The Sunday that falls during GC is always an interesting beast. The morning starts much later than any other day at GC because instead of starting with Committee Hearings at 7:30 in the morning, the first "official" gathering of the day is the UTO Eucharist. But, just because that is the first "official" event of the day, doesn't mean that Eucharist is the first event of the day. At 7:15 yesterday morning I was standing in a large group of people who had gathered for an event called, "Finding Common Ground." This was a walk to promote the end of gun violence. Many of the Bishops of the Church, including Presiding Bishop Elect, Michael Curry led the walk. It was a powerful witness to where the church stands on this issue and one that I think we need to be talking about more.
The morning continued with our UTO Ingathering and Eucharist. This is the shining star of GC and did not disappoint. For me, it is so wonderful to worship in such a large body of people who so love to sing and worship together. Our common voice is so loud and spiritually deep - it makes my soul smile to be a part of it. The Presiding Bishop spoke truth in her sermon and definitely brought her A game. I know that some found her a bit offensive in calling out some of the struggles and difficulties we have wrestled with over the last 12 years. I found her inspirational though, in that she claimed the elephant that has for so long been in the room and then spoke to how we need to move forward, not allowing the elephant to define where or how we move forward. There are so many ways in which the church is doing mission and works of redemption and that is where we need to focus our energy. After her sermon we had the UTO Ingathering where the women of the church presented the UTO offerings from each diocese. It is powerful to see how much support this program receives and how much good we can do through this amazing witness. I think the overall total for the years 2012-2014 was over 4 million dollars. That money will go to provide UTO Grants to local congregations and mission ideas.
In the afternoon we gathered again in the House of Deputies to continue our work of legislating. I was optimistic that we might get something done but sadly, my optimism was misplaced. The HoD seems to be struggling to just function (something I did not experience at last GC) and getting through legislation feels like Sisyphus trying to push the rock up the mountain - even when we feel like we have made it to the top of the mountain, the rock rolls back down and we have to start all over. It is taking forever to get through anything and I fear what that will mean for the rest of the week and what legislation might not come before us because we run out of time. On a slightly positive note, we did pass the prison reform resolution that calls the church to start getting active in the injustices that are taking place within the prison system in the US. There wasn't much more accomplished though.
I understand that it would be a poor use of time to give the whole of Sunday to sabbath and worship while at GC. But it was definitely frustrating that on the Sabbath day we weren't better stewards of our time. We have so little of it here to accomplish anything and while I think the general attitude is hope for the future, we are, in the present moment, diminishing the possibility for hope in the future because we are getting bogged down in inefficiency and, what I perceive to be, unimportant details.
Hopefully today will be better. I ask your prayers for the work of General Convention. I also ask your prayers for the whole city of Vicksburg and specifically the Episcopal Community there, as they have been devastated by the news of the violent death of a community member.
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