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I seem to have developed a morning routine – I rise from bed, pull back the dark curtains of my room and check the weather. This is actually a pointless routine because every day looks the same – sunshine. It never rains in California!

Good morning and welcome to day Five of General Convention. We are halfway done today. We were given the morning off (It was Sunday, after all) and our deputation made good use of it. Some went to Rick Warren's Saddleback Church (about 1/2 hour away), some went here, some went there. Bishop Lawrence ended up interceding with a group of prayer warriors here on site.

Lonnie headed into LA with a relative.
The man has family everywhere!

Lydia, Boo and I went to the Crystal Cathedral today! – to the Hour of Power! And really - it was truly an awesome experience for me.

Say what you will, but I do know that I worshipped our Lord Jesus Christ there in the midst of hundreds of others from all around the world. The hymns and sacred music, provided by a 30-piece orchestra, with an organ with 50 million pipes (it seemed like it) and a choir almost as good as my Holy Cross choir… well – it was celestial. I simply don’t know any other way to put it.

We sang “Joyful, Joyful we adore thee,” “All people that on earth do dwell,” and others. The sermon was delivered by Dan Chun of the First Presbyterian Church of Hawaii – one of the largest churches in that denomination. He spoke on “The God who knows your name.” Next week Lee Strobel will preach, and the week after that John Maxwell will be there. In recent years they've become more "reformed" in their approach and they are now featuring guest preachers more than relying on Robert Schuller (Sr.)

I picked up a copy of their statement of faith and it says in part:

“We believe that as we look to Jesus, his life, death, and resurrection, and celebrate his love we will know and experience God.
We find in Jesus all we need to live meaningfully, thankfully, and happily and to anticipate without fear the life to come.”

Dr. Schuller read the scriptures today, but most of the service was led by his daughter, Sheila Coleman. I don’t have any pictures of Schuller or anyone on the stage because we were asked to not take pictures during the actual service. (I have the same request of visitors at Holy Cross, so I willingly complied.) Here are some shots taken before and after worship:

I found a YouTube clip of Bach played on the Crystal Cathedral organ – the performance begins about 3:45 into the clip.

This is their newcomer's and visitor's welcome center:

Worship was exactly one hour and three minutes, not counting prelude music. No Communion (of course), but for a traditional Protestant service it was very, very good. I am glad I went.

We returned back to this world by 1:30, in plenty of time for our next session at 3:00. I almost wish I didn’t have to return to work this afternoon.

Ah, but we do....

Just got a note from Kendall – He said we would be covering D025 this afternoon. This is amazing – he’s not even here and yet he knows more than we do about what is going on. Stand Firm talks more to him in Charleston than they do to us here in Anaheim!

In our afternoon devotional time before we began the session, Frank our chaplain said liturgy and politics are actually the same word – the work of the people. How could a statement be so technically accurate and yet be so much of a stomach turner!

President Bonnie's remarks before we began: “Remember that when inhale air in this room we are breathing in a little of each other.”

Sigh...

We voted to suspend the rules to consider the entire consent calendar for today with one vote instead of a dozen or more. Not a big deal.

Dan Martins got nominated for executive council. By Sam Candler of Atlanta. The (new) San Joaquin delegation (seated behind us) said NAY! quite loudly when we were asked for those opposed to the nomination. Dan spent many years in San Joaquin before moving to Northern Indiana.

Let me go ahead and get it out of the way. Here he is:

Next, we moved to debate on D025, Just as Kendall had said we would. According to the chair of the committee the report was 22 to 2 in favor of reporting it out of committee. (Hint, hint, wink, wink!)

As a procedural question, Charlie Holt of Central Fla asked if D025 ends B023. He did not get an answer form the co-chairs of the committee. He asked a second time. They said it says what it says. He asked a third time and they refused to answer him.

First speaker spoke for it. (Missed the name).
Sharon Lewis spoke against it.
Deputy from the new Forth Worth spoke for it.
Charlie Holt spoke against, rightly pointing out that some will regard this as ending B033 and some will not.
Minnesota deputy – crying – asked us to give it to the AC as agift.She said sometimes gifts are not appreciated when they are given – but give it as a gift.
Haskel from Albany – for it.
Candeler – for it.
Smith – Springfield –against.
On and on it went. I decided to get up and speak to the motion. Time expired. I didn’t get to speak.

Someone offered an amendment to divide it into two resolutions, at line 18. Chicago asked for a vote by orders on this motion to divide. A vote by orders increases the possibility of a "no" outcome because if either clergy or lay delegations are split (some for some against) the entire clergy or lay vote counts as a no.

More amendments were offered. Substitutes motions were offered.

In the end it came down to a vote on the whole ball of wax. I believe we all know what the result will be.
We voted in the lay order first, and the clerical order second.

Here's something interesting. We are handed out carbon copy forms the chair of the delegation has to fill out officially recording the delegations vote. If these forms are incorrect your vote will not count. See if you can spot what's wrong with the first form that South Carolina got handed:

We were, I believe, the only deputation that got the wrong form for the first ballot. This is what it is supposed to look like:
So I protested and the one you see on the left was given to us.

In case you wondered: SC lay - 4 against. SC clergy - 4 against.

After this first full hour and a half of this, we then voted to moved D019 ahead of the rest of the scheduled legislation to insure that it got heard today. Wondering what D019 is about? Well, it's about the Millennium Development goals. It's about Upping the funding from .7 of budget to 1% of budget. We voted to do it.

Next D038 was moved ahead for the same reason – D038 urges a higher priority in Hispanic matters. Kevin Martin of Dallas urged passage of it. SC voted to pass it as did almost 100% of the house.

Next, at 5:55, we opted to move A089 to today for consideration – This A089 is awful, but it will pass. we got it rammed in at the last minute over multiple objections. It’s now after 6, and we’re going to press on anyway. The bill, as I'm sure you've heard by now, says (among other things) that some of our Scriptures are anti-sematic. Mercy!

David Thurlow tried to amend it. Myers, Chicago objected to David’s attempt to amend. She said the reasoning hand been laid out clearly in the Blue Book and what was clear was that certain passages - particularly the passion narratives - have been interpreted in ways that have been hurtful.