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: 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

An Alternate View: Heading to #GC78

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand... We're off! 

...into the wild Blue Book yonder... 

This is currently my view. Not too shabby.  I'm airborne, heading to the great Salt Lake City and contemplating all the things I'm going to learn about at the 78th General Convention of The Episcopal Church (DFMS). 

Salt Lake City's Salt Palace Convention Center         

I'll be completely honest: I'm SUPER EXCITED and a wee bit nervous too! 

I'm going as an alternate with my areas of selected interest being: Liturgy & Music, Communications, and Mission. My goal, wholeheartedly, is to serve as needed. 

I'll be taking tons of pictures for EDOLA (The Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana), running our church FB, IG, Pinterest, & Twitter, writing updates, and interviewing some very kind and gracious folks while I'm there. This makes me SO HAPPY!!!

I will also be walking in a procession with the Bishops Against Gun Violence event next Sunday. (More on this very soon.) Speaking of bishops, I thought I had gotten a bishop- free flight today...

Just kidding! :-) I absolutely adore our bishop (Rt. Rev'd Morris K. Thompson) so am quite happy to share the friendly skies. A few others from our deputation are also on this same flight! 

Why would I be nervous about #GC78? I think that I always am a little bit nervous before any convention. This time, it's a HUGE one and I'm not yet quite sure how everything works: from exchanging my media credentials for deputy creds, when I'll be stepping into a deputy role, where things are, social time, what all is expected of me, trying to see dear friends who are going to be even more busy, etc. etc. I'm quite sure I'll feel very at ease in a day though!

What's extremely important for me, personally, while I'm in SLC?

- Seeing my church in action in all of its areas: bishops, priests, deacons, lay ministers, volunteers, worship services, meetings, legislation, procedure. That might seem nerdy, but so be it. I'm curious as to these proceedings and I want to learn more!

- The election of our next Presiding Bishop! I will truly miss PB Katharine Jefferts-Schori. 
I think she has done an amazing job and have the highest respect for her. I love her sermons and speeches, her writings, her diplomacy, her international peace making. I think we have four truly wonderful people being considered for the next PB. 

- Liturgy

I'm carrying with me the hopes of many that this convention will further inclusion of new liturgies, discussion, and more regarding liturgical inclusivity people of all sexual orientations. 

- Discernment 

In my own discernment process, I continue to live into my calling in various ways. Attending #GC78 is a phenomenal opportunity for me to learn so much about the inner workings of The Episcopal Church, observe many varied worship services and the fact that at large gatherings such as this - worship dominates these conventions. This experience will also allow me to meet tons of people and to ask them about their chosen paths. I can't wait!!!!

Aaaaaaaaaaaand so, I'm off to SLC! Stay tuned! :-)