Last Day of General Convention

The last day of the 76^th General Convention is here, and people have been heading out all day.  This morning at breakfast, the view from the restaurant was of the line at the UPS store in the Hilton lobby.  Deputies accumulate an amazing amount of paper while at General Convention, in addition to lots of free stuff from the Exhibit Hall during the week.  Not wanting to have to lug pounds and pounds of it on the plane (not to mention having to pay for it now that baggage charges are the rule rather than the exception) and through the airport, they ship it all back home. 

 There was a particular stillness to the Convention Center today.  The Triennial of the Episcopal Church Women was concluded, so there was noticeably less traffic through the corridors.  In addition, all of the vendors and exhibitors in the Exhibit Hall packed up yesterday afternoon.  I had a chance to say good-bye to Rida and Sue (I got her name wrong for the Cathedral News this Sunday) Rishmawi, who will be with us at St. John’s on Sunday.  With the Exhibit Hall empty, the only places where people were doing business were the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops.  I went up late this morning to the House of Deputies Secretariat (the office that coordinates the business of that House) to fill out an application for an appointment to one of the many Standing Commissions that work between General Conventions , and several staffers were packing up, a few were watching the live feed from the floor, and others were chatting amongst themselves; the work has been done.

 The first legislative session began a half hour early today, to move through the long list of legislation still to be considered in the House of Deputies.  There was, however, a special order of business to consider a resolution from the Committee on Prayer Book, Liturgy and Worship.  It is C056, entitled “Liturgies for Blessings.”  Sponsored by the Diocese of Missouri, it is a resolution that calls for “…the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music, in consultation with the House of Bishops, collect and develop theological and liturgical resources [for the blessing of same gender relationships], and report to the 77^th General Convention…”  The resolution also invites “…theological reflection from throughout the Anglican Communion…”  Further, it resolves to “…honor the theological diversity of this Church in regard to matters of human sexuality…”  You can view the entire resolution here. 

 It is so important to read the entirety of a resolution; don’t just take away the headlines from newspapers or internet sites.  This resolution, while calling for study and the collection of materials, does not endorse any particular action or rite.  I think it inevitable that time will come, and it is also true that, at least given the tenor of this Convention, there is an increasing realization (borne of the Bishops’ experience at Lambeth last year) that a gracious space must be given for disagreement and variety of theological viewpoints, based in part on context.  The language of this resolution states that explicitly.  In other words, what flies in the Diocese of Newark will not necessarily fly in the Diocese of Dallas, or of the Rio Grande.  That is a strength of Anglicanism, it seems to me, and I am prepared to live in the middle of it.

 A note on the vote taken on C056.  The vote was by orders, meaning that lay deputies and clergy deputies vote separately.  The result was:  in the Lay Order-78 for, 23 against, and 7 divided:  in the Clergy Order-74 for, 27 against, and 7 divided.  Recall that each deputation has four lay deputies and four clergy deputies.  When a vote by orders is called, the head of the deputation polls the deputies.  There must be a majority for or against in order to cast a definitive vote.  Unanimous votes one way or the other are clear.  So, 1 against and 3 for will result in a “yes” vote.  1 for and  against will result in a “no” vote.  However, if the vote of a deputation is 2 for and 2 against, it is recorded as “divided” and ultimately counts as a “no” vote.

 Now to follow up on the Diocese of the Rio Grande resolution, calling for the inclusion of the Rev. Ted Howden in Lesser Feasts and Fasts.  Whether because of the crush of legislation or other cause, I do not know, but sixteen resolutions on commemorations were lumped together this morning to be considered for referral to the Standing Committee on Liturgy and Music; Fr. Howden’s commemoration was among them.  That means that his life, and the readings and prayers to mark it, will be studied in the next three years, and a recommendation will come to the next General Convention.  We will be following the work on this and will be prepared to make sure it is considered in 2012 in Indianapolis.

 The closing Eucharist was held today.  The Presiding Bishop celebrated and preached, as she did at the Opening Eucharist.  Her sermon may be found here.  It focused on, as did her opening sermon, mission.  It brought a reflectiveness about our experience of this General Convention to the forefront.  Commemorating William White, the second Bishop consecrated for the American Church and the first Presiding Bishop, Bishop Jefferts Schori spoke about his “both/and” thinking in his day and commended it to those attending the Eucharist.  She urged those from this Convention to return home with that mindset and, touching on the Gospel for the day, to go back and feed the flock of Christ.  It was a good closing sermon.

 There was an unfortunate incident on the floor of the House of Deputies this afternoon.  During the debate on the resolutions from Prayer Book and Liturgy, specifically during questions surrounding a new commemoration of the Blessed Virgin Mary, one of the deputies walked out in a most dramatic fashion.  I was writing in my notebook, when I heard a loud clapping sound.  I looked up, only to see a priest, a woman I know from a more conservative diocese, walking down the middle aisle, clapping her shoes together over her head.  I knew immediately that she was giving dramatic expression to Jesus’ injunction to his disciples, when he sent them out two-by-two, to “shake the dust off your feet,” if you offer peace in a place and it is not returned.  This woman was angry and distressed.  As she left the floor, she turned and acted as if she would throw her shoes at the House of Deputies, a symbolic act that has meaning for us after our familiarization with the Muslim insult of throwing shoes at one’s enemy or persecutor.  I was sad that she felt she had to act in this fashion and hope that as she returns home she can let that emotion go, giving it up in prayer.

 There is so much more that could be written about this General Convention.  In these posts I have only scratched the surface of what goes on here.  I encourage you, if you are interested, to view the legislation of Convention, now finalized, which is on the General Convention webpage.  Follow the link to “Legislation,” then “View Legislation.”  It is an interactive page which is quite informative.  Also, you can revisit the Media Hub for General Convention.  The “Convention Daily” publications are a concise wrap-up of each day.

 I head home first thing in the morning and will be back in the pulpit on Sunday…

Physics and God upholding Creation

As someone trained in the sciences, the intersection of Science and Faith is a field that is fascinating to me.  It is also an area of inquiry that has been growing tremendously over the last fifteen to twenty years.  Ten years ago if you had looked for books on Science and Religion, or Science and Faith, you would have found some, now considered foundational to this discipline, but not the flood that now appear when searching Amazon or specific academic presses.

 In the June 5, 2009, issue of the Church Times, the Feature focused on scientists and their religious faith.  The book out of which the extracts were taken is Real Scientists Real Faith, edited by R. J. Berry and published my Monarch.  I provide just one of the extracts here, a snapshot of the thinking of the late Dr. Donald MacKay.

 

“I believe in one God, Maker of heaven and earth.”  So says the ancient creed of the Christian church.  The claim of biblical theism is that the world in which we find ourselves is not eternally self-sufficient:  it has a Maker, on whom it depends not just for some initial impulse long ago, but for its daily continuance now.

           This is strange language to modern ears.  The world we know seems very stable, reasonably low-abiding (in the non-human domain at least), and not at all obviously in need of any divine power to keep it going.  Over the past 200 years and more, we have become accustomed to thinking of it as a mechanism, intricate perhaps beyond the grasp of human understanding, but still something self-running and self-contained.  Thinking in these terms, we might see some point in bringing in God as the original Creator of the universe; but we might find it particularly hard to visualize any sense in which a universe, once created, could continue to depend on its Creator for its existence.

           Without pretending to fathom the mysterious depths of these biblical claims, I believe we can get some feeling for their meaning from the imagery of modern physics.  Ask a physicist to describe what he finds as he probes deeper and deeper into the fine structure of our solid world, and he will tell you a story of an increasingly dynamic character.

           Instead of a frozen stillness, he discovers a buzz of activity that seems to intensify with increase of magnification.  The molecules he pictures as the stuff of the chair you are sitting on, and o the body sitting in it, are all believed to be in violent motion, vibrating millions of times in a second, or even careering about in apparent disarray, with an energy depending on the temperature.

           Each of the atoms composing those molecules is thought of as a theatre of even more dramatic activity, likened by Niels Bohr to the whirling of tiny planets around a central sun, but nowadays pictured as the vibrations of a cloud whose shape and density determine the probability of various kinds of discrete events called light-emission, electron-absorption, and the like.  Modern physics says it is to such elementary events, myriads of them, continually recurring, that we owe all our experience of the solid world of objects.  Even the fundamental particles postulated by theoretical physicists as the building-bricks of our world are thought of as spending their time in snapping from one to another of a variety of different states, or even in continually exchanging identities.

           For our present purpose it does not matter for how long physics is likely to go on using these particular images.  Their relevance here is merely to illustrate a key concept that, I think, may help us to grasp what the biblical writers mean when they say that the stable existence of our world depends on the creative activity of God.  We can call it dynamic stability.  In our everyday experience, chairs, tables, and rocks are typically stable objects.  There they are.  Nothing may seem to be happening to them or in them for most of their existence; yet the modern physicist is quite content to describe such stable objects as a concurrence of unimaginably complex and dramatic submicroscopic events, without any suggestion that he is contradicting the facts of experience.  All he claims is that their stability is not static but dynamic.  The quiet solidity of physical objects, he would say, reflects the coherence of uncountable myriads of events at the atomic or subatomic level, each of which, by itself, might seem almost unrelated to its neighbours in space or time.

           For another and rather different illustration of dynamic stability, ask a television engineer to explain the patterns of light and shade that form the image on the face of a TV set, say, when we are watching the Trooping of the Colour.  All that is happening on the screen, he will assure us, is but a succession of isolated sparks of light produced by electron-impact; yet, because of the regularities in the programme of signals controlling the intensity of the beam of electrons, these sparks fall into a coherent pattern, forming stable images of the objects we are watching, whether the scene is one of client change or of perfect calm, or, indeed, whether it continues in being at all; all depends entirely on the modulating programme.  Any stability the picture has is a dynamic or contingent stability, conditional on the maintenance in being, and the coherence of the succession of event-giving signals.

           I need hardly say that none of these examples of dynamic stability is meant as an explanatory model of our mysterious dependence on God as portrayed in the Bible.  But if we ask the writers of the Bible what makes our world tick, the sort of question that underlies any attempt to build a science of nature, we will find them using remarkably similar language.  From the biblical standpoint, all the contents of our world, ourselves included, have to be “held in being” by the continual exercise of God’s sustaining power.  In Christ, says Paul, “all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible…all things were created through him and for him.  He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”  (Colossians 1: 16-17)

           Or, as the writer to the Hebrews puts it:  “In these last days [Go] has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.  He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature, upholding the universe by his word of power.” (Hebrews 1: 2-3)

           For biblical theism, then, it is clear that the continuing existence of our world is not something to be taken for granted.  Rather, it hangs moment by moment on the continuance of the upholding word of power of its Creator, as dependent on this as the picture on a TV screen is on the maintaining programme of signals.

From Wednesday, July 15, the Antepenultimate day of Convention

The reaction continues to the passage of D025, as amended in the House of Bishops on Monday, by the General Convention.  As I have noted, people on all sides are spinning this resolution this way or that.  What is the real picture?  Well, I’m not exactly sure how to answer that.  However, I can say that I do not subscribe to the notion, advanced on the left, that this is a complete endorsement of gay and lesbian persons in partnered relationships for all orders of ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church, representing a “repeal” of B033.  Nor do I adhere to the meaning attached to D025’s passage put forward on the right, that this is a repudiation of the Anglican Communion, a snub to the Archbishop of Canterbury, representing the overthrow of “restraint” as found in B033.  As I have written here, D025 states the canonical reality of the Episcopal Church.  If I were pressed on this, I would have to add, honestly, that I do think its passage will make it easier for gay and lesbian persons to go through the ordination process in many dioceses.  I cannot say that I think that is a good thing, as I am unconvinced that the Church should bless sexual expression outside of marriage. 

 Much is being made of an op/ed article, written by Bishop TomWright, Bishop of Durham in the Church of England.  Bishop Wright has his piece in the Times, and it can be found here.  I think it is both a misread of D025 and a needlessly provocative statement, inflamed by the passion of the moment and anxieties about what the future holds for the Communion.  There is an interesting response to Bishop Wright’s piece here.  It is food for thought from another perspective.  It is important for me to have a variety of perspectives in order to arrive at an informed understanding of an issue.  There is another slant on D025 from an acquaintance, and deputy to General Convention, Fr. Dan Martins.  His blog may be found here.

 

I had a very interesting event on Tuesday, interviewing the international guests of the President of the House of Deputies, Bonnie Anderson.  Here are those who were able to attend the interview.  They are, from right to left:  The Very Rev. Rowan Smith, Dean of St. George’s Cathedral in Capetown, South Africa; Canon Robert Falby of the Anglican Church of Canada; Dr. Jenny Te Paa, Principal of Te Rau Kahikatea, College of St. John the Evangelist in Aukland, New Zealand; The Very Rev. Dr. Victor Atta-Baffoe, Dean of St. Nicholas Seminary, Cape Coast, Ghana; and a guest from the Episcopal Church of Brazil.  It was a boost to be able to sit and talk with folks about mission and ministry around the world.  That’s what the Church needs to be about, and it was good to be reminded of that in the midst of this Convention.

 

And, yes, as is true at every General Convention I have attended, there are protesters, though this time very few.  Here is a scene in front of the Convention Center with the lone protester and those protesting the protester.

 

 

 

 

On another note, the resolution calling for Fr. Ted Howden to be placed in Lesser Feasts and Fasts is moving ahead.  I think it will come to the House of Bishops tomorrow.  Fr. Howden was a priest in the Diocese of the Rio Grande (during his time called the Missionary Diocese of New Mexico and Southwest Texas).  He was a chaplain during World War II, was on the Bataan Death March and died in a Japanese prisoner of war camp, having given his rations to other soldiers, a sacrificial act that lead to his death.  Before the War, he was rector of St. Andrew’s Church in Roswell, his father having been Bishop of the Missionary District.  That resolution is here.

 Lest you think that the General Convention is passing all legislation relating to issues of sexual identity, the House of Bishops today significantly amended C061, a resolution calling for equality of access to the ordination process for transgendered persons.  The Bishops removed entirely the specific language relating to categories of persons, letting the “all” in the resolution stand on its own.  As one bishop put it, “When will simply allow ‘all’ to mean all.  We don’t need to wade into this.”  I must say that the tenor of debate in the House of Bishops is far more edifying than it is in the House of Deputies, by and large.

 The Bishops also considered a resolution calling for an open process of study, reception, and experimentation for materials relating to the blessing of same-gender relationships.  They rejected the initial resolution, substituting one which calls for a process of study and the collection of materials related to liturgies for same-gender blessings.  The session in which this matter was considered was packed, with a great deal of parliamentary manoeuvering happening.  It was an extension of an earlier session from which the Bishops recessed to allow reflection together on the shape of their decisions.  The substitute resolution which, it must be emphasized, does no more than call for study and preparation of materials to be considered in 2012 in Indianapolis (the site of the next General Convention), was passed by a margin of more than 2-1, similar to the margin on the vote on D025.  The story on this resolution may be found here.

 Also, good news on the Native American front:  Deacon Terry Star, from the Diocese of North Dakota, was elected to the Executive Council, the body that governs the Episcopal Church between General Conventions.  Terry is a member of the Lakota Sioux and lives on the Standing Rock Reservation.  He is well known and respected in the Native community and impressed me as being a genuine person who is passionate about serving the Church and sharing the Good News.  There are many other Native folks here, young and old.  This little guy is probably the youngest, also here from the Standing Rock Reservation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The joint session of the two Houses happened this afternoon at 2:30.  This special session is convened at each Convention to have the triennial budget presented by the Committee on Program, Budget and Finance (PB&F).  It is the only time that the Bishops are invited on the floor of the House of Deputies, and the Presiding Bishop is invited to preside over the joint session.  This next three-year budget is going to be a challenge, as income has been projected, based upon reports of contributions from dioceses, to be down by over fifteen million dollars.  So, cuts have to be made and funding requests denied.  In fact, the draft budget was decreased by some 23 million dollars, with asking from the dioceses reduced to reflect the difficult economic circumstances faced by all around the Church.  There were many questions put to the chairman of the committee.  As I write this, I received an e-bulletin from Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation, a mission group that is active in, and lobbies for, support for worldwide mission, that the funding for the Millennium Development Goals has been restored to the budget.  Originally taken out of the draft, it was put back in by action on D019.  The restored budget line is the 0.7% funding level encouraged for all congregations and diocese in the Episcopal Church.  For those concerned with the work of the Church in the world, this is a very big deal!  The budget will be acted on today and tomorrow by the two Houses.

 

Following the joint session, alternates and media folks are allowed on the floor of the Convention.  So, I got this shot of all our folks who are here, representing our diocese.  Unfortunately, Bishop Frey could not be in this picture.  He is with Barbara, who is at her sister’s side, in Green Valley, Arizona, as her sister is dying.  Please pray for the Freys.

 

 

 

 Fr. Brian Winter is here, having arrived late Monday night.  Brian is an alternate clerical deputy and wanted to come just to see what happens at Convention.  He and I have been attending sessions of the two Houses together.  He is seeing classmates from seminary days and checking the exhibit hall and displays.  We had dinner last night to continue discussions of diocesan communications.  We’re meeting with the Communications Director of the Diocese of Utah tomorrow morning to explore some new ideas.

 More from Convention tomorrow…

From Tuesday, July 14, 2009

I’m generally not a person who points to communication that I consider to be outlandish.  Maybe it’s because I don’t go looking for it, preferring to develop connections with folks who are moderate in their views and open to conversations.  I prefer positive and constructive contributions to the development of our life together.  However, as I was looking at blogs that expressed a variety of points of view about what was happening here at General Convention, I ran across this from a deputy from Missouri.  I pass this content along, because I think it instructive about how tragically (and unnecessarily) polarized things have gotten in the Episcopal Church.  I’m sure there are similarly extreme views on the opposite end of the spectrum, but this is what I have encountered at the moment.  While this level of rhetoric is unhelpful to me spiritually, I pass it on as a “reality check” on what’s out there.  After you read it, go hug your wife and kids, and then read Chapter 13 of St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians as an antidote.

 This deputy writes on her blog:

I know it’s way too early in the General Convention schedule to begin looking toward the closing gavel and the days beyond. But I cannot help it, for I am distressed by what I am not hearing from our bishops.

Every blog I read – even the extremely conservative ones – believes that the House of Deputies is ready to move beyond B033. At least ready to reject it. Maybe just by restating our canons (that there be no discrimination) and rejecting extra-canonical restraints. Perhaps even to call for development of rites for same-sex blessings or even marriages.

But that’s the clergy and laypeople in the House of Deputies.

I am sensing different and worrisome rumblings from the House of Bishops. Bloggers are observing that very few bishops are attending hearings and speaking on behalf of the various measures that would reject B033 or move our church beyond it.

Gene Robinson has bravely written more on his blog on Thursday:

 We also had a disturbing private (no one in the gallery) conversation in the House of Bishops that led me to feel discouraged about what lies ahead. That conversation is private, so I can’t detail it, but there seems to be a kind of belligerent attitude toward the House of Deputies by some of our bishops. Their vision of the episcopate is way too “high and mighty” for my taste, or my theology, and I am not happy about it. The last thing we bishops need is a larger measure of arrogance. Didn’t Jesus save his most serious criticism for the religious powers-that-be of his day who lorded their power and position over others?  (Dean Goodman’s comment:  One of the unfortunate tendencies among some bishops recently is to abdicate the authority of their office.  We are, after all, an Episcopal Church, our common life centered around the bishop, who is the visible symbol of our unity.  The House of Bishops, despite some of the current opinions voiced by members of the House of Deputies, is fully able to make decisions on its own, not about Canon and Constitution, but assuredly about those part of our common life over which Bishops have authority, such as the ordination process as well as the sacramental and liturgical life of their dioceses, among others.)

One alarming thing about last night’s hearing was the fact that there were almost NO bishops present. Other than those on the committee (who HAD to be there), there were only five bishops present: Andrus (California), Beckwith (Newark) and myself, arguing for moving forward; Love (Albany) and Lawrence (South Carolina) arguing for continuing B033. Other than these, NO bishop was present to hear the two hours of voices from the Church appealing for progress.

I fear (and I hope I’m not being overly dramatic here) that we are moving toward a train wreck between the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops. I sense an unwillingness among the bishops to listen to these voices of the laity and clergy. I hope I’m terribly wrong, but it seems that bishops feel they have some special access to God’s will and nothing will persuade them otherwise. I shutter (sic) to think of a church where the Bishops are so disconnected from the will of the people they serve. Please God, let me be terribly wrong about this perception, and may the scales fall from my pessimistic eyes and reveal an episcopate who has listened to the Spirit’s movement in the people of this Church. Nothing would make me happier than to be wrong about this. Only time will tell.

Coming into this General Convention, the conservative bloggers were saying that “all is lost” – that TEC would move ahead on what they see as a dreadful course.  (Dean Goodman’s comment:  It wouldn’t matter if the House of Deputies passes something completely unanimously.  The House of Bishops is a separate house, able to make decisions on its own recognizance, independent of Deputies.  The Bishops, regardless of the rhetoric here, are not some form of “delegates” for their lay and clergy deputies, any more than deputies are controlled by their bishops.) Remember, I suggested that back here on June 3. The bishops let Parsley establish a super-duper secret committee to study the theology of same-sex relationships (Dean Goodman’s comment:  Given the level of vitriol evident here, I’d say it’s pretty evident why Bishop Parsley thought it necessary to protect the committee  that the Theology Committee of the House of Bishops has created.  Can you imagine the harassment to which they would be subjected if the identities of the members were known?)… with a due date of 2011 for that report. I now grow more concerned that “the fix was in” long before the bishops and deputies arrived in Anaheim.  (Dean Goodman’s comment:  I am continually amazed by the arrogant dismissal of the experience of others, when I’m sure this deputy would insist upon her experience being respected.  If you weren’t there, then don’t presume to talk about the experience of those who were.  Charity, where is the charity?)

Now, I am confronting the fact that about 110 diocesan bishops may stonewall the issue and stand against the strong will (perhaps even a super-majority) of the 880 deputies.

Now … I invite you to think with me. What will you do if the Deputies and Bishops come down on opposite sides?

It seems likely the Deputies may come down overwhelmingly in support of faithful LGBT Christians, and the bishops will come firmly down against us. I recognize that’s a short-hand way of putting the issue. It seems to me that the Deputies may … recognize that Scripture does not forbid the faithful relationships we experience … see and perceive the blessedness within same-sex relationships … see the need for the church to participate in our covenants … see that faithful Christians may serve (and, in fact, already are serving) in all orders (as bishops, deacons, and priests) in our church.

And the bishops – some of whom personally see the same thing –notwithstanding all that – may decide to block any action for the sake of the Anglican Unity Tea they drank at Lambeth.

Make no mistake: If the House of Bishops block the action of the House of Deputies, they will be telling me personally that they care more for the Archbishops of Nigeria, Uganda, etc. than they are about me. Yes, I will take it personally.The effect would be the blockade of any action of the Deputies by the House of Bishops. In our bicameral structure, the Bishops have that power. They can block any action of the House of Deputies.  (Dean Goodman’s comment:  Can we be honest here?  The converse is also true.  The ability to stop legislation applies equally to both houses; one is not in a superior position to the other.  If legislation comes out of Bishops, it can be rejected by Deputies, even if Bishops passed it unanimously.  There is no canonical or ecclesial insistence upon Bishops acting as the mere delegates of the laos.)

 What will you do if that happens?Because I love my parish, find great communion in my diocese, and love my bishop, I will be tempted to “suck it in” and continue to remain in place within my place in my Episcopal parish. Chastened, distanced, and profoundly sad. Hoping for the next General Convention, when perhaps things might change. I don’t know that I will have the heart to do that.And I will be tempted to quit the Episcopal Church once and for all … as I did during my “sabbatical from TEC” in July 2006, after B033.  (Dean Goodman’s comment:  Again, can we have some consistency here?  One cannot cast stones at conservatives who choose to leave the Episcopal Church, labeling them as “schismatic” and then reserve the right for oneself to take a “sabbatical” because you have hard feelings over the actions of General Convention.  This is the irrational approach of a child, not of a mature adult who realizes that life means learning to live together, to forebear one another, and to compromise.) If the bishops of TEC choose schismatic bullies like Akinola over me, then I will have to look elsewhere. I do not want to be “tolerated” or “accepted on sufferance.” I recognize what I experienced back in 2006: that no other church has the theology and liturgy that drew me to TEC. I tried them all: Romans, UCC, Disciples, ELCA. In this part of the world, they are all spooky-conservative and/or liturgically impoverished.  (Dean Goodman’s comment:  All?  Really?  What if I made blanket statements about a particular demographic category?  “All Asians are….” or “All liberals are….” or “All Californians are…”  Not only is the stereotyping here pretty breathtaking, but the condescension is unattractive.)    Having made those explorations in 2006, I know I won’t find another church home in this place. I’ll just join the increasing number of Americans who worship at St. Arbucks on Sundays.I love this church. The Episcopal Church has challenged me again and again to wrestle with my baptismal covenant and forces me – Sunday after Sunday – to consider whether I am living the holiness of life personally and in community.  (Dean Goodman’s comment:  Well, here she has it right; this is exactly what happens to Christians in community.  We are challenged.  Like Jacob with the angel at the River Jabok, we do have to wrestle with our faith.  The truth is that it is in the wrestling that we find the blessing.  I have to wrestle with those with whom I disagree; I don’t always like it, and it is frequently very uncomfortable and unpleasant, but it is the vocation we have as maturing Christians.) If I have to leave this church, it will be as painful as the most painful divorce.  (Dean’s comment:  One never “has” to leave a church.  It is a choice, made freely and without compulsion.  It is too easy to place the responsibility on someone else.  I, alone, am responsible for my actions, not someone else.  The actions of another can certainly affect me, leading me to this or that emotion, but they cannot control me unless I let them.  Sometimes, let’s be clear, it is spiritually the best choice to leave and go to another church, whether in the same denomination or not.  However, it is still my choice, for which I must take responsibility.)

I will find myself profoundly conflicted.  But I don’t see how I can remain in a church that officially declares me and my faith dispensable. And I fear the bishops are about to do exactly that.  

What about you? What are you all thinking you will do if the bishops choose to maintain the status quo?

  (Dean Goodman’s comment:  This is exactly what I think the bishops did; they maintained the status quo.  It is reported today that in the discussion in the House of Bishops, in a conversation related to yesterday’s action on D025, one senior bishop said to another that said resolution does not repudiate B033; “exercising restraint continues.”  D025 is descriptive, not prescriptive, despite the relentless spin that various groups are putting on it.  Some are trying to say that it eviscerates B033 and that the Communion will respond negatively to the action of the Convention, ostracizing The Episcopal Church from the ranks of the Anglican family.  Others are claiming that D025 completely removes any barrier to ordination based on sexual orientation and practice.  I believe neither is true.  What D025 does is to reflect the reality of where we are as a Church, stating clearly the canonical parameters for the ordination process.  It also states, in the amended form from Bishops, that God’s call to ordained ministry is a profound mystery.  We must be open to that mystery, as well as to the Mystery who is the Triune God.  Now, I am not so naïve that I believe that we are at the same place of restraint with regard to sexual orientation and practice that we were in 1998, with Lambeth 1.10, or in 2006, with B033.  Nevertheless, I do not think D025 is the watershed many are making it out to be.  My prayer is that the Archbishop of Canterbury, as well as others around the Communion who have not already taken the path of schism, will take all of this resolution to heart, see in it the genuine statement of filial affection that I believe is there, and choose not to act precipitously.  I pray that they, as well as all of us at General Convention, will take to heart once again St. Paul’s clear call to kenotic love found in the 13^th Chapter of his first Epistle to the Church in Corinth.)

Fifth Day of Convention

O.K., we’ve been at this now for four days, today, Sunday, being the fifth day of General Convention.

 The entire (well, the vast majority of those attending) membership of General Convention:  deputies and alternates, Bishops, ECW representatives, staff, volunteers and folks from the Diocese of Los Angeles gathered this morning to celebrate together the Eucharist.  Father Art Tripp and I looked around the Worship Center for Convention and figured that at least 9,000 seats must have been set up.  In the event, attendance was probably around 6,000, I’d guess.  Pretty amazing!

 

The music was quite something.  There has been a pick-up choir here at Convention, the “Ubuntu Choir”, echoing the theme of Convention, who gather each day just prior to the service to rehearse.  They’ve sung some great anthems, today doing Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus and an arrangement of Hymn 314, Adoro devote.  Since that’s one of my favourite hymns ever, along with Austria and Magdalene College, I was pretty happy.  Other hymns from the service were Nicaea and Westminster Abbey, “Christ is made the sure foundation.”  We concluded with my all time favourite mission hymn, Tidings:  “O Zion haste, thy mission high fulfilling.”  The rest of the liturgy could have been dross with that music, but it wasn’t.

 The music before the liturgy was very inspiring.  The Episcopal Chorale Society, a Gospel choir, sang with great musicality and passion.  When they sang, “I’m gonna sit at the Welcome Table,” they had folks’ attention!  (O.K., that’s another favourite, as it was used by Jeff Smith, the Frugal Gourmet, as an opening theme for his video series, “The Frugal Gourmet Keeps the Feast.”)  An extra treat was Elisabeth von Trapp…yes, of the “Von Trapp Family Singers!”…who led the music and sang, with guitar, a number of selections.  She’s not old enough to be one of the kids, so she must be a granddaughter of the grande dame of The Sound of Music fame.  Probably everyone who reads this blog will know that, but I’m out of the loop.

 It won’t come as a surprise to anyone, but I’m not a big fan of liturgical dance.  It’s just too contrived to be an authentic part of the liturgy.  So, when the young men and women came out at the beginning of the procession this morning, I thought it might be a long liturgy.  In addition, when I read that the procession was being accompanied by the Hansori Drummers of the St. James’ School of Los Angeles, my confidence in the morning dimmed a bit more.  Shows what I know!!

 

As I have said, the music was very well done.  I stick to my opinion of liturgical dance.  The drummers, however, were spectacular!  Having experienced culturally sensitive liturgy in the Episcopal Church in Navajoland, it’s clear that our great Anglican heritage can be flexible enough to mold itself to the local expressions of a particular cultural expression.  The dramatic drumbeat of the Hansori Drummers, following the robust singing of Nicaea, was pretty thrilling.  It built to a climactic drumming as the Altar party took their places behind the Altar and then ceased, to be followed by the Presiding Bishop stating the Opening Acclamation.  Pretty cool.

 

The Presiding Bishop celebrated and preached.  Her sermon proceeded from the notion of “what we bring” to General Convention.  I find her sermons, at least the ones I have heard, to be inspiring and challenging.  (As I have noted previously in this blog, there are points of disagreement with her addresses away from the pulpit; her sermons have been expressive and helpful.)  The text of her sermon may be found here.

 After the Eucharist, lunch at the local Indian restaurant.  The spice of curry to match the spice of Convention…(a lame analogy, I know, but it really is true).  Life is full of changes and chances, but Indian restaurants provide the common thread that weaves it all together.  I saw Bill Elliot, the Dean of Spokane, dining there, with friends from Eastern Oregon.  The Secretary of the House of Deputies, Gregory Straub, was also there, gnoshing a Sunday pakora and tandoori chicken.  You knew his taste in cuisine had to be at least as adventurous as his choice of haberdashery!

 

Meanwhile, the legislative agenda is heating up.  What are some of the resolutions that will be coming up that are of particular interest or concern?

It is undeniable that the greatest energy, whether positive or negative, centers on resolutions that bear upon the work of the last General Convention, the 75^th, in 2006, to answer the call of Primates of the Anglican Communion, as well as others, for The Episcopal Church to express some regret for the actions (giving consent to the election of the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson and the continuing practice in some dioceses of blessing of same-gender unions) that led to the Windsor Report and the ongoing development of an Anglican Covenant.  The 11^th hour voice of General Convention 2006 on this topic was B033, calling upon The Episcopal Church to “exercise restraint” in giving consent to those whose “manner of life” was a challenge to the wider Communion.

At the outset of General Convention 2009, there were well over two dozen resolutions that had been filed that dealt with the ramifications of B033.  Some of these were sent to the Committee on Prayer Book and Liturgy (which we have yet to see on the floor), and others were sent to World Mission.  World Mission?  Yes, they were referred to that committee, because it was felt that they had significant impact on the mission relationship of The Episcopal Church to the rest of the Communion.  World Mission has dealt with these resolutions for several days, struggling to craft a resolution that will incorporate the thrust of them without the strident language often found in them.  That struggle yielded D025.  The text of this resolution may be found here.

At the Press Briefing this evening, the Rev. Gay Jennings, the chairman of World Mission said that it had been referred out of committee by a vote of “twenty four to two” in favour.  What she didn’t say, a fact that had to be drawn out by George Conger, a journalist for a number of publications, was that the Bishops of the cognate committee, led by Bishop Geralyn Wolff of Rhode Island, voted 3-2 against sending it to the floor.  This is a story worth watching.

D025 passed the House of Deputies, on a vote by orders, by more than a two-thirds margin.  (A vote by orders is when the lay deputies and clergy deputies have to vote separately, by paper ballot.)  That result was really not all that surprising.  D025, after all, at least on one level, merely confirms the situation as it already exists within the Episcopal Church.  Making reference to the Canons, it makes clear the access to the ordination process cannot be denied on the grounds of sexual identity.  It also admits that the Church is of two minds on this question, a state of confusion that may continue, but under the watchful eyes of the canons.  There is no compulsion here, at this point; D025 merely states clearly the facts as they now exist.  Helpfully, I think, D025 also states explicitly the desire of The Episcopal Church to remain truly engaged with the life of the Communion.  I do not think this a cynical parliamentary ploy; I think this sentiment is real.  I hope and pray that we can build upon it and that our partners around the Communion will accept this snapshot of our lived reality.  My concern, of course, is that what is explanatory and optional initially will become mandatory at a later date.  A number of my colleagues in the Diocese of the Rio Grande would find that shift, as probably they do the passage of this resolution, difficult to accept.

After the session of the Houses today, the Deans of Cathedrals, who are at General Convention, gathered for conversation and refreshments.  A special guest was with us, the Dean of the Cathedral in Capetown, South Africa, the Very Rev. Rowan Smith.  Our conversation was very interesting and pleasant.  Also in attendance were Morris Thompson, Dean of Lexington, Kentucky; David du Plantier, Dean of New Orleans; Bill Elliott, Dean of Spokane, Washington; Ben Shambaugh, Dean of Portland, Maine; John Downey, Dean of Erie, Pennsylvania and President of the Deans’ Conference; William Willoughby, Dean of Savannah, Georgia;  and others.

 A long day, for the Sabbath!

Fourth Day of Convention

Saturday is the fourth day of Convention and a pretty normal meeting day.  Sunday, appropriately enough, is a bit of a Sabbath from the relentless schedule of hearings, meetings and events.  Folks look forward to Sunday, as much for the Eucharist celebrated on that day, the Principal Liturgy for the Convention, really, as for the lighter pace.

I drove Dawn and the kids to the train station yesterday afternoon.  There is an Amtrak station in Anaheim, and they caught a train from there to the main station in Los Angeles, where they caught the overnight train to Albuquerque.  Whatever happened to trains in this country?  It is our obsession with cars, certainly, that doomed passenger trains, as well as mismanagement of the railways.  Distances play a role, too, certainly, as the much more extensive rail systems in England and Europe extend over much, much smaller distances.  Still, there is something wonderful about riding the train, with its slower pace, rolling through the countryside.  The kids have never ridden a passenger train, so it will be a fun experience (I hope) for them.

There have been, and continue to be, addresses and sermons given that are inspiring and/or informative.  I have referenced a number of them and sent you to the General Convention media hub where you can find video of these events.  For many, a text is better than audio or video.  Therefore, the following addresses and the links to full texts:

Text of a story on Archbishop Williams’ Address Wednesday evening at the World Poverty Forum

Text of Archbishop Williams’ sermon at Eucharist on Thursday at noon

Text of the Presiding Bishop’s sermon at the opening Eucharist on Wednesday

Text of Presiding Bishop’s opening address

Text of Bonnie Anderson’s opening address

Text of Bonnie Anderson’s homily at Eucharist on Friday at noon

One of the most helpful things the past several days have been the lunches that the deputation from Rio Grande have been sharing together.  After the daily Eucharist, around 12:30 or so,  we gather in our hospitality room on the 12^th floor for lunch and conversation about what has been happening at the Convention.  It is very useful to hear from the deputies that have been following legislation from certain committees.  For example, Fr. Scott Ruthven has been following the Prayer Book and Liturgy Committee.  There are many resolutions arising there that deal with trial liturgies for everything from the loss of a pet, a possible revision of the Hymnal, to a re-write of Eucharistic Prayer C in the Book of Common Prayer.  There is also a resolution to add the Rev. Ted Howden, from our diocese, to the commemorations in Lesser Feasts and Fasts, the Episcopal Church’s book of saints and noteworthy individuals.  However, there are also some pretty controversial resolutions dealing with blessings of same-gender unions and revision of marriage liturgies to remove gender-specific language.  It was to these sorts of resolutions that the Archbishop of Canterbury, in the prelude to his sermon on Thursday, referred, saying that he had “some anxiety” that the General Convention would pass legislation that would cause further division in the Communion.  Many of us here from Rio Grande share that anxiety.

 

You can see that our quarters for lunch are pretty tight, once we get everyone in the room.  Shown in this picture are, from left to right:  Fr. Art Tripp, Canon Colin Kelly, Sue Ellen Kelly, Sue Ellen Rael (alternate lay deputy), Bishop Frey, Barbara Frey, Diane Butler, and David Lukenbach.  Not pictured, though attending, are Fr. Scott Ruthven, Fr. Pete Falk (alternate clergy deputy), Betsy Yost and Bob Sutton.  Kay Fancher has to work over lunch and so cannot be with us.

 

Thursday evening there was a reception hosted by the National Cathedral in Washington.  The Dean, the Very Rev. Sam Lloyd, spoke to those gathered about the unique mission of the Cathedral in the midst of the nation’s capital.

 

There were a number of guests there whom we knew.  It was fun to meet the Bishop of San Diego, Jim Mathes.  I took this picture to show to James, whose trip to Legoland (in Carlsbad, California, in the Diocese of San Diego) was such a hit on Tuesday.  I told James that we had met “The Bishop of Legoland.”  (Oh, Dad!!)

One of our alternate lay deputies, Sue Ellen Rael, from St. Michael’s and All Angels in Albuquerque, is here to participate in the liturgical arts booth in the Exhibit Hall.  Sue Ellen writes beautiful icons, some of which are on display in the booth.

Bishop Mark MacDonald, former Bishop of Alaska, now Bishop of Navajoland and Bishop for Indigenous Ministries in the Anglican Church of Canada, is here.  Bishop Mark and I have known each other since his time as Vicar of Good Shepherd Church in Fort Defiance, Arizona, in the Episcopal Church in Navajoland.

On the Convention floor, deputations are seated in two rows of four, often with the clergy order and lay order separated in different rows.  The columns at the end of each table identify the deputation.  Many deputations like to adorn their columns with symbols of their dioceses.  The one pictured here is the Diocese of Lexington, in Kentucky.  Maine has a lobster; Arizona has a saguaro cactus.

 My gang got to sit in on a session of the House of Deputies yesterday morning.  Don’t they look overwhelmed with excitement?

Rida al Rishmawi and his wife are here.  They are Palestinian Christians from Bethlehem.  I first met Rida at General Convention in 2003, and then he came to Myrtle Beach to offer carved olive wood arts.  At that time, in the middle of the last intifada, the families in Bethlehem who made their living selling their hand crafts were hard pressed, because their shops were closed down and no tourists were travelling there.  The carvers formed a consortium of sorts to bring their artwork to the United States and sell it here.  It was good to see Rida again.  The Rishmawis will be coming to the Cathedral on Sunday, July 19, to offer these very fine carvings to the members of St. John’s.  Please plan on being there to help support them and other Christian families in Bethlehem.

To round out a series of enjoyable events (in-depth discussion of more serious questions arising at Convention in the next post, later today), I attended the book signing at Church Publishing by Dean Markham of Virginia Seminary.  His new book, Liturgical Life Principles:  How Episcopal worship can lead to healthy and authentic living, is quite good, and I commend it to you.  I’m not sure, but I think I can read Ian’s mind:  “Dude!  This is the Convention of the Episcopal Church, not of the Society for Creative Anachronism!”

More later…

Second Post from the First Day

Here are some of the regular activities of the General Convention that happened today.  It was a busy day.

 The first legislative session was held in the House of Deputies; it was taken up with housekeeping matters, setting officers, etc.   

My friend, Dwight Helt, and his daughter, Angela are here.  They are part of the deputation from the Diocese of Oklahoma.  Dwight is the Rector of St. John’s Church in Norman, my hometown.  Dwight and I first met when I was a nominee in the Diocese of Oklahoma’s Bishop election.

 

 

And while I’m trying to get a photo of our entire deputation (probably at lunch tomorrow, Thursday), here’s a shot of two of our Rio Grande bunch at General Convention.  Canon Colin Kelly is the Rector of the Church of Trinity on the Hill in Los Alamos, and Diane Butler is the Parish Administrator at the Church of St. Thomas of Canterbury in Albuquerque.

 

 

The first session was followed by the Opening Eucharist of Convention, with the Presiding Bishop celebrating and preaching.  Her sermon was about the “heartbeat” of the Church, the Episcopal Church in general, which is Mission.  If we aren’t about mission, she reminded us, then we become sick and expire.  A striking image she used was taken from the reading from Ezekiel for the day, in which the prophet speaks the Word of the Lord and promises Israel a new heart.  It is this sort of “heart transplant” that the people of God need, Bishop Katharine said.  It was a powerful sermon.  Several thousand people gathered, lifting voices in praise and prayer underscored the sense of purpose that this General Convention has.  The Presiding Bishop’s sermon may be found on the media hub for Convention, in the video on demand box near the top of the page.

 

I haven’t really had much of a chance to explore the exhibit hall, yet.  On a walk-through after the Eucharist, however, I found the Episcopal Church in Navajoland booth.  Canon John Floberg, Canon Missioner to the Standing Rock Souix Reservation (pictured on the right) was there, as was the Rev. Donald Fox (Native priest in North Dakota); and Sara Eagle Heart (also from North Dakota), Program Officer of Native American and Indigenous Ministries, The Episcopal Church.  I first met these three at the Winter Talk Conference in January when I travelled to Standing Rock in North Dakota (yes, it was very cold!).

 

The main work of Convention happens in legislative committees, of which there are many.  At the last General Convention, 2006 in Columbus, Ohio, I served on the Committee for National and International Relations, and I have a special interest in the work that they do.  This morning I attended a public hearing in which they were receiving comments on a number of pieces of legislation, including one addressing human rights abuses in the Philippines (the Episcopal Church of the Philippines is a partner to The Episcopal Church), human trafficking, several resolutions addressing environmental stewardship, and two on issues of medical insurance. 

 

 An event anticipated by many today was the appearance of the Archbishop of Canterbury at the Forum on World Poverty.  The title for the evening was “Christian Faithfulness in the Global Economic Crisis.”  The Presiding Bishop spoke, setting the tone for the evening, and introduced the Archbishop, who received a prolonged standing ovation.  It is the first time he has attended, and addressed, a General Convention since his appointment in 2002. 

 Archbishop Rowan Williams spoke eloquently about the fact that, following the economic turmoil and crisis in leadership that we are going through, there will be no return to “normal.”  One of the most salient points, I thought, was his reflection that the crisis is not primarily one of economic policy; it is a crisis of truthfulness.  We have been living lies in how we can obtain wealth, how we can live beyond the means of support of the global environment, and how we relate to one another.  The way out of the crisis is truth-telling about these areas of our common life.  One striking point was his contrast between acquiring wealth, as defined by money and possessions, and acquiring well-being, which is the possession of those things that make our lives healthy and whole; they are not the same.

 

After the Archbishop spoke, President of the House of Deputies, Bonnie Anderson, introduced three panelists who spoke to various issues of economic justice, sustainability and health issues.  Sara Eagle Heart spoke about issues on Indian Reservations and among indigenous peoples.  Another spoke about rural sustainability issues and how that is connected to the well-being of communities.  A doctor from Ghana spoke movingly about growing up in that country, where each term at school would bring the realization that many of his classmates had died from malaria since the last term.  His own three-year old sister died when he was four.  His sense of vocation sprang from this epidemic of malaria, and so he is heavily involved in the Nets for Life program, wherein insecticide-treated nets are distributed to people so that they can sleep under them and avoid being infected with malaria.

Immediately after the Forum, the Presiding Bishop and the President of the House of Deputies held a press conference about the Forum.  Despite being advised by a trusted friend in regard to questions at press conferences and interviews (KISS:  keep it simple stupid), I asked a long-ish question about the connection between life-saving efforts, like Nets for Life, and the follow-up work of sustaining those lives that have been saved.  After all, a child that is saved from death from a preventible disease is another person to care for, to feed, to educate and to bring into a responsible place in the local community.  How are we doing this?  Part of what I was getting at with this question was the whole notion of family planning and contraception, which the Presiding Bishop said that Episcopal Relief and Development was not involved in.  The other notion that she brought up in her answer, and very good one, is that with access to the necessities of life, drawing on what Archbishop Williams referred to as the things needed for “well-being,” rather than simple wealth, demographic studies have shown that birth rates drop pretty significantly.  The effect is not an immediate one, but it comes.  So, through the work of the Millenium Development Goals and work at reducing mortality from preventible disease, the long-term population growth slows and falls.  If you want to hear the press conference, you can go to the Convention media hub and look for the video-on-demand near the top right corner of the page.  Click and enjoy.

 The day ended with an enjoyable time of conversation with an old friend, Ian Markham.  Ian is the Dean of the Virginia Seminary.  He and I first came to know one another while he was a visiting scholar at General Seminary and I was in my last year there.  He was at that time on faculty at the University of Exeter, after which he became Dean of Hartford Seminary in Connecticut.  Dean Markham will be visiting the Cathedral in the Spring, date to be determined.

First Official Day of General Convention

            The first official day of Convention, and things are really beginning to gear up, with tons of legislative committee hearings, two legislative sessions for both Houses (Bishops and Deputies) today, the Opening Eucharist and, this evening, a Forum on World Poverty, featuring the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury.

            The Goodmans were up bright and early (though not quite as early as yesterday).  Dawn and the kids are off to Disneyland today.  (Just had a call from them, around 1:00, to say that they were having lunch, having gone to the Matterhorn [“That’s the first thing we did, Dad!”] and the haunted house, along with several other rides, although Space Mountain was a hold until this afternoon, as they were experiencing “technical difficulties.”)  We’ll get caught up this evening once they are home and rested and I return from the Forum on World Poverty.

            Before setting out today’s experiences, however, I’d like to return to two items from yesterday.  First, the Presiding Bishop’s opening address to Convention.  The overall theme of this General Convention, it has been explained to us, is “Ubuntu.”  Materials provided indicate that this is a Xhosa word, the language of sub-Saharan Bantu tribes-people, that means, “I am, because we are.”  It is a word that locates the meaning of the individual, ultimately, in the community; I cannot have full meaning outside of the community out of which I come and in which I find existence and meaning.  It is word that, to me, has echoes in the words of scripture, “…that they all may be one, as you, Father, are in me, and I in you; that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.”  (John 17: 21)  But it is a word, it seems to me, that applies to how one lives within a community, ethical living, if you will, and has less meaning when applied to any sort of existential question. 

            So, when the Presiding Bishop set in opposition Ubuntu, “I am, because we are,” and the classic expression of Rene Descartes, “I think, therefore I am,” I was perplexed.  I think this is an artificial dichotomy.  If the two words pointed to the same sphere of meaning, then I would agree that they were in opposition to one another.  On the contrary, I think they complement one another in the way they illuminate different parts of the human condition.  One gives expression to the necessity of community for true meaning of the individual, and the other tells us something about the centrality of intellect in affirming one’s existence in the midst of creation.  Playing upon the mathematical tautology that “If a equals b, and b equals c, then a must equal c,” one might link them together and say something to the extent of , “I think, therefore I am; I am, because we are; I think more fully of my place in the world, because we are.”

            It is all too common for people to disparage Western thought and spirituality in favour of a “the grass is greener on the other side” approach to alternatives, like Eastern spirituality.  In part, this phenomenon is at the center of our Presiding Bishop’s comments in her opening address.  Admittedly, Western philosophy is not the final word on mankind’s experience of himself in relation to the world, but it cannot be dismissed as irrelevant or, worse, an outright obstacle to self-knowing.  However, I was more than perplexed when I heard the Presiding Bishop say, in her address, the following:  “The overarching connection in all of these crises has to do with the great Western heresy, that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God.  It’s caricatured in some quarters by insisting that salvation depends on reciting a specific verbal formula about Jesus.  That individualist focus is a form of idolatry, for it puts me and my words in the place that only God can occupy, at the center of existence, as the ground of all being.  That heresy is one reason for the theme of this Convention.”

            O.K., I’ll agree that salvation isn’t based upon the recitation of a formula, even if it is a credal one, as if it were a magical incantation.  Salvation is based upon a personal relationship with Jesus, as the Ethiopian eunuch responds to Philip at the opportunity of baptism, “I believe that Jesus the Christ is the Son of God.”  Still, words are important, as this very early proto-creed suggests.  Relationship, in a Christian context, begins with belief, and belief flows from faith, the sort of faith that inspires Peter to proclaim, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  To say that an adherence to the Creed is a caricature of the search for salvation is an over-statement, at the least.  As catholic Christians, we judge our apostolicity, in part, by the continual adherence to the oecumenical Creeds.  They are not salvific, in and of themselves, but they circumscribe a locus where salvation is to be experienced.

            As for the statement that it is a heresy to think that we can be saved as individuals, how else are we to be saved?  We are baptized individually.  We confess a mature faith in Christ individually.  We confess our sins and are forgiven individually.  We are transformed by the grace and love of God individually.  We experience sanctification and enter eternal life individually, all because we have an individual relationship with God in Christ.  After all, to paraphrase, “We are saved, because I (the individual) am saved.”  Even in the Old Testament, this is true.  Think of Abraham’s conversation with the Lord about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (and, no, I’m not making any reference her other than to the salvation of the many through the righteousness of the few).  As Abraham bartered with the Almighty about how many righteous people it would take to save the entire cities, it comes down to this:  “Then [Abraham] said, ‘Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak but once more:  suppose ten [righteous] should be found there?’  And [God] said, ‘I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.’” (Genesis 18: 32)

            I would not want to deny that the faithful community is vitally important to the life of the Christian disciple, and this is where I would find the intersection with Ubuntu.  We are called, in fact, the Body of Christ.  Salvation, however, is only by the rebirth of the individual into a new creation.

            It would be a good thing to be able to sit down with the Presiding Bishop and have an hour’s discussion about these things.  One always finds more light in face-to-face encounters than trying to parse words without a relationship to serve as a guide.

            The Presiding Bishop also suggests a connection between Ubuntu and the work of Martin Buber, a 20^th-Century philosopher.  She says, “Some of you will hear a resonance with Martin Buber’s I and Thou and recognize a harmony.  You will not be wrong.”  I am sure that Bishop Katharine knows more about Buber’s philosophy than I, but I recall that the ultimate expression of the “I-Thou” experience is that between the individual and God, and that other, more worldly encounters of “I-Thou” are but harbingers of this deep meeting of God and a person, training us for it, if you will.  It is not the “We-Thou” encounter.

            And, finally, there is the Presiding Bishop’s reference to the centrality of Calvary to the Christian.  “We Christians often think the only important part of the Jerusalem story is Calvary, and, yes, suffering and killing in that place still seem to the loudest news.  But Calvary was a waypoint in the larger arc of God’s dream; it’s on the way to Jerusalem, it is not in Jerusalem.  Jesus’ passion was and is for God’s dream of a reconciled creation.”  Here I take exception again, for Calvary was not just a waystation, it was the station of God’s action among humanity.  There it was that God sacrificed himself for the sake of all mankind, “as an expiation for our sins,” as St. Paul puts it.  No, Calvary was not in Jerusalem.  It wasn’t meant to be, for Jesus pointedly condemned the actions of the scribes and Pharisees, the rituals of the Temple that would become obsolete in his death, as the writer of the Book of Hebrews makes clear.  That the crucifixion and Resurrection happened outside the walls of the Holy City is not an accident but a statement that God’s action was working outside the bounds of human certainty, and that continues to be true.  The Presiding Bishop and I, I suspect, would agree on that; God’s action among his creation and people is ineffable and defies containment.  And yet, as Christians, we believe that Calvary, the Cross, is at the center of that action.

            More later, with pictures from the day.  As Wolff Blitzer would say, “Let’s go to the videotape!”

First “Pre-” Convention Day, July 7

            The Goodmans arrived in Anaheim on Monday afternoon, July 6, after a fairly easy drive from Flagstaff, where we spent Sunday night.  The drive through the Mojave Desert was pretty amazing, being about the most desolate landscape I have ever seen, save from the Judean wilderness in Israel.  The temperature on Monday registered at 117 at its highest, just as we drove into California, at Needles.  (For Peanuts fans, Needles is the hometown of Snoopy’s cousin, Spike.)

            It has been 45 years, since I was six years old, since I’ve been in Southern California, and while I don’t remember much of anything from that trip, the traffic couldn’t have been anything like it is now.  Once we hit the outer limits of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the only thing to do was take a deep breath, keep up with the guy in front of me, and hope I saw the exit signs in time.  Wow!  I was most thankful when we drove up to our hotel, the Hilton at the Anaheim Convention Center.  The drive up to the hotel is pretty striking.

 

            After getting settled in, the first thing to do was call the head of our deputation, Art Tripp, vicar of Holy Trinity, Raton, and Dean of the Northeast Deanery.  He and his wife, Nilah, had arrived on Sunday afternoon, having taken Amtrak in.  With Alexandra and James with us, the very next thing was to hit the pool, and dinner afterward, and then a rest from the long drive.

            Tuesday was the official “Pre-Convention Day,” when orientations happen and addresses by various individuals set the tone for the Convention.  After seeing Dawn and the kids off on their day’s excursion to Legoland, it was time to pick up my press credentials, as I’m here to report back to the Cathedral and the diocese what is happening at Convention.  In years past, I’m sure one would have received a large stack of papers giving background information on the Episcopal Church and General Convention to those covering it.  The very friendly woman in the Media Room, however, handed me a flash drive with all of the necessary documents on it, along with hyperlinks to archives and legislation in support of this year’s Convention agenda.  (O.K., I’ll admit still to being amazed at what technology can accomplish!)  So, I guess I don’t have any excuse not to keep up…

 The Convention Center is an impressive facility.

 

 From this view from the top floor, overlooking the atrium, to the first floor gallery.

 

Legislative committee meetings, support and administrative offices, the main Exhibit Hall, as well as smaller, more focused exhibit areas, in addition to the main Worship Space and the main meeting areas of the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops are all contained within this structure.  Other smaller meetings also happen in the Hilton and the Marriot, connected to the Convention Center.

This is the House of Deputies, meeting this afternoon for its first orientation session.

            One of the most enjoyable aspects of General Convention is seeing folks from around the Church that you don’t otherwise get to see very often.  As one who is learning to cope with 21^st Century technology, it may not surprise you to learn that I had some photos of folks seen and greeted today, but the shots from the camera in my phone were all very blurry…better luck tomorrow.  It was great to see the deputation from South Carolina, former colleagues from my time in that diocese.  John Burwell, head of their deputation, is blogging from Convention, and his site is here.  Dean Nick Knisely, Dean of Trinity Cathedral in Phoenix, and I had a chance to chat.  His wife and daughter are here, too, so we plan to get together for a meal in the next couple of days.  Nick is blogging, also (he’s on the national Communications Committee and is a pro at this), and his site is here.  The Rev. Mary Glover, from the Diocese of Northwest Texas, is here as a deputy.  Mary was the chairman of the Bishop Search Committee in that diocese, and she and I got to know one another while I was there for their new Bishop’s consecration.  She and I, in all likelihood, are cousins, as her mother was a Goodman, and her mother’s kin, as were mine, were from western Tennessee before they headed West to northern Texas and southern Oklahoma.

            While the legislative committee hearings just got underway today, with an interesting hearing of the Program, Budget & Finance Committee (PB&F), there is an avalanche of legislation that will be presented in the coming days.  If you’re interested in following it, you can do so here.  I warn you, though, following too closely can be hazardous to your health!  More about legislation later.

            Both the Presiding Bishop and the President of the House of Deputies gave their opening addresses today.  In their attempt to set the tone for the Convention, I thought they were effective, but there were a couple theological points that Bishop Jefferts Schori made, with which I don’t agree.  However, I’m still contemplating and will reflect on them tomorrow.  You can listen to both addresses by going to www.gchub.episcopalchurch.org, where there is “on demand” video available.