General Convention Day Three

(A note on the irrgular posting of these updates.  Because I have to be where the young people need me and many of those places don't have WiFi I can't post as quickly as I'd like.  So these are running later than I'd prefer.  I hope to get caught up tomorrow morning.  We'll see if I can stay there)

Well I said the days would get busier!  Day three saw 12,000+ steps overall.  I was just shy of that number at 4:30 today!  Final count?  17,575 or just under 9 miles. More committee meetings and that kept  me moving.    Some quick thoughts from the day:

So far I’ve been disappointed in the worship.  It has been extremely well done don’t get me wrong.  But it has been very “Episcopal Standard”.  Some music from Lift Every Voice and some Taize chant.  Sermons by the Presiding Bishop and the President of the House of Deputies were both solid as per usual.  But I remember much more adventurous worship in 2003 with a much wider variety of music.  I know that some folks get antsy when we do something that isn’t “mainstream” but we need to  deal with the reality that the “mainstream” has moved from where an awful lot of us assume it is.

It has been a tough day for Bonnie Anderson the President of the House of Deputies (PHoD).  She stumbled moving away the pulpit following the sermon and had an ongoing rough day running the Convention.  Fortunately both she and the House had a great sense of humor about it all.

It was a momentous day for me.  I actually got to walk onto the floor of the House!  The House was in recess at the time so I was not struck dead on the spot.  PHoD invited two of our young people address the House today.  I got to go with them for the audio check and give them the last bits of advice that I could offer.  In the afternoon they did a great job and got a standing ovation for their efforts.

I have now (in my lifetime) had 5 different opportunities to meet the current Presiding Bishop.  I missed the first one because of my stroke and have found one thing after another standing in my way.  It seemed like GC would be a great opportunity.  So far the PB has met with the OYP twice.  And I’ve been otherwise occupied both times.  Sigh.  On the other hand I’ve bumped into and spoken with PHoD multiple times.  Still freaks me out  a little that she seems to know who I am.  LOL.

The Exhibition Hall!  One of my favorite parts of GC is the central bazaar known as the Exhibition Hall.  Things to buy, information to gather, people to meet.  It goes on for most of the time of GC and is just an amazing place.  It fills a HUGE room and I finally got the chance to get in.  My practice is to cruise through the first time just to see what’s there, and then explore in detail over the remaining days.  Well I got in there twice today and still haven’t seen everything!