Day 3 - Kicking Back, Kind of

Today was my "day off" in that I wasn't on the floor. I swapped with Pia, our alternate, in order to have a day off because I had friends visiting. Audra is up from her missionary work in Columbia, Meredith came up from San Diego for the day, and later Pia's sister Katie joined us for the weekend.

For fun - a picture in front of the convention center

Meredith and I watched the second session of the committee of the whole where 15 deputies in favor of repealing B033 spoke and 15 deputies in favor of maintaining B033 or a similar measure of restraint spoke. One of these deputies was our own Carolyn Terry speaking in favor of moving beyond B033! We are all very proud of her.

I was able to snap a photo of Carolyn on the big screen as she spoke.

Deputies on both sides spoke incredibly eloquently, thoughtfully and respectfully. I was finally able to understand "the other side" and even agree with many of their worries. B033 is complex in that it has kept us in communion for the last 3 years, but at the same time prompted the Anglican Communion to make further demands, or at least to force us to have a very involved conversation about which direction to take now. It also limits the ability of LGBT brothers and sisters from pursuing ministry withing TEC, the church which they serve. To be honest, the discussion today put me in a place to really listen with my heart, which I will continue to do as actual resolutions begin to come to the floor of the house. As with the rest of the deputies and the church at large, I feel torn between fully including my brothers and sisters whom I love very much and not actively hurting our Anglican brothers and sisters with whom we have such a rich tradition and relationship. We may talk more, we may pray more, but the situation doesn't exactly get any less complicated. I feel confident that we will find an acceptible compromise since several innovative ideas have been offered up in a variety of settings.

Heavy stuff.

So after the morning HOD session, we proceeded with Katie up to the House of Bishops which is run very differently from the House of Deputies. For one, there are way fewer people (a bit over 100 I believe) so things are a bit more informal. They sit at circular tables as well. We got very lucky while we were there - as we were in the visitor's gallery, they passed a resolution to enter into full communion with the Moravian church. Upon passage, everyone stood up and applauded and burst into song, singing the hymn "Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow." It was a really lovely moment.

The loveliest part of the day, however, was in the evening. We went to the Integrity Eucharist officiated by Bishop Gene Robinson. It was one of the liveliest and most moving services I have ever attended in my entire life. It centered on our Baptismal vows and extending inclusion to all of God's children and featured incense, African drumming, abundant applause, and one of the best homilies I have ever heard by Bishop Barbara Harris of Massachusetts. It lasted more than 2 hours but we all left feeling joyous, refreshed, empowered and in community with one another. I only hope to take these wonderful positive feelings and carry them out to the rest of the deputies and bishops and infuse our work with this passion in an effort to make wise and good decisions.

The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson stands with other LGBT clergy before the final blessing.

One of the most beautiful parts of the service - the gospel displayed with incense, candles, umbrellas, etc. It was gorgeous and really helped set the mood.

Episco-celeb sightings: Gene Robinson (the first openly gay bishop in TEC), Louie Crew (founder of Integrity and GC data collection wizzard), Rev. Susan Russel (President of Integrity), Edmond Browning (former Presiding Bishop of TEC). This was a big day!