10:38: The President gaveled us into our 10:30 meeting. Turned it over to our Presiding Bishop, Frank Griswold.
Frank, our presiding bishop, appealed for us to pass a resolution that they crafted last night which he hopes will signal to the Anglican Communion that we want to be a part of it. Speaking in code to the progressives, he made reference to the need, as he put it, "to take a step back so that we can move forward."
The resolution is B-033, and will first be debated in the House of Bishops. If and when they pass it, it will be sent to us to concur.
The PB reads this hoped-for last gasp measure:
Resolved, the House of Deputies concurring, that the 75th General Convention receive and embrace The Windsor Report's invitation to engage in a process of healing and reconciliation; and be it further
Resolved, that this Convention therefore call upon Standing Committees and bishops with jurisdiction to exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion.
The bishops then adjourn to their house to debate B-033. We now go to the hundreds (literally) of leftover legislations while they debate. we;ll take for debate if the approve it and send it back to us. (rest assured, they will...) Oh by the way - Lydia spoke yesterday and I failed to get it on:
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2009 Note - I've edited out all the other 2006 reports of the day not dealing with B033 - big edit here
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We just got private word that the HOB passed the resolution B-033 unaltered. I am not happy with the wording, and I don't plan to vote for it. I pray we get it quickly.
Broke for noonday prayers. When we returned to the business at hand, the official announcement was made - B033 will be brought to the floor.
We debated the appropriateness of debating this again. It will be debated. We're suspending all of our house rules to do this. There were a lot of complaints about both the liberal side and the conservative side "hijacking" the debate so that the middle couldn't be heard. Somebody actually said, "It isn't fair!"
Louie Crew spoke - he is in opposition to the resolution.
Bradbury, Connecticut says, "I don't like this resolution, but I can live with it."
Went back and forth! But it appears that there are just as many "no's" are there are "yeses"
Oh brother - they r-e-a-l-y want this to pass! Look who's up at the main podium:
The PB-elect pleaded with us to pass this resolution. P-l-e-a-d-e-d! She used the analogy of conjoined twins. She said this body is not fully one, and is not fully two, and each need the other to survive. That's right bishop, we've created a two-headed monster out of what used to be one wonderful Church!
She goes on to say that the language is the best we are going to do at this convention. She says he fully supports the gay agenda, and does not understand adopting the resolution as slamming the door to gays. She urged us to support it. We had a moment of silence.
Bonnie Anderson, the President Elect took over for the debate on B-033. As the chair it became quite clear that she was going to do whatever she needed to do to guide this through to passage. She did something interesting. She had someone speak in favor, then had the PB-elect speak in favor, and followed that speech with another person speaking another in favor. Three in a row! Finally she went back to someone opposed to it.
A vote by orders was requested.
The chair did it again. The vote by orders call contained no comment either way, but she treated it as a "no." She called on someone supporting the measure, took the call for a vote by orders, and then recognized another yet another "yes."
An amendment was offered to limit this resolution to the next General Convention. (We were asked by the PB not to attach any amendments.)
Interesting Bonnie Anderson act #3 - the chair allowed three in a row to speak against the amendment. Wonder why, Bonnie?
The amendment was defeated, and we proceeded on to vote for the main resolution.
B-033 passed. Pretty much 75% to 25%.
After the vote, we took a one-hour break for lunch. Lydia and I headed for the food court since we were pressed for time. On the way back into the house we were stopped by a local TV station (Channel 10) and interviewed. After we videoed, off mike, the reporter said that she had a hard time understanding how we could be approving things that were in direct contradiction to the Bible. I told her that I did too.
Oh please - is it over yet? 
Pretty please?