June 14, 2006 - The Second Day of Convention

Good morning!

I begin this morning with come comments swiped from a blog (remember - my comments are not a blog! <grin>):

"Wed. morning early (Day 2)GC always starts fast and hectic. Most people I talked with yesterday were already saying that they were exhausted (and it was Day 1). One copes by just coping: one step after another, one meeting after another, a few hours sleep, then all over again. It is rather like living in some parallel universe... A Titusonenine commenter today made much the same observation: It’s sooo instense. Sensory overload. It will burn you to a crisp in a couple of days, and Oh my, how your feet ache, how you’re head can ache at the end of the day! Then you’re supposed to get up early and do it all over again. GC is a real workout. I never experienced anything as mentally or physically challenging." (from gencon06)

That pretty much describes the feel of this experience.  But I also feel your prayers for our delegation and for me. Thanks so much.

On the way out of my hotel, whom do I see but Kendall’s better half, Elizabeth Harmon! She arrived last night.

This is a nice town. It’s clean, modern, and there’s lots of small trees and flowers around.

At least in the section of town we are in, all the old buildings have been remodeled and are in use. Here are some more shots of the Convention center's outside. First, a better picture of the first section, which is just behind the Hyatt:

And the Center takes up a whole block - as far as you can see in the picture below:

No, there's noting wrong with my camera - the buildings are skewered, just as you see them here:

As I walk to my Dispatch meeting, the locals who are walking to work seem to be just as friendly as we are back home. They smile, acknowledge you as you pass, and many of them say “good morning!”

However, when I get inside the Convention Center, it’s hard to get anyone to even acknowledge you exist, and the smiles are not all that frequent. Bottom line: You can tell if someone is from here – they are the ones who’ll speak to you.

Jeni Hess is here! Jeni is the daughter of Holy Crosser Bob Hess, and she's representing the Episcopal youth. Jeni is in the center of the picture.

I see Kendall, and tell him I saw Elizabeth. He said, "Yes she’s here – that why I’m doing so much better today!" I know what you mean, my friend. Sylvia is coming up this weekend, and I will be doing better when I can see her again.  Two more days!

While talking to Kendall, I spy Deputy Crump from Tennessee in his trademarked coat.

He may be the longest serving deputy at Convention.

My committee, Dispatch of Business called a meeting for 9:00.  As a result, I missed worship this morning, and I do miss it.

After my meeting, Kendall points me to a communication he just got – The orthodox side of the aisle has been given a great gift by Bishop N.T. (Tom) Wright. A copy of this will be given to every bishop. I just hope they will read it (it’s long).  I made an emergency link on our webpage, so that you, the reader would be aware. If you didn't see it - THIS is the link.

If I may summarize what the Bishop N.T. Wright is saying (and this is always a dangerous thing to do), it appears that he has stated that what ECUSA has proposed is not acceptable. Seems like he’s saying that we, ECUSA, need to make a choice – do we comply with the Windsor Report and stay in the Communion, or do we pass the resolutions we are proposing, and decide to walk apart?  Will ECUSA comply with the specific and detailed recommendations of Windsor, or will it not?

As the resolutions stand at this moment, only one answer is possible: if these are passed without major amendment, ECUSA will have specifically, deliberately and knowingly decided not to comply with Windsor. That will mean we have chosen to walk apart.

Only if the crucial Resolutions, especially A160 and A161, are amended in line with Windsor paragraph 134, can there be any claim of compliance.  Will they amend? Who knows? That’s probably the biggest question at this convention. That’s what tonight’s hearing is all about.  

At a press conference today the man who was elected to be Bishop of New Hampshire held a press conference along with Susan Russell, the head of the homosexual lobby, Integrity. At the conference Robinson said that we could not and would not apologize for approving of his consecration, because we meant to do it and it was a good thing. He said we could only apologize for the pain that it caused the rest of the communion.  Got an hour to kill? You can hear the audio of this press conference by clicking HERE.

 You can read reporting on the Integrity press conference HERE.

Pravda, Ah, excuse me, The Convention Daily towed the party line that all is well, and the future is glorious:

10:58 – The President gaveled in our 10:45 meeting.

Mat Gunter, diocese of Chicago opened us with prayer. He wrote it, but it was from the heart, and orthodox.  

We then heard from a delegate from Mississippi, who told his story of as he put it, “This blessed and cursed land” called Mississippi. This was part of President George Werner's continuing efforts to get us to listen to each other.  

The sergeant of arms warned us about certain groups that may be demonstrating against us while we are here. According to her, these groups will deliberately try to provoke us, and get us to attack, which they could uses in a lawsuit against us. Mercy!

The Sergeant also  warned us that there would be no demonstrations from the floor…  

We received nominations for President of House of Deputies. The speakers who nominated had three minutes to speak about their nominee. There was one nominated - Bonnie Anderson. This is Dr. Anderson, who was the vice-president of the house until now:

(the picture is a screen shot)

 No other nominations, so she will be the new President of the House of deputies.

Dr. Anderson thanked us, first saying a sentence in Spanish, and then translating that sentence into English. She’s from Michigan.  

11:45 – we start back on legislation, starting back where we left off yesterday.  

Passed several resolutions on World missions.  

After noonday meditations, we passed a few more non-essential resolutions and broke for lunch. Just to let you know, as we will have considered around 700 resolutions before this is all over, I’m not going to try and list everything we vote for. I will report on all the major issues facing us. If you have a particular question about the status of a resolution dear to your heart and I don’t cover it, but all means email me, and I will.  

Lunch was at the AAC luncheon. Sat with Rick and Annie Belser. Heard reports telling us about the progress of various bits of legislation. Bishp Iker of Forth Worth gave the bishop's report today.

At this time, it's looking more and more like the Title IV revisions will be dead before they get to the floor. The resolutions that have to do with Lambeth will be hard pressed to get to us by Sunday or Monday, although they wanted them all done and wrapped with a bow by Friday evening. "Ain't gonna happen." We can't even get around to voting on minor stuff for all the conversations we have to have.

I decided to allow our Clergy Alternate Pete Cooper to sit on the floor this afternoon, in my seat. In order to make it happen, I had to give up my credentials and become an alternate. Pete got a deputy badge. I get my credentials back tomorrow morning.  

I sat back in the alternate section with our Lay alternate for SC, Bob Bell.

We had a grand time being incredulous at what was transpiring on the floor of the house. It had to do with those now infamous keypads.

Before the vote for Church Pension Fund elections there was another instruction on how to use the keypads – same rehearsal as before – we voted for the top songs of the Episcopal Church. There were 147 invalid ballots cast. That means about 20% of the folks couldn’t figure out how to cast a vote on the keypad. A delegate made the motion that we use paper ballots. Because the Aye and the Nay was about equal, we needed to use the keypads to decide whether or not they would use the keypads for the Pension Fund vote.  Mercy! 

358 yes,  435 no – 54% They will use the keypads. 

Someone made the comment that there were more mistakes here than there were with the hanging chads in Florida.  

A motion was passed that says if the scanning results show more than 10% errors we will move to paper ballots. 

They try to vote, get through one name, and the process screeches to a halt. Turns out that they got a name mistranslated in the Spanish version of the Blue Book. It took 15 minutes to get this glitch ironed out.

This is the largest comedy of errors I’ve witnessed so far. Unbelievable!

4:42 – they start voting for the second of 12 persons. 4:47 – they start the third vote, for the third of 12 people. Nine more to go. They finish at 5:03.  

This is nuts. I’m sorry that Pete Cooper got stuck with this.

After the Pension Fund voting fiasco, special guests were welcomed, including visiting bishops from Africa and elsewhere in the world. Boy, they've certainly seen us at our best this afternoon! 

Heard a speech from the president of Episcopal Relief and Development. His speech was… (and I hope I’m not being too uncharitable)... whiney.

He spoke for about 20 minutes.  

Well, hello! While I was sitting typing this, Louie Crew came up and said hello to me.
I am surprised that he remembered me from previous conventions, but he did.

The secretary gave the results of the Pension Fund voting. There were 96 invalid ballots – 96!  There was not an election and there will be a paper ballot election tomorrow at 11:00 am. Mercy!

Passed several non-major resolutions.  

B031 – debated for ½ hour, and then passed it. Kendall spoke to it. I took the picture below from the monitor. This is the picture that everybody will see on the screens when Kendall gets up to be serious and try his best to be substantive:

Seriously - I want to know - did somebody rig it this way?

We were mercifully gaveled out of existence at 5:55, and all of us headed over the the Hyatt, to get ready for tonight's main event, the hearing on resolutions A161 - the election of bishops, A162 - public rites for same-sex unions, A163 - DEPO (Delegated Epsicopal Pastoral Oversight) and A160 - An expression of regret. These are ECUSA's responses to the Windsor Report.

Those delegates or visitors who wished to make comments on any of these four had to get in a line to sign up. Bob Bell left the alternate delegate's area early, to go stand in line for Lydia. When i got there, at 6:05, this is what it looked like:

Five minutes later, here's the picture:

Lydia was first in line:

Bishop Skilton also waited to sign up.

Delegations were each given five tickets to split up among the 8 delegates and all their bishops. Those who didn't get tickets could sit in the back. I got in on the front row with my good friends from Fort Worth and Central Florida. here's our front row:

The ballroom where this was to be held holds 1500. By 7:15, it was packed to the max.

Here's the committee that's doing the listening:

The show went on from 7:30 to 10:00, non-stop, one speaker after another. Each speaker was limited to three minutes. Our South Carolina delegation did us proud with both Kendall and Lydia getting to speak within the first 30 minutes. Bishop Skilton also got to speak about 2 hours into it. While I was on the very first row of seating, right under the committee's noses, I was a good distance from the microphone, so the pictures are not all that great. Here's the best of what I got - sorry for the quality!

The national press were also in full force:

I believe Bishop Duncan of Pittsburgh may have spoken the most accurate comments of the night. He spoke just in from of the man who was elected by New Hampshire in 2003 to be their bishop.

 “Will ECUSA comply with the specific recommendations of the Windsor Report?” asked Duncan. Citing a recently published paper from the Bishop of Durham, N.T. Wright, Duncan said that only if the resolutions were amended to keep the exact language of the Windsor Report could they have any power. “The moment has probably come for us…we’ve reached an impossible moment.”  (from gencon06)

Matt Kennedy did us all a favor by covering it in real time. He did a great job of capturing the gist of all the speakers, and you can read what was said by clicking HERE.

The largest surprise came at what was almost the end of the allotted time, the fourth from the last speaker, when the Archbishop of York, Archbishop Sentamu, the man who just yesterday brought us greetings from the Archbishop of Canterbury, had this to say:

"….the question you must come to is resolution 161 and 160. Will it be sufficient. I am doubtful. Why? These resolutions do not meet the standard. You must be careful. You need to ask, do these resolutions show us Christ. Do they show the marks of our own affliction as part of the body. Do they show us to be those whose tears are wiped away when Christ returns. Friends we follow a crucified savior. In Anglicanism truth and unity are not separate. I am not sure that your resolutions will create the space necessary for communion. If they do not you must strengthen them."

Matt Kennedy, who recorded the comments above, had this to say: "He seemed very doubtful about these resolutions passing international muster and being sufficient on the merits."

Here's what Kendall had to say:

I did not even know Archbishop Sentamu was in the room, much less than he signed up to speak. He went over time and the chair was gracious to give him a chance to speak. The response was quiet but underneath there was some palpable surprise.

“Personally, I am doubtful” he said very clearly about the resolutions in terms of their adequacy in terms of responding to the requests of Windsor. It was highly significant.

Folks, this was extraordinary! Extraordinary!!

All throughout the "conversations" tonight, the revisionists were deriding N.T. Wright as if he didn't know what he was talking about. I wonder what kind of spin they will put on the words of the very representative of the Archbishop of Canterbury!!

Well!  What a wonderful way to end an evening!

Here's some more shots from today, along with a couple of beautiful Columbus as the evening approached.

Keep praying, my friends. God bless you all.

It's 1:03 a.m. Goodnight from Columbus!