June 16, 2005 - Day Four of the Convention
7:00 a.m. came mighty early.
It’s another beautiful morning, clear skies and perfect temperature, about 72 degrees.
My wife will be here in about five hours. I couldn't be happier.
I
rushed over to my communications meeting that I have to cover for the Dispatch
of Business Committee.
I was assigned to the Communications committee for my first Convention. I recognize about half of the folks there as having been on the committee four conventions ago, including the chairman. They really must love what they do.
I do imagine
that every committee thinks what they are doing is important. This is why we get
330 resolutions to consider. I was there to hear about a proposal to form a
committee to study the possibility of helping parishes get on the Internet.
Ahh...It's not all that hard, y'all.
I met Phillip Chin. Phillip is on the Communications Committee and he works for CBS television. He was wearing a button which read, "I am straight but I support the gay agenda." I suppose I should say that the opinion of Mr. Chin does not necessarily reflect the views of the staff and management of CBS, Incorporated. Probably does, but not necessarily…
The committee
adjourned at 8:50, and I ran over to my Dispatch meeting. (Doing a lot of quick
moving these days). I made my presentation to Dispatch, and Jim Simons let me
excuse myself at 9:15, so if I hurry, I can make it to worship! Thank you Master
Simon!
I get to the place of our worship and there’s Bishop Allison! I sit with him for the service. Rite 2, again. Evidently the person who told me they were rotating the services from I to II was mistaken. During the announcements they did say that tomorrow’s Eucharist would be from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.
Bishop John David Schofield was the celebrant. Said, not sung today, but Bishop Schofield celebrated with one of the most holy attitudes I believe I’ve ever seen. It’s clear he takes his role seriously, and I appreciated that. I didn’t catch the name of the preacher, who loosely preached on the gospel lesson for today, from Luke 16.
The Bishop of Western Kansas, James Adams, addressed us after the Eucharist to inform us that in his Evangelism Committee this morning, D058 was discharged, which means it would be killed. The reason given to Bishop Adams was that we (the Convention) passed a similar resolution back in 1991 and we didn’t need to repeat it.
Here’s the text of the killed resolution:
Resolved, the House of_____ concurring, That the 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church declares its unchanging commitment to Jesus Christ as the son of God, the only name by which any person may be saved (Article VIII); and be it further Resolved, That we acknowledge the solemn responsibility placed upon us to share Christ with all persons when we hear His words, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No-one comes to the father except through me.” (John 14:6) and be it further Resolved, That we affirm that in Christ there is both the substitutionary essence of the Cross and the manifestation of God’s unlimited and unending love for all persons; and be it further Resolved, That we renew our dedication to be faithful witnesses to all persons of the saving love of God perfectly and uniquely revealed in Jesus and upheld by the full testimony of Holy Scripture.
According to the Bishop, the Committee told him that didn’t want to have to debate this on the floor. I can’t say as I blame them. It would be embarrassing to have to say you are against this resolution. Well, let me rephrase that. It SHOULD be embarrassing to have to say you are against it.
Sometimes I wonder if this church has forgotten how to be embarrassed.
Before I got onto the floor, I spent a few good minutes with Bishop Salmon.
11:04 – President Werner gaveled us in to session for our 10:45 meeting.
The chaplain du jour was Silvestre Enrique Romero. He had us snap our fingers every three seconds to remind us about the children under five who are dying all over the world. His prayer to open our session was in Spanish, and then translated into English. Sigh.
Archdeacon Ti, the Anglican observer to the UN spoke to us. She read us a thank you from the Secretary General of the UN thanking us for our strong support for the millennium goals. She closed by whipping out a stuffed bear that played the song New York, New York. Some of the deputies sang along with the bear.
Went into nominations for Vice President of the House. Three were nominated.
We are incredibly far behind. We hear reports on the work the bishops have done, and we get pages and pages of "dailies" and "supplementals" that show the legislation we have to consider. I just isn't going to happen at the pace we are going.
Noon day prayers were in Spanish. The entire service. Mercy!!
Words were on the screen (in Spanish), but I don’t know how to pronounce the words. I just prayed, on my own, in the language I understand, praying prayers that I could think up as we went along.
Could someone explain to be how this can be done, considering Article 24 of the 39 articles? May I quote?
It is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God, and the custom of the Primitive Church, to have public Prayer in the Church, or to minister the Sacraments, in a tongue not understanded of the people.
So tell me -
how can we do this???
Oh, that’s right. As of the last Prayer Book revision, the Articles are
just “historical documents.”
Never mind.
After our Spanish lesson, we passed a bunch of concurs with the HOB.
A077 – HOB
recommends concur.
This would impose the revised Common Lectionary upon us by 2010.
Someone spoke
in favor of it saying the RCL, because it features feminine images of God and
additional stories of women of faith, and said we need to use it exclusively,
because if we don’t people will just continue to use the existing lectionary and
we need to empower the voices of women.
Someone from Los Angeles said it’s an issue of justice – justice cries out to
make it the normative lectionary.
It’s amazing folks – when they want something, there is no talk of listening or compromise or care for the other side. It’s we must do it and do it now – ram it down your throats and hope you don’t choke. After all, it’s good for you, and we know best what you need. Mercy!
We suspend debate for lunch. Oh, yes! My wife should around be around here…Ah! She’s waiting for me as I come off the floor!
Oh, she’s beautiful! My, but I missed her! All is now right with the world.
Sylvia and I head over to the AAC luncheon. After having missed the noon-day prayers, it was a joy to hear Ellis Brust deliver an actual noon-day meditation. Once again, the AAC comes through for us.
I’ll refer you to Matt Kennedy for details of the daily briefing. Oh, I see he had a computer glitch. Well, I didn't take notes because I thought he would, Sorry. Matt did get the David Anderson speech. Check it out.
By the way, I
found a picture of Matt:
Seriously, Matt - Thanks for what you are doing.
At the luncheon Sylvia happened to see Bishop Allison's significant half, along with Wade Logan's:
And I got something I want you to hear. This is the assembled lunch crowd singing Alleluia #1. I kept the camera focused on our musician, because I didn't want to spoil anyone's enjoyment of the moment, and I didn't get the idea of using the video module of my camera until mid-way through the second verse. But there's enough here to get the gist of what we enjoyed. Take a listen.
On the way back over to Convention I heard a voice say, "Hello John!" It was Mary Ailes!
Mary has covered the news for the faithful in Virginia for a couple of Conventions now, and I admire her writing ability. You can check out her craftsmanship at THIS link. Be sure to scroll down a couple of pages, reading as you go. This is very good stuff!
Well, I leave my wife,
and descend into where we left off.
1:41 – the President gaveled us into our 1:30 meeting.
Back to the debate. There were a couple of tries for amendment, but they failed. I do suspect it will pass, since it is being framed in terms of justice and women's rights and all that…
It passed - big time.
A motion was made to reconsider A032, so that additional language could be added to populate the court before the next convention. The reconsider passed, so a new suggested bill will be given to us.
The house recognized Rosmari Sullivan for her years of service.
We passed a bunch of concurs with the House of Bishops. As I write this, it’s 4:10, and we’ve been going non-stop since 1:41.
Will it ever end?
I’m wondering if we are ever going to get out of here. I hear the President say we’re going to take a break. Must be reading my mind.
At the break I checked my email – got a bunch from you who are reading this. Thanks for the encouragement. By the way, If you didn’t know, my mail address is John@HolyCross.net
Whoa! Breaking news!
After the break we got more supplementals, which, by the way, are advance notices of resolutions coming up that we will consider. DO58 is on it. This is the one mentioned earlier today by Bishop Adams.
It says they recommend discharge because we had acted on this at a prior convention - and get this – they cited 1982, and bill A047.
Kendall made a request for the archives to pull up 1982-A047, and are you ready for this? 1982-A047 affirms that we believe in the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral. The Quadrilateral does not even get close to what is being said in the resolution offered today.
Here’s the ClQ - I report – you decide:
The Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral 1886, 1888
We, Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church
in the United States of America, in Council assembled as Bishops in the Church
of God, do hereby solemnly declare to all whom it may concern, and especially to
our fellow-Christians of the different Communions in this land, who, in their
several spheres, have contended for the religion of Christ:
1. Our earnest desire that the Savior's prayer, "That we all may be one," may,
in its deepest and truest sense, be speedily fulfilled;
2. That we believe that all who have been duly baptized with water, in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, are members of the Holy
Catholic Church.
3. That in all things of human ordering or human choice, relating to modes of
worship and discipline, or to traditional customs, this Church is ready in the
spirit of love and humility to forego all preferences of her own;
4. That this Church does not seek to absorb other Communions, but rather,
co-operating with them on the basis of a common Faith and Order, to
discountenance schism, to heal the wounds of the Body of Christ, and to promote
the charity which is the chief of Christian graces and the visibile
manifestation of Christ to the world.
But furthermore, we do hereby affirm that the Christian unity...can be restored only by the return of all Christian communions to the principles of unity exemplified by the undivided Catholic Church during the first ages of its existence; which principles we believe to be the substantial deposit of Christian Faith and Order committed by Christ and his Apostles to the Church unto the end of the world, and therefore incapable of compromise or surrender by those who have been ordained to be its stewards and trustees for the common and equal benefit of all men.
As inherent parts of this sacred deposit, and
therefore as essential to the restoration of unity among the divided branches of
Christendom, we account the following, to wit:
1. The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the revealed Word of
God.
2. The Nicene Creed as the sufficient statement of the Christian Faith.
3. The two Sacraments,--Baptism and the Supper of the Lord,--ministered with
unfailing use of Christ's words of institution and of the elements ordained by
Him.
4. The Historic Episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its administration
to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of God into the unity of
His Church.
Furthermore, Deeply grieved by the sad divisions which affect the Christian Church in our own land, we hereby declare our desire and readiness, so soon as there shall be any authorized response to this Declaration, to enter into brotherly conference with all or any Christian Bodies seeking the restoration of the organic unity of the Church, with a view to the earnest study of the conditions under which so priceless a blessing might happily be brought to pass.
This is dishonest. I'll be charitable and say they didn't mean to be, but this is wrong.
We keep on going. On and on. I look over at Rick Belser, and I see that has that look on his face like you'd see on the face of someone who's stuck in a conversation with the most boring person on earth, and you just can't figure out a way to leave.
Are we done
yet?
On and on it goes. What is disheartening is that we are on page 36 of 63 pages of resolutions we were supposed to be finished with before we ended today. Mercy!
We went adjourned at 6:05
At 6:30, Bishop
Salmon is sponsoring a dinner for the delegation and for the ECW delegation from
South Carolina. I walk the three blocks as fast as I can to get to my room so I
can pick up Sylvia and we can walk another five blocks to the restaurant. Hold
on a second. Got to get this picture:
Isn't that nice? Great Job, Columbus!
On the way over to dinner we pass by the Columbus City Hall. Two points for the first person who can tell me who the statue is:
We also ran into Jeni Hess again, but this time she was with her fiancé, Jeremy.
The Bishop's
dinner was simply marvelous. Held at the Capitol Club.
Here's the pictures:
Tomorrow is a bit of a break in the schedule. We don't have a morning session, and the afternoon session only runs from 2:30 to 5:00. I'll tell you all about it then.
It's getting close to 1:00. Sylvia long ago abandoned me to my keyboard.
Thank you for your prayers and please keep 'em coming.
Good night from Columbus!