About last night....
Last night’s posting to the website took a lot longer than normal, because I uploaded the singing video from yesterday’s luncheon. The upload completed about 1:30 a.m. I got an email from The Rev. Drew Collins about 1:20 a.m. saying the words to Friday’s posting came through but not the pictures. That’s because the video took so long to upload.  If you night owls like Drew were disappointed at what you found at 1:20 a.m., then take another look. It’s all there now.

 Speaking of emails, I am getting a bunch from all over America, and I thank you all for your words of encouragement for me and for our South Carolina delegation. I cherish every single email, and please forgive me for not being able to get back to you right away. In the coming weeks, I will answer you all.

Another absolutely gorgeous day as we begin today – not a cloud in the sky as we head over to the morning worship at the AAC headquarters.

Syl and I spotted a robin in the grass, and as I went to take his picture, he hopped up on a ledge and posed for me.

 Actually, judging from what I see on the ledge, looks like he poses for a lot of people...

On the way to worship we found Bishop Benitez, whom I'll bet I haven't seen in 20 years!

He's a friend of the diocese, and today I found out the Bishop Allison taught him while he was in seminary.

Worship today was from the 1928 BCP with Bishop Richard Boyce as the Celebrant and The Very Reverend John Spencer as the preacher. (I understand today is the only time they’ll be doing ’28 liturgy.)

Good line: Fr. Spencer said in his sermon, “We are not ‘seeking the truth’ at this Convention. Rather, we are deciding if we will obey it.”  That sort of nails it. It is not a matter of seeking the truth, but being obedient to it.

Some folks here have been asking if I saw the editorial cartoon a few days in the Columbus newspaper. Sigh. Yes. Lydia had it posted on her blog, but in case you missed it, here it is:

From: The Columbus Dispatch - 06/15/06

As Lydia said in her blog, “Ouch.”

Nothing on the Convention calendar for this morning. I believe most of us deputies just laid low and rested. Kendall, of course, being an exception. The man never sleeps!  Lydia also had an early morning meeting.

The crowd was down a bit at today's AAC luncheon, probably because we didn't have a morning session. NPR was there, recording the whole thing, as was David Virtue:

Bishop Beckwith of Springfield gave the report of news form the House of Bishops, and he proceeded to go on a great deal longer than the AAC folks had originally planed for him to go.

But he was informative, guys - let him speak!

I got a phone call from my good friend Pat Finn, rector extraordinaire of Our Saviour, John's Island. Turns out Pat is here with the Coast Guard, helping to recruit new priests for the military chaplaincy. After lunch and before the afternoon session, Syl and I headed over to the Convention Center Exihibition Hall to find Finn. Oh, this is great! - take a look at this!

Rob Dewy is not actually here, but there, in the chaplains display area, is a life-sized icon of our own nationally-known chaplain. That's pretty impressive.

We found Pat!

As I entered the House of Deputies, Mark Goodman was rearranging the palm tree on top of our SC sign.

Someone (I understand it may have been Annie Belser) gave the tree to us, because a lot of the delegations have placed state symbols on top of theirs. So, let's all pretend that it's a Palmetto tree.

You will note that Mark leans in the correct direction.... 

Bob Bell went to get what we call our dailies and there were none there. (Dailies are the messages for the day that tell us what we will be covering in that session, and the revised resolutions we need to see.) Bob asked one of the female helpers, and I quote, “Where are the pickups?” she said, “Huh?” 

The President gaveled us in at 2:36 for our 2:30 meeting.  Best opening time yet!

We begin with a special order for the presentation of the nominees for Presiding Bishop. Our bishops joined us. Special guest, Bishop Allison, SC XII.

Presiding Bishop Griswold chaired the special order.  The co-chairs of the nominating process, Peter Lee, and a woman whose name I didn’t catch spoke back in forth for about 15 minutes explaining the process and describing what a PB does. He would speak for a few minutes; she would speak for a few minutes.

I kept thinking, something about this is very familiar… Then it hit me – this whole thing sounded like the Academy Awards show, when they are talking about the nominations for an Oscar. And the nomination goes to...

After the special order, we heard from Richard Schmidt, the director of Forward day-by-day, who told us about their periodicals.

Schmidt explained among other things that he has no control over what the writers of the daily devotionals write about, but they are encouraged not to write on the hot-button issues. Says he receives a lot of complaints about what the writers write, but the complaints are equally distributed between conservative and liberal. Excuse me. Progressive.  

If he’s getting that many complaints from both sides, shouldn’t that tell him that a whole lot of people don’t like the way the publication is constituted?  Naw. It’s too obvious.

Brian Prior was elected to be the vice-president of the house. Kendall reminded me that he was the chaplain at the Minnesota Convention. He was the one with the post-modern noon-day worship, which was fairly good, all things considered. (You can read the 2003 comments about 1/4 of the way down the page, by clicking HERE.) Congrats, Brian.

Remember this guy?

Paul Abernathy was rector of Calvary, Charleston back in the 80’s. He’s in the Diocese of Washington, DC.  Paul and I probably agree on very little in terms of current resolutions, but I still like him and I remember that he did a fine job while serving God as a priest in South Carolina.

Here's another good man - John Leiber of Central Florida. I wonder if he's any kin to the Leiber of Leiber Correctional Institute?

John writes home for central Florida. His website is HERE.

Humor break. Which picture will best characterize the upcoming General Convention? Go HERE.

You may be asking yourself, "Didn't we send these delegates up to Ohio to pass legislation?" Well, yes, but so far today, we've really not done all that much. We've consented to a few dozen things the Bishop's passed, but there's nothing worth mentioning. 

We understand that the serious stuff WILL start hitting our floor tomorrow morning. I suspect Matt and the crew will be there live-blogging. Some of the important Windsor-specific resolutions have no cleared their committees. You can read on one of them, right HERE.

At 5:00, we had a special session to honor George Werner, as he retires this year as speaker of the house. The archbishop of Canada started the hour of accolade.

Wooohoo! They put together a video about George’s life, and during the credits, guess who rolled by? HolyCross.net! Cynthia Black put the piece together (It was well crafted!), and she used pictures of George Werner from our website’s 2003 Convention coverage.  I thought some of those photos looked familiar! Oh – by the way, watch it Cynthia – nobody ever asked permission for those shots! I'm looking for a link to the video. I'll let you know if I find one.

The PB thanked President Werner for his time served.

Frank Wade did a great job as the MC – Good wit. An example: "While George was Dean of the Cathedral in Pittsburgh, he decided to make a statement that would generate great publicity for the diocese. He decided to sacrifice a virgin in a volcano.  The trouble was, there wasn’t one in Pittsburgh."

 Youth presence came and led us in two songs. 

Bonnie Anderson spoke, and then President Werner spoke. We closed by singing a song to President Werner. In all, I think we enjoyed the show.

Some of the SC delegation took a cab and headed to a restaurant called "Confuence" for dinner. I should not have have gone because we didn't get back to the hotel until 9:30. I'll be up half the night. But it was well worth it. It's on the river with the best view in the city. This is the outside entrance:

 Here we are at table:

And this is the view from our table, looking out the window:

Yep. That's about a good as it gets.

Evidently the restaurant is a popular place for wedding receptions. We had one in the room next to us, and the couple went out on the deck for pictures: 

And it gets even better!

There's hope for the world. Even here.

As we arrived back at 9:30, guess who's just getting in from committee work:

The man never stops!

And when we got got to our room, I found that there was a package waiting for me at the front desk. I don't believe this!

It's from my congregation at St. Peter and St. John!  And check out what it is!

Golly. I am blown away. Thank you. This is all so amazing.

I have to end there. Have to.

Please remember us tomorrow (Sunday) in your services. I understand the tough stuff starts coming our way Sunday.

It's 1:28. God bless you all! And goodnight from Columbus!