June 15, 2005 - Day Three of the Convention

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. (2 Cor 12:9)

The thought hit me in the shower this morning. So far, this has been a fairly tolerable convention for the orthodox. Our position has been bolstered several times now by international statements from the Bishop of Durham, N. T. Wright and the Archbishop of York. What's the #4 man in the Communion and the #2 man saying?  Exactly what we orthodox Episcopalians have been saying!

Before we arrived, we in South Carolina agreed that we would stand firm, shine the light of Jesus, clarify when we saw muddiness - and lose gracefully.  In other words, we're not trying to win politically, but rather, we are letting God fight the battles. It’s still quite early, but the events so far have not been untenable. We’ve fared far better than I believed we would. When we are weak, HE is strong. I'm reminded of that great line in Exodus 14:14 - "The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still." 

Man, what a wonderful morning!

I did do some walking this morning!  I met Pete Cooper at the Credentials booth to transfer back my status as a deputy. I then hoofed it over to the AAC morning worship that I missed yesterday. That’s about five blocks, in under 25 minutes including credential change. Ok, so Bob Ott wouldn’t even be breathing hard, but usually, the most exercise I get is turning the ignition key in my car.

While at the Convention, I ran into Lindsey Luke from Summerville!

Lindsey says he loves being a volunteer for General Convention (he's done quite a few!) and says his wife, Betsy is also here helping out.

I also saw Bishop John Buchannan!

Bishop Buchannan is helping out in Texas right now, and is getting ready to be the interim bishop for the Diocese of Southwest Virginia.

Oh - and there's Kendall explaining how things are done.

He's mentoring the President of the House, George Werner

Over to the Morning worship - Guess who got into town yesterday?

Eunice Logan! She said they cancelled her flight up here. What - again?

Oh - an aside - One of the delegates from Central Florida has a new name for Delta Airlines. DELTA - Didn't Even Leave The Airport!

The worship was just what I needed. Bishop William Wantland, the retired bishop of Eau Claire, was the Celebrant and Canon Daryl Fenton delivered a fine sermon on Psalm 96. (Sing to the Lord a new song) The worship was Rite II, sung, with incense. (I understand I missed Rite I yesterday, and they’ll do Rite I again tomorrow.)  The Holy Spirit was present and powerful, and by Communion it was hard for be to contain my tears of joy. Oh, how I did so love this time with the Lord!

Because I decided to worship, I skipped my Dispatch of Business committee meeting this morning. (We meet from 9:00 to 10:00, meaning we have to miss worship.)  Jim Simons was not pleased with me. When I arrived on the floor, Jim stormed up to my table and curtly asked, “Where were you this morning!??” I told him I had to worship this morning. I’m not neglecting my duties, and if there is work for me to do I will do it. But let me tell you, as demanding as this Convention is, I need time in worship! I was g-l-a-d when they said to me, let us go into the house of the Lord!

On the way back, I happened to notice that signs like these are everywhere around the Convention Center:

Here's a closer view: It says, "Experience Columbus"

Speaking of signs, guess where this one is found:

Answer: On the door, right here:

Where else?

Speaking of doors, the door was open to where the ECW Triennial meeting is taking place:
Does that room look as pink to you as it did to me? Did they plan it that color for the women?

11:04 – President Werner gaveled us in for our 10:45 session.

The Rev. Carmella Anthony, the third of our three house chaplains opened us with prayer. Like yesterday, it was self-composed, but orthodox.

Well, I just learned that there are four – not three – four chaplains. Anybody want to go for five? How about a new one every day?  If anyone is interested, the chaplains are Matt Gunter, Jennifer Baskerville-Burroughs, Dena Harrison and Silvestre Enrique Romero. I found this write up in a pre-convention book.

The headline says it all. 

The Convention secretary read a long list of actions that the House of Bishops acted on yesterday. Unlike us, they are actually doing some work. We are still trying figure out how our voting machines operate.

I told you wrongly about the number of resolutions we had to deal with. They gave us the totals this morning. In 2003, there were a total of 336 resolutions filed. This year there are 332. Believe me, that’s still more than we can handle. And a lot more than I want to report on.

The secretary called on the voting secretary for election try #2 for the Pension Fund election. It’s paper ballots this time. We vote.

We heard from Kevin Martin of Dallas for his testimony. Kevin is so good. He spoke of his conversion to Jesus Christ over 30 years ago. It was such a grace-filled story.

11:45 – we get back to passing legislation. Shortly before noon they announce that all 12 of the positions for the pension Fund Board had been elected, and we don't need to keep at it. Oh, the wonders of paper!

12:04 – We break for Noon Day prayer.  The meditation was on hope.

Back to it, talking about how to spend 9k per year in communications. (A-052) It passed, after much debate.

C001 – "Resolved, that the 75^th General Convention direct the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music to collect and develop materials to assist members of the Church to address anti-Jewish prejudice expressed in and stirred by portions of Christian Scriptures and liturgical texts, with suggestions for preaching, congregational education, and lectionary use, and to report to the 76^th General Convention."

Kendall rightly stood up and challenged it. If it passes, we could be saying that the Bible is Anti-Semitic.   One of the clergy members of PB, L&M got up and said it was necessary, because the Good Friday liturgy and lessons cause Jews to be uncomfortable.  My thoughts ran to 1 Corinthians 1:23.

68.3% voted yes. Guess what – we have said that the Bible is Anti-Semitic.

This is nuts. We have raised a generation of Clergy who have zero theological understanding. Zip. Zero. Nada. And we put people like her on the liturgical commission of our convention! Mercy!

We broke for lunch, and Rick Belser swapped credentials with Pete Cooper. Lydia Evans swapped with Bob Bell.

At the credentials area, I met a Holy Cross connection:

This is Rhodes Holowell, brother of Kelley Hollowell and son of Mr. and Mrs - Holy Cross parishioners all!

Because of the time necessary to swap, I didn’t have time to head the 2 ½ blocks to the AAC luncheon. I got a burger in the food court, and via Mat Kennedy’s blog, read the news from the AAC luncheon as it happened, in real time. Matt, you are a jewel! Thank you!

I also found out that the Communication Committee will meet tomorrow morning at 8:00.  Sigh...There goes worship tomorrow morning. And it's going to be Rite I at that!

Also found out that Lydia is trying to find a dentist, as she is in deep pain. Lydia, I’m praying for you!

Ever seen a Segway? Leave it to the delegates at the Convention!

Back to work –

The president gaveled in our 2:30 session at 2:38. He’s getting better.

A159 – Commitment to Interdependence. It is the first (and the mildest) resolution addressing the Windsor Report. It is a statement that says we in ECUSA do want to be part of the Anglican Communion.

Don Currin of Central Fla spoke in favor of it, and reminded that if we vote for this, then there are implications, and he hopes we mean it when we say interdependence

Kendall spoke to it, reminding the house that the church is changing - the power is shifting to south of the equator. Uganda, for example has grown immensely in recent history.

Steve Wood, a deputy from California, added an amendment saying we were “autonomous bodies” consistent with the historic “separate nature…”  (I wonder what our Steve Wood would say about this guy using his name…)

Currin, Central Fla, said if we pass it the Wood amendment, we are saying that we want to be part of the Communion, but on our own terms. We want to be who we are.

Quite a few folks spoke. The Wood amendment failed.

Matt Kennedy covered this whole debate. You can read Matt's take on it HERE.

Another person tried to add another amendment – line 13 – wants to add the word "autonomy" so it would read - “forbearance, autonomy and respect.” 

Hey folks - as I always say, words mean things. Autonomy and forbearance don't exactly go together. Autonomy and respect don't exactly go together. Sounds like a word sandwich where you have two slices of bread and manure in the middle. You don't want to eat that. 

Kendall.  Spoke about the danger of self-assertiveness, which is not what we need to be saying if we do want to remain in Communion.

Quite a few others spoke - so for, some against.

That’s two attempts to try to assert independence, not interdependence.

It too, was defeated.

A-159 was passed – resolution adopted. Whew!

As Kendall said: "That was so revealing..."

We passed quite a few other minor bills, and gave approval to all Bishop’s elections except the Northern California one, which is still in committee. The Northern Californian election has to do with the bishop who has been married three times. Looks like there is a fairly large objection to his consecration.  Let me get this straight – It’s acceptable to be a bishop and live with someone without the benefit of marriage (VGR), but it’s not OK to be married for the third time?  I guess there are limits, even for revisionists.

Heard from the Official Youth Presence, and then took a 15-minute break. We’re going to 6:00 tonight, and hooray, I don’t have to go to a hearing. They have a small wireless area down from the hall here we are, so I ran out and checked my email. Got a lovely note from the real Steve Wood, St. Andrews, Mt. Pleasant, saying that he and his folks were praying for us. He asked me to give our guys a "holy kiss."  I'll pass on that one Steve-o, but thanks for the prayers, my friend.

At the break, Bonnie Anderson took over duties for George Werner. I ran into my old friend from seminary, Jay Atwood.

Back to work, and back to the small stuff.

A066, A102, E009, X003, XOO4, A098, A154, A128, A044 – all dealt with affirmatively.

Here’s a bigger one – A085. This one does away with General Convention approving bishop’s elections within a 90 day window of General Convention

Louie Crew & Newark called for a vote by orders.  A vote by orders generally makes it harder to pass. Here’s one in which we actually agree with Mr. Crew. Let’s keep it the way it is. We begin a vote by orders at about 5:30, and get done about 10 after 6:00. we were supposed to adjourn at 6:00.

At 6:15 we head back to the hotel. Several of us "pause" to reflect on the day. here's a few of the pausers:

Pete Cooper and I got into a very enjoyable conversation with Phil, a representative for Integrity.
He really seemed to be a nice guy!

 I needed to leave to get started on this posting for you, so I left Phil in the capable hands of Pete Cooper.

9:00 - Larry King has a whole show on homosexuality staring Gene Robinson, David Anderson, Albert Mohler, Andrew Sullivan and others. Going into commercials they featured Kendall in his comments last night – Way to go, Kendall! 

To me, the rest of the show seems so predictable. They ask a question and then get everybody’s opinion, and they move onto another question. It ends up with,  "You’ve got your truth, I’ve got mine."

Speaking of Pluriform Truth, I see that the PB himself is scheduled to appear. 
Let me guess what he’s going to say:  “We have always been able to handle multiple points of view. No one has a lock on the Truth.”

Oh, this was great! They had technical difficulties, and the Presiding Bishop's voice didn’t match his lips! You could say that his words didn’t match his actions! And you’d be right most of the time.

If you watched this, I ask you – did I peg it, or what?   

God Bless Dr. Albert Mohler!  By the look on the PB’s face, he was a bit surprised when Dr. Mohler said something along the lines that the Episcopal Church has decided to embrace the culture, and thus has no where to go but down the tubes! If you didn’t watch, Mohler went on to say he was gladdened that there were so many orthodox Episcopalians who weren’t going along with their National Church on this issue. One thing on which I do agree with our Presiding Bishop: the Episcopal Church welcomes you. It’s premise #1 and #2 for Holy Cross.

Well. Back to Columbus. Tomorrow, by noon, (God willing), my lovely wife and much better half will be here for the weekend. I am so looking forward to that!

As always, thanks for being there for us. Thank you for every single prayer.

It's 12:20 a.m. Good night from the Convention!