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 :-)