Day 1 - Learning the ABC's

Today was the first legislative session of GC! A bunch of rather exciting things happened today.

Most excitingly: I saw the Archbishop of Canterbury (ABC) in person today! Twice! The first time was at a beautiful service hosted by the ECW (Episcopal Church Women). The second time was at a panel discussion between the ABC, the PB (Presiding Bishop), President of the HOD and other guests involved in a variety of vital ministries around the country and world. It focused on the current global economic crisis in conjunction with the environment. I felt like I was back at good old Seattle U talking about social justice and being good and faithful stewards of God's creation. It was delightful and very well done. The ABC, always a well-respected theologian and speaker, was really on his game tonight and I felt very honored to hear him.

(The PB obviously didn't know I was taking a picture... oh well! Hi Rowan Williams!)

Also excitingly today, I attended a legislative hearing on B003 which focused on camping ministries, highlighting its importance and requesting a national focus on Christian formation of leaders wtihin camps. Pia and I went together, representing good old Camp Cross and fighting for one of the most vital ministries I can think of. There were a number of witnesses who testified to this legislation, which was passed the same day in the house. I was especially impressed by members of the official youth presence and a fellow young adult deputy by the name of Sam Gould of Massachusettes who even managed to speak on the house floor, a feat acheived by few from what I understand. I'm really impressed by all the people I'm surounded by and I'm hoping to testify tomorrow to the Committee on the Prayer Book, Liturgy and Music regarding some rites for same-sex unions being put forth this time around. I'm not sure I expect that legislation to make it, but I still want to voice my support.

The other hearing I went to today was also at PBLM and was on some proposed rites regarding women and reproductive issues - pregnancies, miscarriages, abortions, adoptions, the birth of a healthy child, the birth of a child with disabilities. It seems likely that there will be some tweaking to this resolution, but I really enjoy most of the prayers so I hope it will find success.

I'm starting to learn a lot about parliamentary procedure, which is extremely well-organized but maybe not always extremely efficient. Well, it's certainly efficient given the unorganized alternatives, but some of the business simply took awhile. However, we all got quite a treat when the President of the HOD had to step out early, allowing our deputation's own Brian Prior, VP of the HOD, to take her place. Granted, we were out of business at that point, but it was great to see an old friend up on the platform!

The Rev. Brian Prior and our Parliamentarian

OH! And we had PROTESTERS today! There were just three men with very conservative views outside of the convention center around lunch time and they primarily yelled about how we don't love God because of the gays or something... their compaints weren't entirely clear to me, but they got their opinions out for a couple of hours and they were gone again in the afternoon. Overall, I really think their appearance a) makes this gathering legitimate, proving that what we decide actually has enough impact to warrant protesters and b) means we're doing good work (at least in my opinion).

The fellas outside the convention center. We'll see if it heats up in the next few days!

On the fun side of things, I ran into an old Dean of our Cathedral in Spokane and caught up briefly, and then was shown a delicious, cheap and authentic Mexican restaurant that I expect to be going to for lunch basically every day. I had a carne asada burrito with pico de gallo and guacamole - to DIE for. Yum! At any rate, be sure to check back tomorrow because there are tons of fascinating hearings on the docket and we voted today to have a Committee of the Whole to discuss 2006 B033, ie issues regarding the ordination of LGBT persons to the episcopate. Many, many, many details to follow...

Episco-celeb sightings: Rowan Williams (Archbishop of Canterbury), Katharine Jefferts Schori (Presiding Bishop), Margaret Rehberg (One of the coolest ladies ever. She's really only a celeb in our diocese though...)
Notedly missing: Jim Waggoner, aka The Bish. He's here but has been having some really tragic back problems stemming from a semi-recent injury so he's been laying relatively low and I haven't gotten to see him yet. Hopefully soon!