Opening Day at General Convention

So...imagine a room large enough to hold five thousand people. 
Then put five thousand people in it.  Along with a grand piano, an organ console, a brass quartet, a fifty-voice choir, and a graceful, simple altar platform with all its proper furnishings.
Then have all of those people singing and praying together, raising the roof in song and supplication, thanksgiving and praise.  Glorious does not even begin to describe the experience.

This was the opening Eucharist of the General Convention.  And somehow, for all that size and spectacle, they got it done in one hour, start to finish.  Before and after the service, more old friends from all over the Church were seen and greeted--the family reunion was in full swing.

After the opening liturgy, the Convention went into legislative committee hearings. I testified (along with Frank Logue, Ted Clarkson and Cheryl Parris) before the Standing Commission for Liturgy and Music in support of their including Anna Alexander, the first African-American deaconess in the Episcopal Church, in the next revision of Holy Women, Holy Men.  The SCLM will make their recommendation to the House of Bishops, who will act on it and then pass it to the House of Deputies.  It may be that Deaconess Alexander will soon be known to many outside the Diocese of Georgia!

In the afternoon I testified at the hearing on the resolutions about which I had written earlier, calling for a robust process of lifelong Christian formation and education in our congregations, specifically including instruction in the history, structure and governance of the Episcopal Church for persons who seek to be appointed/elected to serve in particular offices of leadership in the Church, and asking that the canons of the church be modified to reflect our church's theology that full incorporation into the Body of Christ, the Church, is accomplished through Holy Baptism.  This was a very well-attended hearing, with a number of persons wishing to speak both in favor of and in opposition to the resolutions.  The committee did a good job of staying on time and on task, and it remains to be seen what action they will recommend.

In the later afternoon I was back on the floor at the display hall with the Associated Parishes for Liturgy and Mission, sharing the vision and work of APLM with passers-by.  Dinner with friends and a final strategy meeting closed the day, and tomorrow begins early--7:30 hearings for Prayer Book and Liturgy.  (You who know me in real time know that I don't "do" early mornings if I can help it!)

Stay tuned for more news as it develops...