee presented the House with 5 options on what to do about B033. first, we could take no action, leaving B033 in place entirely. Second, we could reaffirm B033 with another resolution, though no such resolution had been submitted to convention. Third, the convention could resolve to repeal or revoke B033, though typically conventions do not revoke previous resolutions, they substitute them or affirm something contradictory to them. Fourth, the convention could decide to reaffirm the existing canons of the church, which are non-discriminatory and would effectively revoke support for B033 and end its implementation. Fifth and finally, the convention could issue a separate statement not directly addressing B033 which would instead acknowledge the fact that the convention and the church is not of one mind on this issue, but in the Anglican spirit of diverse beliefs we would all agree to disagree while acknowledging the validity and importance of the contributions of the LGBT members of the church. The latter two options would essentially present an end to B033, yet do so in a way that would hopefully appease the other members of the Anglican Communion and not strain relationships further.
During the Committee of the Whole session, 30 were chosen by lottery to speak. Each person was allotted 2 min to speak, so the whole session lasted 60 min. It wasn't a debate on legislation, it was literally a discussion, and unlike a debate it was also extremely polite and civil. Overall, out of the 30 people who spoke, eleven spoke in favor of upholding B033, and 19 spoke in favor of moving beyond it in some fashion. Most who were in favor of moving past B033 mostly spoke of reaffirming the cannons or, generally, of the last two options proposed to us by the committee. Almost no one wanted to revoke B033, and many of those who spoke in favor of upholding B033 did so not because they were against the inclusion of LGBT Christians, but rather because they were fearful of alienating the Anglican Communion further. Many also spoke of the fear of becoming a "fundamentalist left" church which ignores its moderate and conservative members.
Though I didn't get to speak, another youth deputy, Ian from Chicago, spoke, and ironically he said almost exactly the same thing that I had hoped to say.
After lunch, the legislative business of the house resumed. Ironically, the first outrageously obnoxious comments of the day occurred not during the discussion of controversial issues, but the discussion of a technology audit for the Church Center. Adding to the drama of the day, heated debate arose about the election of a bishop for the diocese of Ecuador Central. Apparently there was some difficulty with this election, and since the majority of the house was very unfamiliar with the facts and the status of the diocese as a whole (plus the obvious language barrier), the issue was postponed until more facts could be gathered for the house.
On a slightly more positive note, the Charter for Ongoing Christian Education was passed, and the house was distracted by a pigeon which got loose and was flying around the convention hall.
Friday was a seriously long day, but it was continued with what I consider to be the high point of the convention and a spiritual high point for me as well: the Integrity Eucharist.
The Integrity Eucharist nearly defies description. The liturgy was innovative, the scripture was a modern translation that I absolutely adored, the music was amazing and yet simple in its beauty, and the sermon was mind-blowing. Barbara Harris spoke, and she gave eloquent and humorous testimony to the inclusion of LGBT Christians not only in ordained office, but in civil rights and civil blessings. My favorite argument from her went something like this: "if you don't want someone to be a bishop, don't ordain them to the priesthood. If you don't want someone to be a priest, don't ordain them to the deaconate. If you don't want someone in ordained ministry, don't baptize them at all. But you can't initiate someone and then treat them like they're half-ass baptized."
It was an amazing experience. I kept the bulletin so if anyone wants to see it they're more than welcome to.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
Thursday of Convention (day 2)
So...haven't updated in wayyyy too long, sorry. I'll start with coverage of Day 2 of convention and do a separate post for today (Friday, Day 3), since there's too much stuff to fit all in one posting.
Actually, I lie. I need to back up to Wednesday night first.
Immediately after legislative session closed, the Presiding Bishop and the Archbishop of Canterbury held a summit/panel on the current global economic situation and the response of the church. The ABC gave a lengthy talk to start off the panel discussion, and he urged the audience to realize that we, as a global community, have been lying to ourselves on a myriad of levels regarding our economic and ecological situations.
Thursday started off with a Public Narrative conversation in which everyone at our table, mainly members of the Diocese of Maryland deputation, shared our "stories of self." These stories were to focus on our own background and upbringing and what in that has contributed to our own personal call to leadership and mission. In the following Public Narrative conversations we will be sharing our "stories of community" and "stories of now."
For legislation on Thursday we attempted to try voting for Church Pension Fund trustees...and failed. there were so many issues with the technology and the voting system (flashbacks to the 06 convention) that we had to postpone the voting until Friday.
After giving up on that, we moved to part one of the committee of the whole designed to discuss the ramifications of B033, a resolution from 2006 that effectively put a moratorium on the election of gay bishops. We started this committee of the whole with one-on-one conversations with nearby deputies. I personally had a fabulous conversation with a priest from the diocese of Los Angeles who sits behind me. We more or less agreed on everything so it wasn't necessarily a productive conversation, but it was pleasant nonetheless.
In other news, I went to hearings for the Prayerbook, Liturgy, and Music Committee who were hearing testimony on a series of resolutions which address the issue of gay marriage and the blessing of same-sex unions. The committee grouped the many resolutions that had been submitted into two categories: first, those that involve changes to the church's cannons on marriage to gender-neutral language and second, the creation of rites for the blessing of same-sex relationships and/or civil unions. Somewhat surprisingly, almost all of the testimony was ovherwhelmingly in favor of both of these categories of resolutions. There was about a 3-to-1 ratio of people speaking for the resolutions versus those against. From what I understand, (since I decided not to wake up for the 7:00 committee decision meeting this morning) the committee will be condesing the proposed resolutions of these two categories into two resolutions (one for each category). They are attempting to create legislation that is comprehensive and that may have some chance of passing. That is, any legislation that comes before either house will be attempting to appease both sides of the argument and also balance the precarious relationships of the American church and the Anglican church worldwide.
I think I'm going to have to wait till tomorrow to write about today's experiences since at the moment I'm falling asleep....not surprised really. It's been a long day.
Actually, I lie. I need to back up to Wednesday night first.
Immediately after legislative session closed, the Presiding Bishop and the Archbishop of Canterbury held a summit/panel on the current global economic situation and the response of the church. The ABC gave a lengthy talk to start off the panel discussion, and he urged the audience to realize that we, as a global community, have been lying to ourselves on a myriad of levels regarding our economic and ecological situations.
Thursday started off with a Public Narrative conversation in which everyone at our table, mainly members of the Diocese of Maryland deputation, shared our "stories of self." These stories were to focus on our own background and upbringing and what in that has contributed to our own personal call to leadership and mission. In the following Public Narrative conversations we will be sharing our "stories of community" and "stories of now."
For legislation on Thursday we attempted to try voting for Church Pension Fund trustees...and failed. there were so many issues with the technology and the voting system (flashbacks to the 06 convention) that we had to postpone the voting until Friday.
After giving up on that, we moved to part one of the committee of the whole designed to discuss the ramifications of B033, a resolution from 2006 that effectively put a moratorium on the election of gay bishops. We started this committee of the whole with one-on-one conversations with nearby deputies. I personally had a fabulous conversation with a priest from the diocese of Los Angeles who sits behind me. We more or less agreed on everything so it wasn't necessarily a productive conversation, but it was pleasant nonetheless.
In other news, I went to hearings for the Prayerbook, Liturgy, and Music Committee who were hearing testimony on a series of resolutions which address the issue of gay marriage and the blessing of same-sex unions. The committee grouped the many resolutions that had been submitted into two categories: first, those that involve changes to the church's cannons on marriage to gender-neutral language and second, the creation of rites for the blessing of same-sex relationships and/or civil unions. Somewhat surprisingly, almost all of the testimony was ovherwhelmingly in favor of both of these categories of resolutions. There was about a 3-to-1 ratio of people speaking for the resolutions versus those against. From what I understand, (since I decided not to wake up for the 7:00 committee decision meeting this morning) the committee will be condesing the proposed resolutions of these two categories into two resolutions (one for each category). They are attempting to create legislation that is comprehensive and that may have some chance of passing. That is, any legislation that comes before either house will be attempting to appease both sides of the argument and also balance the precarious relationships of the American church and the Anglican church worldwide.
I think I'm going to have to wait till tomorrow to write about today's experiences since at the moment I'm falling asleep....not surprised really. It's been a long day.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Day 0 and Day 1 of Convention
Didn't get around to posting last night (loong day, very tired, you understand), so I'll give a re-cap of that as well.
Anyway, yesterday afternoon at 2 we had a welcoming presentation from the President of the House of Deputies, Bonnie Anderson, the Presiding Bishop, Katherine Jefferts Schiori, and a Harvard professor whose name escapes me who spoke on the topic of Ubunto and the Public Narrative, both of which are to be foci of the convention.
The PB began with a somewhat somber address. She spoke of the Church's current situation as a turning point, a decision point, rather than a catastrophe. She pointed out that at this stage, at this convention, we have the opportunity to enact change and improve the situation, but doing so will require working through our discomfort and our uneasiess and taking the right path rather than the easy path. She compared this choice to Christ's own journey, particularly in his choice to travel to Jerusalem, knowing his suffering if he went there. He just as easily could have turned away from this path. Yet, the PB also pointed out that there is more to the Jerusalem story than calvary: if we chose the difficult path, the path to Jerusalem, though we may have to bear some difficult crosses, we will also be rewarded with our own resurrection as a church.
If the PB's message was sobering, the ones which followed were somewhat more uplifting and hopeful. Bonnie Anderson shared her own experience of becoming a member of the Episcopal Church, and then the Harvard professor spoke on Public Narrative and how using this tool will help the convention in acheiving the spirit of Ubuntu, the "I am because we are, and because we are, I am" philosphy that rejects self-centeredness in favor of a community understanding.
The Public Narrative talk was fascinating and extremely detailed, and almost impossible to condense or summarize, so I'm afraid I'll have to skip over it.
After the presentations we had Deputy orientation. It was fairly standard stuff, the basics of voting and procedure. We had a practice voting session with the clickers, which mercifully not many people messed up, so hopefully that won't be a problem like it was last convention. We also had a roleplay for debating procedures....which was informative, cute and kind of funny but also made me want to bury my head in my hands.
I've decided to keep a report going of the Secretary of Convention (G. Straub)'s outfits. He tends to wear somewhat outrageous jackets, bright colored shirts, and bow ties. Yesterday he was wearing a green and white paisley (sp?) jacket, a lavender purple dress shirt and an episcopal purple bow tie. Today was less spectacular but nonetheless featured a blue, navy, and ochre yellow plaid jacket paired with a white shirt and a bright red bow tie. Check back for more outfit updates as the convention progesses.
Today started early with a Consultation meeting at 7am, followed by the opening legislative session at 8am. The session this morning was spectacularly dull, and mostly consisted of housekeeping sort of stuff. This afternoon's session perhaps could be more interesting, and the committee meetings are already getting under way with the heavy-hitting hearings today and tomorrow. Tonight is also going to be filled with all sorts of committee hearings to keep us occupied, which may be interesting.
Though it is yet to be needed, I will also be keeping an Outrageously Obnoxious Comment tally, which will probably be quite high once the hot-button issues come up on the docket :P
Anyway, yesterday afternoon at 2 we had a welcoming presentation from the President of the House of Deputies, Bonnie Anderson, the Presiding Bishop, Katherine Jefferts Schiori, and a Harvard professor whose name escapes me who spoke on the topic of Ubunto and the Public Narrative, both of which are to be foci of the convention.
The PB began with a somewhat somber address. She spoke of the Church's current situation as a turning point, a decision point, rather than a catastrophe. She pointed out that at this stage, at this convention, we have the opportunity to enact change and improve the situation, but doing so will require working through our discomfort and our uneasiess and taking the right path rather than the easy path. She compared this choice to Christ's own journey, particularly in his choice to travel to Jerusalem, knowing his suffering if he went there. He just as easily could have turned away from this path. Yet, the PB also pointed out that there is more to the Jerusalem story than calvary: if we chose the difficult path, the path to Jerusalem, though we may have to bear some difficult crosses, we will also be rewarded with our own resurrection as a church.
If the PB's message was sobering, the ones which followed were somewhat more uplifting and hopeful. Bonnie Anderson shared her own experience of becoming a member of the Episcopal Church, and then the Harvard professor spoke on Public Narrative and how using this tool will help the convention in acheiving the spirit of Ubuntu, the "I am because we are, and because we are, I am" philosphy that rejects self-centeredness in favor of a community understanding.
The Public Narrative talk was fascinating and extremely detailed, and almost impossible to condense or summarize, so I'm afraid I'll have to skip over it.
After the presentations we had Deputy orientation. It was fairly standard stuff, the basics of voting and procedure. We had a practice voting session with the clickers, which mercifully not many people messed up, so hopefully that won't be a problem like it was last convention. We also had a roleplay for debating procedures....which was informative, cute and kind of funny but also made me want to bury my head in my hands.
I've decided to keep a report going of the Secretary of Convention (G. Straub)'s outfits. He tends to wear somewhat outrageous jackets, bright colored shirts, and bow ties. Yesterday he was wearing a green and white paisley (sp?) jacket, a lavender purple dress shirt and an episcopal purple bow tie. Today was less spectacular but nonetheless featured a blue, navy, and ochre yellow plaid jacket paired with a white shirt and a bright red bow tie. Check back for more outfit updates as the convention progesses.
Today started early with a Consultation meeting at 7am, followed by the opening legislative session at 8am. The session this morning was spectacularly dull, and mostly consisted of housekeeping sort of stuff. This afternoon's session perhaps could be more interesting, and the committee meetings are already getting under way with the heavy-hitting hearings today and tomorrow. Tonight is also going to be filled with all sorts of committee hearings to keep us occupied, which may be interesting.
Though it is yet to be needed, I will also be keeping an Outrageously Obnoxious Comment tally, which will probably be quite high once the hot-button issues come up on the docket :P
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Arriving at General Convention
So, I arrived at General Convention yesterday afternoon, and so far it's been fairly chill, nothing exciting. I've been spending my free time (which I am enjoying while I have it, haha) exploring the convention center and the hotel. There's a lot of hotel and convention center to explore, I've discovered. There was supposed to be a New Deputy orientation this morning at 8am but it was cancelled, or possibly was never scheduled to begin with, but at any rate we will be oriented this afternoon as well as greeted by all sorts of people and officials. There's lots on the schedule for tonight as well, with the new deputy reception, and the consultation reception, which may or may not be occurring at the same time....we'll see.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Post-lunch report on Friday of Diocesan Convention
So far so good.
We arrived a little late to the convention this morning after checking in to our hotel rooms (v. nice) but made it in time for the first ballot of elections for people to fill various councils and committees in the diocese. I think that we managed to elect most of the people but we will have to go to a second ballot for the clergy position on the Standing Committee. But fortunately that's the only one we will have to vote for, fortunately.
After voting on positions, we began discussing and voting upon resolutions. We only got through two of them, but they both passed. The first resolution gave a voice and vote at convention to clergy of the Lutheran denomination who are resident in the Diocese of Maryland. The second passed new standards for clergy and lay compensation as per the yearly increases.
Despite the fact that these two were really non-issues, there was a lot of unnecessary debate and a lot of people who clearly didn't read their pre-convention booklets outlining the rules of order. Will we never learn......oh well. Hopefully folks have had their coffee by now and are a little less persnickety before we start the rest of the resolutions to be discussed this afternoon. Especially since we're a bit behind....
The keynote speaker was interesting, thought-provoking, and rather fun. I, of course, am in perfect college mode and I was taking good detailed lecture notes, haha. At any rate, it was lightyears past the previous two keynote speakers that I've heard and managed to prevent us all from falling asleep by forcing us to draw, talk, and move. Crazy concept.
Round two begins....report on that to come.
We arrived a little late to the convention this morning after checking in to our hotel rooms (v. nice) but made it in time for the first ballot of elections for people to fill various councils and committees in the diocese. I think that we managed to elect most of the people but we will have to go to a second ballot for the clergy position on the Standing Committee. But fortunately that's the only one we will have to vote for, fortunately.
After voting on positions, we began discussing and voting upon resolutions. We only got through two of them, but they both passed. The first resolution gave a voice and vote at convention to clergy of the Lutheran denomination who are resident in the Diocese of Maryland. The second passed new standards for clergy and lay compensation as per the yearly increases.
Despite the fact that these two were really non-issues, there was a lot of unnecessary debate and a lot of people who clearly didn't read their pre-convention booklets outlining the rules of order. Will we never learn......oh well. Hopefully folks have had their coffee by now and are a little less persnickety before we start the rest of the resolutions to be discussed this afternoon. Especially since we're a bit behind....
The keynote speaker was interesting, thought-provoking, and rather fun. I, of course, am in perfect college mode and I was taking good detailed lecture notes, haha. At any rate, it was lightyears past the previous two keynote speakers that I've heard and managed to prevent us all from falling asleep by forcing us to draw, talk, and move. Crazy concept.
Round two begins....report on that to come.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Going to Diocesan
So, I'm heading to somewhere in Maryland on Friday to the Maryland Diocesan Convention. I'm a delegate this year, and mercifully it looks as if nothing terribly exciting or controversial will be occurring, or at least nothing that is on the bill. If things follow suit, there will be a long debate over something involving the budget, but if all goes well that will be the biggest to-do. Anyway, I'm rather looking forward to it, since it's usually a nice affair and a good chance to see a lot of people I haven't seen in a while. Till then I'm hunkering down and watching season two of the Tudors, haha. All in the pursuit of Anglican Church history, naturally.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Getting Started
Here we go...
I have succumbed to the blog-dom as a response to Emma's blog, and I'm also stealing her idea in preparation for next year when I, too, go abroad...which probably means that I won't touch this again till then, I'm just posting this one to see how it goes.
Ciao.
JC
I have succumbed to the blog-dom as a response to Emma's blog, and I'm also stealing her idea in preparation for next year when I, too, go abroad...which probably means that I won't touch this again till then, I'm just posting this one to see how it goes.
Ciao.
JC
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