A bold vision and investment for the future

Several years Apple released its new iPhone. I waited all of a month (or maybe it was less) before deciding to replace my old cell phone with Apple's offering. My old phone encouraged this decision by dying just as I going through my own internal "should I or shouldn't I" debate.

That was less than ten years ago. Since then, the smartphone market has exploded with more capable devices offered by Apple, Samsung, and others. The Blackberry phone -- favored by many in business and government -- has all but vanished, its numbers dwindling into obscurity. Apple is ascending; Blackberry is descending.

In The Episcopal Church it sometimes feels like we are like the Blackberry of old: still retaining a certain utility yet being outpaced by far more innovative and responsive offerings. Some folks bemoan the decline in the number of people who declare themselves to be Christians and the drop in the number of people who show up Sunday after Sunday in our Episcopal churches.

Rather than respond in fear, however, The Episcopal Church -- working through the resolutions considered and adopted at General Convention -- is responding with hope and outrageous boldness. 

Let me offer just one example of this: Resolution B009: Conducting on Online Digital Evangelism Test. As proposed, this called for "a digital evangelism test consisting of several campaigns..." with budget "of no more than $1,500,000." Then it went through the committee process and something even more bold emerged. Rather than a test, the resolution calls for "a digital evangelism initiative" and doubled the budget to $3,000,000. Wow! 

The resolution passed overwhelmingly in the House of Deputies, and it will next be considered in the House of Bishops. I hope they share the Deputies' bold and financially outrageous vision.

We are living in an Apple world. All the bishops and deputies at General Convention access a virtual binder with up-to-date information on resolutions on iPads provided to us. We worship using PDF versions of worship bulletins on those same iPads. When not on our tablets, many of us are checking email and Twitter and Facebook on their iPhones or tapping away on their MacBooks. Clearly we know at least a little about living in a digital age. May our church remain grounded in our history, heritage, and traditions even as we embrace a bold future -- a future that I pray will see us reaching out to those who need to connect with God in a church that, as Jesus commends, welcomes and loves all.

Oops -- what happened to Sunday?

Good morning! I usually post something to this blog in the evening, but last night Bishop Johnson hosted our deputation and others from -- and associated with -- West Tennessee at a fabulous dinner at a restaurant called Bambara. We enjoyed creative appetizers, fine wine, extraordinary entrees, rich desserts, and excellent company until after 11 pm.

Yesterday being Sunday we started later than usual. The bishops led an early morning march against gun violence, but I took the lazy approach and slept in a bit. 10:00 am worship, lunch, and a three-hour legislative session defined the day. At times the legislative process is deliberate to the point of making watching paint dry seem exciting by comparison. I'm frankly a little concerned that with only five full days to go we've not yet taken up substantive resolutions on marriage, church structure, liturgy, discipline, and more. We'd better be getting busy -- and a bit more productive.

I'm now in the meeting room for the Prayer Book, Liturgy and Music committee, and we're about to begin. I'll report back later tonight.

An historic election for The Episcopal Church

Presiding Bishop-elect
Bishop Michael Curry

The big news of today was the historic election of the Rt. Rev. Michael Curry to serve as the next Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. (I wish could take credit for the photo on the left, but I "borrowed" it from a Facebook post.)

For the first time, the Church elected a black man to this office.

For the first time, the new Presiding Bishop was elected on the first ballot (with nearly 70% of his fellow bishops voting for him, leaving the other three nominees to share remaining few votes).

For the next nine years of his term in office, I expect Bp. Curry's passionate preaching, enthusiastic evangelism, and deep of Jesus to help energize and lead our church to new places and awesome opportunities.

Here's a link to a summary of the press conference that took place soon after his election was confirmed.

Earlier in the day Bishops, Deputies, and guests gathered for the daily service of Holy Eucharist. Our prelude was offered by the RedSpiritSingers, a Native American drum circle. Wow! The next bit of music? We all sang "Joyful, joyful, we adore thee"! Wow, what a great reminder that our worship can effectively combine all kinds of materials.

Oh, and we actually got a bit of business done along the way. I was at a 7:30 hearing, receiving testimony from folks on resolutions being considered by the Prayer Book, Liturgy, and Music committee. More on that later (though I will tease you a bit and tell you that I don't think I've ever been in the company of some many transgendered persons ever in my life).

We also began consideration of resolutions related to improving race relations. Though I found some of the language potentially inflammatory, the spirit of the resolution and our need to offer real solutions and genuine hope is real indeed.

God is good indeed!

The tedium and the triumph

The hearing and meeting room for the Prayer Book,
Liturgy and Music Committee.

Mark Twain once commented, "Those that respect the law and love sausage should watch neither being made."

I know this to be true. Sausage because my oldest son, Russell, worked for a while at a sausage factory. The law because the primary focus of General Convention (though certainly not its only focus) is legislation. As a Deputy to Convention and a member of the Prayer Book, Liturgy and Music Committee I am participating first-hand in the making of laws for The Episcopal Church. The process isn't always tidy. Sometimes it's downright tedious as we haggle over what sometimes seem like inconsequential details. But the focus on the minutiae is a direct result of the care that my fellow Deputies and our Bishops bring to the task at hand.

That being said, our committee spent quite a bit of time considering again a resolution to provide Holy Communion for communities that lack a clergy presence. As part of our deliberation, a substitute resolution was considered, amended, and eventually rejected. Another member offered a new substitute amendment, much shorter version that was passed. Here it is:

Resolved, The House of  Deputies concurring, That the 78th General Convention direct the ecclesiastical authority in each Diocese to discern and implement ways in which small congregations within their Diocese who are without benefit of clergy may receive Communion on a regular basis.

This will go first to the House of Bishops for debate and possible amendment, so our conversation on this resolution is hardly over. But we spent a great deal of time on an issue about which many witnesses testified with great passion, identifying an issue that demanded a gracious response. I do hope the Bishops accept this opportunity to exercise the discretion offered in this resolution as they deal with the particulars of their own circumstances.

Oh, and above in today's title I said something about "triumph." General Convention is considering issues related to marriage. It is fitting that in midst of our preliminary discussions (as yet still in the process of being considered by a special committee and thus not yet on the floor of either House) that today the Supreme Court announced that marriage is a constitutional right that extends to same-sex couples. While not everyone sees this as a good thing, many (and probably most) of us at Convention do. And we are working diligently and faithfully to ensure that all couples seeking the sacrament of marriage may do so in our church.

God bless all those whose lives will be forever blessed by today's ruling. God bless all those who celebrate today's news. God bless all those who mourn today's news. May we never fail to see each other with God's eyes of love and grace.

And so it begins...

Worship at General Convention. No bulletins
were printed. Instead, we all used our iPads.

Everything on Tuesday and Wednesday was just prelude. Today the House of Deputies met for the first time to consider and act on resolutions. For those unfamiliar with General Convention, every matter brought to Convention is in the form of a Resolution. Every resolution is considered by one or more appropriate Legislative Committees before being brought into either the House of Bishops or the House of Deputies with a recommendation from a Legislative Committee such as: Pass, Pass as Amended, Do Not Pass, or Forget This One -- We Dealt With This Issue Elsewhere (OK, that last one isn't in the right language, but you get the point.)

The House then debates, perhaps amends, then, if passed, sends the resolution to the other House for its consideration. If a Resolution passes both Houses with identical language, then it becomes binding. Yeah, it's quite a process. A bit ponderous at time (particularly when the amendments start flying!), and made even more so as the House of Deputies includes some 875 members who are all entitled to be heard on any given issue.

Anyway, we finally starting considering resolutions. Our first substantive one was a major revision of the rules that will guide our debates. We spent well over an hour an that one, considering and eventually rejecting a string of attempted amendments. We also unanimously passed a resolution entitled "Letter of Condolence to Emanuel AME Church, Charleston, SC" which you can read here. This will go next to the House of Bishops for their consideration.

The committee on which I serve -- Prayer Book, Liturgy, and Music -- met twice today to receive testimony on a number of resolutions and then to discuss some of them. Our biggest logistical challenge has been to sort out a resolution related to the calendar of those whose lives we commemorate. I could try and describe our discussion, debate, and decision, but the telling of that tale would be quite tedious indeed -- even more so than my rambling description of the legislative process in the first two paragraphs above.

We also heard from a number of witnesses on a resolution whose title references the centrality of Holy Eucharist and seeks to allow bishops to license lay persons to distribute previously consecrated bread and wine in congregations without access to ordained clergy. The concern is genuine; too many small and/or remove congregations go weeks and even months without receiving Holy Eucharist. Is this, however, the best solution? What real questions does this resolution raise, and are we seeking the right answers? While we've received testimony, we haven't yet discussed this in committee. I'm eager to hear what the lay deputies, clergy deputies, and the bishops on the committee have to say.

Thanks for reading, and please keep the Bishops and Deputies gathered here in Salt Lake City in your prayers that we may be guided by the Father's creativity, the Son's love, and the Holy Spirit's wisdom.

The Agony and the Ecstasy

A quick random thought this morning.

I woke up celebrating how at General Convention I am seeing old friends and meeting friends of friends -- truly one of the great blessings at being here.

Then, unbidden and certainly not welcome, Disney's song "It's a Small World" leapt into brain. Great. Just great.

I do expect that this morning's Eucharist -- the first of Convention -- will provide music glorious enough to unseat my unfortunate morning ear worm!

Our first full day

Took this photo of an entrance to the Salt Palace Convention Center on my way to start the day with a legislative hearing scheduled for 7 am. The day was still cool, a pleasant 70°.

Today we started by listening to welcome messages from the Presiding Bishop and the President of the House of Deputies as well as the President of Episcopal Church Women. We then had two hours of orientation about using the Virtual Binder. In years past General Convention would print and distribute thousands upon thousands of copies of resolutions and other materials. This year all the same materials are available, but only on a "Virtual Binder" which exists as an app on rented iPads given to over 1,000 deputies and bishops. This is supposed to cheaper (and more environmentally sensitive) than paper distribution.

The Convention also changed the systems for electronic voting and for queuing up to speak during debate of resolutions on the floor of the House of Deputies.

After a nice lunch break we spent nearly three hours hearing from and about -- well, mostly from -- the four nominees to become the next Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. You can learn more about the four by clicking here.

While I appreciated the opportunity to learn from and about the four nominees, the House of Deputies won't be electing the Presiding Bishop. The House of Bishops will elect the PB, and the House of Deputies will then have the opportunity to confirm the election results. I can't imagine the Deputies saying "no" to the person the Bishops themselves have chosen as their own leader. My take is we have four strong candidates; it will be interesting to see whom the bishops choose. The early money seems to be on Bishop Michael Curry. If elected, he would be the first black PB in our history. Bishop Curry is arguably the most charismatic and effective preachers in The Episcopal Church today.

Another decent break and I was back in action for another hearing for Prayer Book, Music, and Liturgy which ended blessedly early. We were hearing testimony about changes to the "Holy Women, Holy Men" (a calendar marking those whose lives we remember and celebrate). We then began our discussion about how to handle changes to this list, from the criteria for selecting persons to remember to which persons from "Holy Women, Holy Men" will be omitted from the next iteration, to be called "A Great Cloud of Witnesses." This is a complicated topic with a lot of moving parts. We have a subcommittee that will work on this a bit more, and we'll take up resolutions on this area again tomorrow.

Tomorrow we begin our first official day as it's the first day of deliberations on the floor of the house. I'm not sure yet which resolutions will come up for debate (other than a suggested change of procedures). We shall see.

As I write this, the hour grows late. And the Gary grows drowsy. Good evening! I shall more to share tomorrow, I'm sure.

First Day in Salt Lake: 10.5 miles = sore feet

Well, today was the first of what will likely become a series of long and busy days. The morning was devoted to travel. First up: getting to the Memphis airport (and thanks to Mary Jane Viar for letting me keep my car at her home and for the ride to the airport at 6 this morning!).

Four other members of the deputation from West Tennessee joined me on the flight to Salt Lake City, and we arrived at our hotel over three hours before our rooms were ready.

That was fine: we had time for a leisurely lunch, to get ourselves registered for General Convention, and to enjoy a brief moment of down time this afternoon. At 5:30, however, that changed as many of us participated in our first meetings of the various Legislative Committees on which most of us are serving.

This Convention I have been appointed to the Prayer Book, Worship, and Music Committee. We have quite a few resolutions to consider, and our first public hearings will begin tomorrow at 7:00 am. Does that sound rather early to you? Or is it just me?

Anyway, tomorrow we'll follow up the early morning hearings or meetings with various presentations from church leaders, an orientation session, and three hours dedicated to a "Presentation of Presiding Bishop Nominees." Three hours? Really? There are only four nominees!

Then, just in case the day isn't long enough, legislative hearings and meetings begin at 7 pm and are scheduled to continue as late as 9. Whew!

Oh, and our hotel is (by one of our deputy's calculations) .8 miles from our door to the door of the Salt Palace Convention Center. Today the temp was in the low 90s. In the days to come we'll see highs from 97 °F tomorrow up to 100° on Friday and staying in the triple digits for pretty much the duration of General Convention. (Go ahead, you know you want to say it: "Yeah, but it's a dry heat...")

According to my pedometer I walked 10.5 miles (nearly 17 kilometers!) today. Think I'll sleep really well tonight!

Please keep General Convention, the Bishops, Deputies, exhibitors, guests, and other participants in your prayers. These days will be packed with activity, business, fellowship, worship, discussions, walking, sitting, voting, thinking, praying. Along the way we will consider, debate, and act on hundreds of resolutions that will impact how we live our lives as Episcopalians. So your prayers are definitely needed and solicited. Thanks!

Welcome to Gary's Blog!

Hello! I will be attending the 78th General Convention of The Episcopal Church which runs from June 23-July 3 in Salt Lake City, Utah. During the Convention I will be posting my impressions of events, people, news, and more. This will be no substitute for genuine news coverage from trusted sources, just one deputy's own perceptions and experiences.