An Alternate View: A Day of WOW in #GC78

Today was amazing!! The highlights were that I got to catch up with a good friend - a brother in the SSJE (Society of St. John the Evangelist) who I hadn't seen since the 1990's), I had lunch with one of my best friends at one of my favorite restaurants, and the sermon at the morning worship service was outstanding!
Sermon by Becca Stevens - link 
Brother Jim and me 

I'm way too tired (lazy?) to write much more at this hour, but I'll simply let others do the work for me :-) I'll add that I never imagined my tweet would be quoted in Mashable and Buzzfeed, but I think that's pretty cool! In each case, I waited until the last vestiges of the president of the house's voice sounded as she read the voting results in each case BEFORE I pressed send.

I gave a play-by-play tweeting that several folks said had them on the edges of their seats. It was riveting and a bit stressful too. I'm not able to type with two hands yet on my iPhone and since wifi was off, I had to make sure I was ready with the important tweets and correct with numbers of amendments and resolutions. Super fun work though :-)

After attending a portion of the "Utah Night" event at the Salt Lake City Tabernacle, I checked my phone and it was blowing up with folks letting me know I had been quoted in these articles. Nice surprise! Here are the two small articles.

1. Mashable article
2. Buzzfeed article
While I am personally very, VERY happy with the way today's voting turned out, I am conscious of the fact that not everyone was rejoicing in the House of Deputies, among my colleagues and friends, and among members of the Anglican Communion.With that in mind, I am extremely proud of our church for being able to discuss both sides of any issue, for being able to center decisions and discernment in prayer, for reaching out to all even though all may not agree on something, and for taking risks, albeit slow risks. I'm very proud to be an Episcopalian all the time, but maybe a portion more today.
Here's a photo of our Diocese of Louisiana Deputation and then some scenes from around the Tabernacle area. Salt Lake City is very pretty and also extremely clean.

EDOLA deputation (not pictured: Edgar Stearns and me :-)

An Alternate View: #GC78 Marriage Equality News from the Supreme Court

THIS
"Supreme Court Declares Same-Sex Marriage Legal in All 50 States"
and this (from Hilary Clinton's Facebook page and now all over the internet)                                                   
I am SO HAPPY FOR SO MANY PEOPLE!!!
This morning, the Committee on Marriage was meeting while the Supreme Court decision came out. There were folks raising hands to speak and inform everyone. When the information was read, there was some applause and then a moment of prayer. Someone suggested that the hearing adjourn because it was an intensely emotional moment and many needed to make calls to family and friends as well as write press releases etc. So many people here are extremely elated by the decision, but there are many who are not. All seem to be handling it very well and respectfully, but this will surely spark and change some conversations in the Marriage Committee. I can't wait to see what will happen with Liturgy & Music and Marriage Committees. Here is the link to A037, the resolution to Continue Work of the Task Force on the Study of Marriage.
http://www.generalconvention.org/gc/2015-resolutions/A037/current_english_text