July 8 -- Sunday at Convention

Sunday Morning!

With no legislative committee meetings scheduled for this morning, you'd think we'd be able to sleep in a bit. You'd be wrong, because the deputation from West Tennessee had a breakfast meeting at 8 am. Didn't talk much about the work of convention, but I did eat too much at the hotel buffet. 

Breaking Bread with 4,000

The usual Convention participants were joined by folks from around Indianapolis for the Sunday morning service, meaning about 4,000 folks were in the large banquet hall of the JW Marriott, in the hallway outside the room, and even in another overflow area. The music was glorious, and Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori preached a great sermon about how each of us needs to stand up (and she literally had us all stand up) and be prepared to bring the Gospel to the world and the people around us. 

An Indianapolis Welcome

The local diocese organized a great event at the baseball stadium across from the JW Marriott hotel. In addition to food and drinks, people from local churches had activities and displays to promote their various ministries. While quite hot out, this was a welcome and delightful diversion. A steel drum band performed, and the diversions even included a couple of classic Stutz automobiles, including the 1933 Bearcat pictured here, on display:

Back to Work in the House of Deputies

We met again starting at 2:15 but had very few resolutions that required our attention, meaning that we were in recess from about 3:45 until 5:00 pm. Even then there wasn't a lot of business to attend to. This makes me a bit nervous as I know we have some serious issues coming up. My concern is that our last couple of days are going to be packed with more than we should be reasonably expected to debate and decide in the time available.

In the meantime, we had one interesting issue come up. Three years ago General Convention voted to amend the Constitution of the Church to change how we approve the election of new bishops. Originally, as I understand it, the election of all new bishops had to be approved by General Convention. As Convention meets only once every three years, however, the Church allowed elections to be approved by the Standing Committees of the various dioceses instead, with one exception. If a Bishop is elected within 120 days of a General Convention, then the old method still applies. 

The change approved in 2009 eliminated the different procedure for bishops elected 120 days before Convention, meaning that all bishop elections would be approved in the same manner. As this was a Constitutional amendment, it had to be approved by two successive Conventions before it could take effect. So this afternoon we debated the amendment, voting by orders. This invokes a rather odd procedure by which clergy deputies vote separately from lay deputies. This takes place in what is possibly the most complicated way imaginable, requiring patience, detailed instruction, patience, clarification on procedures, and even more patience. 

Eventually the amendment was passed, though we didn't know the results for a couple of hours later.

Eating Too Much (again...)

Bishop Don Johnson took the entire deputation out for dinner at a local favorite, St. Elmo Steak House. The food was wonderful and plenty beyond reason. That didn't stop us from ordering desserts (which we shared): blueberry & peach pie (with ice cream, of course!) and divine bread pudding made with blueberries (and served with ice cream, of course!).

I'm gonna have to get serious about my diet again. Later. After Convention. And after my vacation in 10 days. Yeah, that's when I'll get back into my diet.

I wonder: will I wake up in time to go for a quick run and make to to legislative committee hearings that start at 7:30 am? We'll see!