An Alternate View: Hang in there #GC78

Ok, So, I think that I hit some sort of slump today. It's been a solid week for me (and several days longer for many others) of constant activity and being "on" from 7:00 AM until late at night. It's a little unbelievable, but the House of Deputies session was supposed to end at 7:30 (we got our early) and some people had 10:00 meetings (and not the relaxed, debriefing kind)! The word going around is "Hang in there #GC78"
I went to the media room this morning after typing up a few things and then decided to go to the morning worship service a bit late. The gospel choir was excellent. I found myself not participating too much, and as I was sitting waaaaaaay in the back, I was rather distracted from the action so far away. Tired. This morning I also simply needed a hug (which my bishop and a deputation member provided), but in the wonderful session honoring our current presiding bishop, I became a bit weepy. I will truly miss Katharine Jefferts Schori. I believe that she came at just the right time for what the church needed and that she has been an astoundingly wonderful example of diplomacy, mission, pastoral care, and environmental stewardship. She is also a personal role model for me and I have enjoyed reading her books and occasionally meeting her and her husband Richard over the past nine years. 

Frank T. Griswold, previous presiding bishop, came onto the platform with newly-elected presiding bishop Michael Curry to form what he coined "A Jubilation of Primates" :-) That made me smile!

I found myself trying hard to concentrate and tweet the afternoon legislative session, but I was getting confused and the marriage debate was schedule for tomorrow. Then, things seemed to be stuck with constant amendments so I took a break and went into the exhibit area for an hour. The exhibits close tomorrow so today was pretty much my only time to go.

                   

I did take my selfie with St. Francis who won Lent Madness. Also, I bought myself a mouse pad and coaster and shirt from the Episcopal Marketplace! There, I talked with my friend Peter Wallace from Day1 who has been very influential in my discernment over the years and always wrote back to my questions and emails on Facebook. What an amazing, brilliant, and sweet person!

I had some great discussion with the folks at Episcopal Relief & Development, which I support, and then as I was about to leave, someone called my name and came running....
It was Rev'd Daniel Webster @revweb from twitter and instagram!!!!!! and then @velopriest as well!!!!! More twitter goodness!!!!!!! I LOVE meeting my twitter friends in person!!!!

After picking up a suitcase worth of brochures, speaking with Seminary folks, and taking pictures, I came back to the House of Deputies where they were having trouble. There were tons of amendments to Governance and Structure resolutions, but they had to postpone one and then stop altogether and adjourn for the day because Spanish translations were not yet available for several things. The House was apparently ahead of where they were at this time last General Convention! 
Instead of exploring various Seminary receptions which may or may not have been RSVP or open...I decided to walk back to my hotel, have an introvert night, dinner, and watch some TV to catch up with the outside world. It turned out well because I ended up having a phone conversation with Bishop Samuel Azariah, the primate of Pakistan (!!!!) Diocese of Raiwind in Pakistan First of all, WOW, I cannot actually believe that we talked and secondly, I did look into obtaining a VISA last year to travel there. I have always wanted to see several historic sites and I was going to be close enough since I was in India. Too many security reasons not to go, but looking ahead to the future and having some possible official security with me as well as a place to stay and a job to do - I WOULD LIKE TO GO! So, we will chat again relatively soon about it! #fingerscrossed 
That's it for me today! Check my #GC78 photos HERE and have a good night, folks :-)
Thank you for reading!
Caroline

An Alternate View: Salmon, Deputizing, and Baseball at #GC78

Monday, Day #5 of #GC78

"Who eats salmon for breakfast?!" my bishop asks as he swiftly walks by on the way to his legislative committee. I'm not really a morning person. If it were 9:00 instead of 7:00 and I had a coffee, I might have been able to think of a comeback. I have a vague notion that lots of people eat salmon for breakfast. I love my bishop, so I'll let him have this one....this time :-)

The General Convention has a tough schedule. One has to be fully coherent and functional by 7:00 AM and ready for a looooong day of work. Today was my first day as a Deputy on the floor of the House of Deputies so I had to be here to register and change credentials at 7:00 AM. I'm used to complaining about ACDA (American Choral Directors Association) reading sessions at 8:00 AM! Let me tell you, those sessions now seem like cake. 
CAKE I tell you.

(Solely for the purposes of this blog, I got a cake-like item in the afternoon and enjoyed eating it ....)
- No legislative committee session for me this morning so I took some time and chatted with friends.
- Community Eucharist at 9:30 I'm glad to see that most people attend these services. The Media Hub is fantastic so I hope you're occasionally watching from home.

The Lux Singers from Salt Lake City sand beautifully this morning. The Pilgrim's Hymn (Paulus), O Magnum Mysterium (Victoria), and Bogoroditse Devo from Rachmaninov's All Night Vigil were a few of their selections. It was nice!

                                  

The Archbishop Vicken Aykazian of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church in America preached and afterwards congratulated Presiding Bishop-elect Michael Curry. 

Also recognized was the 100th Anniversary of Armenian Genocide and The Episcopal Church's hospitality to Armenian refugees who came to the US. The Archbishop was wearing an amazing pectoral cross.

                 

- 11:00 my first legislative session as a Deputy! :-)
View from the table with MARTY the crawfish and Jacques the Duck

Today was my first time going to bunch w/ the deputation. We went to Café Molise 

                 

- 2:15 session until 6:00

It was exciting to follow the legislative procedure from the floor and to track the many amendments. I got to vote several times today! I reached a point where the language and rhythm felt a easier to gauge and predict and I could usually tell who was coming up for what. There were a lot of people who just came up to speak and hear themselves. There were also times of robust testimony from both sides of an argument. 
- Here's my Twitter stream again in case you want to see my play-by-play of the proceedings. I ran over to the House of Bishops as soon as we had recess and came in to hear someone testifying against a canonical resolution. He was reading the Bible and calling for members of the LGBT community to know and to prayerfully abstain from mutual sexual gratification. As soon as he finished, I had to leave, but at the end of the day, we got news that the House of Bishops DID pass key resolutions!!!! Check out my friend Melodies Woerman's Deputy News post!

Now, for a bit of fun, members of the Diocesan deputations from Louisiana, Western Louisiana, Tennessee, and Western North Carolina all went to the Salt Lake City Bees vs. Albuquerque Isotopes baseball game! I'm sure there are tons more #GC78 folks here too!

It was SO HOT! but is now starting to cool off. FINALLY, a breeze! I sat next to Bill Bryant from the Diocese of Western Louisiana. He is a priest who was formerly a chemist so of course we exchanged jokes about isotopes and chemistry! :-) FUN!

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned,
Caroline :-)

An Alternate View: Orientation and Presentations, June 24 at #GC78

Hello everyone!

This morning, (the day before #GC78 officially begins), legislative committee sessions were held at 7:00 AM until 8:30. THIS "having to be awake AND functionally intelligent" thing - whoa....

Let us pray.

Let's just also say the word espresso.

I attended the committee meeting on Prayer Book & Liturgy. Here are the resolutions and amendments that committee is handling. As an alternate, my job is to step in as needed on the House of Deputies floor when one of our deputation needs a break or is sick or needs a whole day away. In addition, I studied three areas of interest:

1. Liturgy & Music

2. Mission

3. Communications & Evangelism (this is the one that led to my using some communications talents and social media to help get the word out about our diocese's experience here at General Convention.)

(media badge)

We opened the Prayer Book, Liturgy & Music Committee meeting with song (Hymn # 362 "Holy, Holy, Holy") and it was evident in verse one that few of us were "morning people", 

By the fourth verse, harmonies were fully present and it actually sounded good. This video is from verse #1. :-)
video (Won't upload from my phone, but will work on it)
Several amendments were presented, discussed, and a few passed.

After this, I headed downstairs to the House of Deputies. Excuse me, but WHAT A GIGANTIC ROOM! easily 800-900 people in here, slightly reminiscent of C-span, yet LOTS more interesting (in my opinion).

SO MANY PEOPLE! I took my place in the section for alternates and plugged in. 

The morning session was a presentation to GC from the Presiding bishop and Gay Clark Jennings (pres. of the HOD - House of Deputies). Presentations were a little bit of orientation and a little bit of procedure about what we have to work on during the convention, officially beginning tomorrow! (June 25-July 3). 

                     

I actually cannot imagine NOT being here a couple of days ahead to hear committees and hearings and to prep on matters at hand. Last night, I got to go to the airport with a friend and pick up a visitor from Korea. My friend has been here for several days and appeared already thoroughly exhausted.
It's certainly eye-opening to see the amount of work that the governing bodies must review, present, discuss, and vote upon.

After a break, an orientation to General Convention was held from 10-12. Alternates were asked to come and sit with their delegations. I found mind hard at work!

                   

                   

So began an introduction to GC followed by a "how-to" session on using the virtual binder. I can handle it. The GC could not pay for wifi for non-committee members in the legislative sessions so THAT was why I couldn't get to the resolutions and access my virtual binder this morning. I did use my phone to look up resolutions and amendments. Wifi is available in all hotels and throughout most of the Convention Center. That is a pretty amazing feat in itself so I am not complaining!

                    

After all the instructions, the parliamentarian showed us examples of secondary amendments. This got hilarious very quickly! It also included a description of what is considered to be "germane" when discussing amendments or secondary amendments. Things can indeed get bogged down when amending amendments, especially in a room of the sleep-deprived and dehydrated deputies :-)

                    

They also showed us how to use the voting devices. I'm glad they plan on reviewing it before every voting session.

                                 

At noon, I went over to the exhibits area in search of food since my breakfast was espresso and being an alternate is a hungry business!
Instead, I ended up watching a discussion by the fellows in mission, led by Canon Mark Stevenson who is the Domestic Poverty Missioner. The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, The Episcopal Church, featured four fellows discussing the inclusion of environmental responsibility and stewardship and care of creation in Christian formation. They also discussed issues such as homelessness and poverty, and what is being done to work towards solving these situations. As I am involved with mission work and lots of you are too, both locally and internationally, I was intensely interested in the conversation. I brought up a point about people who have been displaced and become homeless over a long decline after a natural disaster. A riveting discussion ensued. These fellows and heads of mission programming around the country are doing amazing work and from what I understand, doing it without a very big budget.

After this engaging presentation, I picked up an apple and a bagel and headed back into the HOD for a presentation by each of the four nominees for presiding bishops. 

                       

The nominees are:
The Rt. Rev. Thomas E. Breidenthal, Bishop of the Diocese of Southern Ohio
The Rt. Rev. Michael B. Curry, Bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina
The Rt. Rev. Ian T. Douglas, Bishop of the Diocese of Connecticut
The Rt. Rev. Dabney T. Smith, Bishop of the Diocese of Southwest Florida
We then listened to what the spirit was telling the church...

                             

Here is more info on the nominees
After opening videos, each gave his own personal statement to the joint session. Then, we waited a few moments and a big bowl was brought out. Inside the bowl were colorful pieces of paper with the categories pictured below. Each nominee chose a paper and called out the color and number which led to a question being read from someone on the floor. This session lasted a loooooooong time, BUT was extremely worth it with the diversity of the questions and the unique and fantastic answers from each nominee. It felt a wee bit like a game show, but I think some levity is good. Keep it light y'all.

We took another standing/stretching break and all said the Lord's Prayer Together. That was an especially moving moment. It's also what it's all about. It's about us being in community together without division even though we may have distinctions and varying opinions.
I was impressed with each candidate and his eloquence in answering each question given. All were impressive and each had his own moments of truly sharing his own style and way of speaking. If you'd like to know who I think the new PB will be, email me for my prediction or comment below!
After a few breaks and lots more questions, each nominee had two minutes to either return to a question they had been asked or to answer a question they had not been asked. Then, they each had time to give formal, final statements. The two-minute statements were a combination of thanks, gratitude, and love to the nominating committee, their families, to each other, and their dioceses. Such love! All four did well today.

When the session was over, I came back to the hotel for a little rest before this evening's legislative session from 7-8:30 PM. I am already wiped out. Not sure if I'll try to go to dinner, but since I still had delicious leftovers from last night's Beef Stroganoff (YUM), I'll eat some now to tide me over :-) I think the arid environment is also getting to me - I had a small nosebleed earlier today. I've been drinking water almost constantly, but I am simply not used to it being so dry! 

Thank you very much for reading and I hope you'll stay tuned :-)

Caroline