"Signs, signs, everywhere signs! Clogging up the scenery messing my mind. Do this - don't do that - Can't you read the signs?"
(The Five Man Electrical Band)

One thing is for certain at General Convention. You will be told where to go.

And if you are from South Carolina, One thing is certain - You will be told where to go...

By the way - guess where this sign was:

.Right here.

I went back to the Convention worship site to see if there were improvements over yesterday. There were.
We now have table numbers and table cloths. This is what the place looks like if you are looking out from
the stage:

Oh, and this morning the stage was lit and there were people on the stage.

    Yep.

Seeing the worship site got me thinking back, and so I did some digging through the archives.

Would you like to see what it looked like in 2000?
                                                      Here it is:

Here's 2003.

And here's worship in 2006.

And as long as we are strolling down memory lane, here's what the House of Deputies stage looked like in
the year 2000 a.d.:

     This is Minneapolis, in 2003:

Here's Columbus, 2006:

and, last but not least, here is today:

This day was pretty much a day of preparation for tomorrow. On our Convention agenda it said there was
supposed to be a new deputy orientation at 9:00 this morning. Our new South Carolina deps went. But!
There was no orientation meeting. Turns out there wasn't supposed to be a new deputy orientation this
morning. It was a long standing error that no one caught. Mercy.

Went over to the Double Tree Inn for lunch. The AAC has a small presence here to offer lunch and worship.
On the way over in our hotel lobby I ran into Mark Goodman.

Looking good, Mark! (Even if you are listing a tad to the right...)

At the ACC luncheon they had no food for me. I registered over a month ago for the lunches. The lady
handling the lunches said she didn't have me in her pre-orders, and in fact, and she said, (and I quote),
"I've never even heard of that name before."

You know, sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name and they're glad you came...

But anyway, I did meet some great people while I was there. Let's see - There was Wade and Eunice, Reid,
and David!

This is Phil Ashey, the main ACC rep here:

On the way back, just as I was getting back to our hotel a voce said, "John Burwell!" It was the Bishop, who
was just arriving from the airport!

And he knew my name too! That's five, who know me! Wow!

At 2:00 today, the PB and the President of the HOB addressed us. We were assigned tables, but the
assignment had South Carolina sitting together, at two adjoining tables. They didn't split us up as they have
done in years past.

The 2:00 address was introduced by the HOD secretary, Gregory Staubb.
That's a scary coat, Gregory!

I suspect the entire text of the PB's address can be found at someone's blog. I won't go there, except to note
that she said if you believe in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ you are a heretic. Just thought you'd
want to know that. We also heard from the president of the HOD, Bonnie Anderson. Bonnie told how she
became an Episcopalian.

After that address we spent an hour looking at "Personal Narrative." Want a copy of the training manual?
Click Here.

Next, we moved over to the House of deputies for Orientation. Boo Pennewill arrived!

And check out Steve Wood in a real, honest-to-goodness clerical collar!

Nice!

Lydia brought a South Carolina flag to put on our SC marker:

I mentioned yesterday that we in SC are seated behind New Jersey and in front of San Joaquin. I heard from
my good friend Drew Collins of the REC/ACNA. who reminded me that the San Joaquin behind us is not really
San Joaquin.

Just thought I'd pass that on for clarity's sake.

At orientation this afternoon we heard from Michael Battle who wrote the book on Ubuntu. I got Father Battle
to pose for a pic in Starbucks.

Oh - the opening picture for Father Battle's Ubuntu explanation was this:

Is that two people with...

Naw! Couldn't be!

I don't know... Is it?

After the Ubuntu we had a staged example of how the legislative process works in the HOD.
Here are the actors in their presentation:

I really can't come up with a comment to describe what this was...

Here's some folks I ran into today:

In all, it's been a fairly nice day. A bit strange in places, but nice. The real stuff starts at 8:00 a.m. our time -
11:00 back home.

Thanks for your prayers and please keep it up!

Also, I can't see anyway that tomorrow's journal will be posted before 3:00 a.m. home time. Sorry, but it is a
full day tomorrow and from here on out.

Goodnight from Anaheim!