This is Holy Cross!

It is Morning, the fourth day. Last night was a long one and I slept as late as I could this morning to make up for it. Today's schedule was a bit lighter than yesterday.

The South Carolina delegation is holding up well so far. Keep praying! Speaking of prayer, Lydia sent us a lovely prayer and I'm delighted to share it with you:

Father, pour out your Spirit upon your people,

and grant us a new vision of your glory,

a new experience of your power,

a new faithfulness to your Word,

and a new consecration to your service,

that your love may grow among us,

and your kingdom come;

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Saint Benedict’s Prayer Book

He said, " There’s one topic that seems to matter around here. Only one! And there’s so much we could be talking about and working on! There’s a hole in the bottom of the boat and we’re trying to debate what kind of flag we ought to be flying on the mast."

That shot was taken with Boo's cell phone. Here's another from last night via Boo:

As we began this morning we heard from Kay Myer, the national ECW president, mother of Holy Cross member Len Myer. She prayed the most wonderful opening prayer we are probably going to hear at this Convention.

Sadly, the delivery carts came with the morning mail about one minute into Kay's speech, and scores of deputies got up, went and got their mail totally ignoring Kay.
Very disrespectful.

Kay also didn't get the standing O that others around here get. She did get a hug from President Bonnie.

We spent 20 minutes or more on a directive to formulate a strategy for lifelong Christian Formation (A083). We spent another 20 minutes debating whether to discharge a reconciliation training resolution (A068) that was acted on at a previous convention. We voted not to discharge.

Thought I'd show you some pics of some of our typical deputies. All the pictures are taken while the deps are speaking to motions, amendments, etc. I'm shooting the video screen in front of me and some are better quality than others:

After the morning session we moved over to the AAC luncheon. Outside the Convention Center, two picketers were setting up shop.

Bishop Salmon arrived last night. He's spend the past six months (the winter months, mind you) as interim Dean of Nashotah House seminary so the dean could take a sabbatical. Now he's getting ready to move to Chevy Chase, MD. to serve as interim rector of All Saints. The man never stops.

Belton Zeigler, Son of Nick Zeigler and delegate from Upper SC was also there today:

Best Line of the day - Overheard at lunch:
I’m so tired of being invited to tell my story. Let's tell God’s story - the story of redemption in Jesus Christ!

Back in session we heard from invited visitors from Africa, South America, Canada and New Zealand – all who love the Episcopal Church.

Rob Eaton, alternate of the New San Joaquin, the man who has just about single-handedly organized a nation-wide prayer chain for the Convention, gave our deputation a delicious gift today:

After our visitors finished with us, we disposed of a dozen or so of what are called "consent items," one after the other. Then we voted on elections to Trial Court and voted for the remaining six members of the Church Pension Fund.

At 5:45 we took up another resolution C071 – urging universal health care in America. Remember when Congress used to deal with items like that?

This was "seminary night" as it is known, and since the rest of our delegation was going to the Trinity dinner, I went to the Nashotah gathering. 'Twas fun! Here's what it looked like:

Oh - one more picture. On the elevator heading back up to the room I noticed the name tag of the Bishop in the picture below. It is Archbishop Solomon Yoon, Primate of Korea. He was very friendly!

And this concludes another day of GC. Lydia Evans and I are going out to church tomorrow. Just wait till you see where we are going! Pictures tomorrow!