Wednesday, July 23, 2003
The First Day of General Convention
There was a brass orchestra and the choir from the cathedral of Minneapolis.
So far so good.
From here, it went …well it went off in a direction that discouraged me. We were assigned seats at round tables (like the ones we use to eat from at parish functions). We used a liturgy which was intended to be inclusive and enriching, and wound up being neither for me. The word "Lord" was expunged from usage by the Celebrant, as was any reference to a Kingdom, and as were any masculine pronoun. The Presiding Bishop was the Celebrant, and he began with the words, "Blessed be the one holy and living God." To which we replied, "Glory be to God for ever and ever." This was to replace, "Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost [Or Holy Spirit]). To which our response is, "And blessed be His Kingdom, now and forever." See the difference? Next, we sang a song no one knew. After that the Bishop said, "God be with you." To which we replied, "And also with you." After that, a six-year old girl offered the first reading. She labored through her task, missing a few words here and there, going back and correcting herself from time to time. The Gospel followed, and was read slowly and deliberately – v-e-r-y slowly and deliberately. The reader began with these words – "The Holy Gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ, according to Matthew." What’s been changed there? After the sermon by the PB, we were asked to spend a few minutes in discussion at our tables. At my table were delegates from Maine, Northern Michigan, Southern Virginia, Los Angeles, North Dakota and New York. Two delegates at my table had "Ask me about Gene [Robinson]" buttons. In our discussions, the bishop at our table said he can tolerate just about anyone except those who are intolerant. How did I feel? Very marginalized. The service continued to get even more interesting. There was no confession, either in the prayers of the people or following. During the prayer of consecration, the Presiding Bishop would alternate languages – part of the words were said in English, part were said in Spanish. You never knew what was going to come next. The prayer of consecration, read, in part, as follows: "You gave the world into our care…but we failed to honor your image in one another and in ourselves. We would not see your goodness in the world around us and so we violated your creation, abused one another and rejected your love. Yet you never ceased to care for us and prepared the way of salvation for all." Hmmm. Here’s some of the words to one of the songs we were supposed to sing during Communion: Se-ka –I- no – to mo to te o tsu-na-gi, Jyu-ji-ka no motto ni ta tsu- re ra. Here’s the first line to another song we sang: Pe-lo tsa rona, di tha bi-le ka – o – fe-la. Haleluya! (I figured out that last word.) Here’s one more in that actually was sung in English – There’s the third verse of this particular hymn: "We all behold one vision, a stark reality;the steward of salvation was nailed upon a tree.
Yet resurrected Justice gives rise that we may share
free reconciliation and hope amid despair." Words mean things. The "steward" of salvation? Huh?
T
he prayer after the Eucharist said: Loving God,We give you thanks for restoring us in your image and nourishing us with spiritual food in the sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood. Now send us forth a people, forgiven, healed, renewed; that we may proclaim your love to the world and continue in the risen life of Christ Our Savior. Amen. And the blessing at the end was over the top. I quote: May the blessing of the God of Abraham and Sarah, and of Jesus Christ born of our sister Mary, and of the Holy Spirit who broods over the world as a mother over her children, be upon you and remain with you always. Amen. I quote from the handout accompanying today’s liturgy: "The liturgies that mark these days seek to embrace the richness of our heritage as they explore the directions in which the Holy Spirit is calling the church to move in the future." I have one question – Sez Who?!
We began with a powerpoint presentation of pictures (mostly interesting-looking people) accompanied by a weird recorded rock song. Very Weird. I couldn’t pick out all the words, but this is some of the stream of consciousness in the song: "Each of us has a name given by the stars, given by thy neighbor, given by our enemies, given by the sea…" Huh?
From there we went to prayers prayed by three different people, rotating around. We sang a brief Taze-style song, accompanied by guitar and a hand-held harp, being played with a bow. When the three were done, the chaplain offered prayers over the music of the guitar. After the music ended, he gave a brief homily entitled, "Welcome to Camp General Convention." We sang another simple Taze-styled song, and again he prayed during the instrumental parts. After a final prayer, we resumed the day. I was struck at the difference between this style and what we have previously had for noon-day worship. Previously, noon-day meditations were only spoken. They were talks on some subject – might have been Biblical, might have not. But the presentation was always completely rational and logical – totally modern in approach. Today’s presentation had a whole ‘nother feel. Post-Modern. And it was good. Well, with the exception of that horrible song, it was good! Brian is probably in his late 20’s, guessing by looks. The folks who put together that morning Eucharist could take some lessons from Brian. This is strictly my opinion, but to me, this noonday worship looks a lot more like the future than the baby boomer angst liturgy that I witnessed earlier in the morning. We broke for lunch, went over to the AAC luncheon. In the morning opening Eucharist we sang nothing recognizable, and some things which bordered on unsingable. At the ACC lunch, we sang "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling." The voices of the 200 people there, singing in 4-part harmony, brought a tear to the eye.
Doug McGlynn, Rector of Ascension, Pittsburgh, gave a beautiful reflection based on the word "attitude." As Father McGlynn reminded us, it is a sailing term, and literally means to set the sail for the prevailing wind. We must set out sails for the Holy Spirit to direct us and take us where He wants us to be. John Guernsey (Virginia) gave the general news report, and Martyn Mimms (Truro Church) gave us what he called the official AAC "spin." These AAC lunches are so incredibly wonderful. They lift the spirit at just the right time where it needs lifting.
One of the changes in canon calls for what is being termed "Direct Ordination." People coming out of seminary and planning to be priests are first ordained as deacons. This is done to remind us that we are always servants (deaconi) first. God may have other orders planned for us, but we are all deacons. We who will eventually be ordained to the priesthood are euphemistically called "transitional deacons." If this modification passes, the Episcopal church will do away with this historical process, and ordain all deacons as permanent deacons, and all priests as priests. Quite frankly, I think we will be giving up a bit too much of our tradition by doing this. I AM a deacon, and I always will be. I believe every priest and every bishop should also be a deacon first.
It appears that the Ministry Committee (of which I am a member) is almost completely in favor of direct ordination. I suspect it will become a resolution later this week. I hope cooler heads will prevail when it gets out onto the floor. After the hearing, we went directly into the afternoon session of the house. All morning we dealt with housekeeping orders. In this afternoon session we heard from the Mayor of Minneapolis, a life-long Episcopalian, who welcomed us to his fair city.
We approved the elections for Bishop of New Jersey and Nebraska and we voted for a few very minor items. 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.
