12/07: Sunday, July 12, 2009
Sunday, July 12, 2009
I’m writing this at mid-day. The Holy Eucharist on Sunday is always has the highest attendance, as folks from around the host Diocese (in this case, Los Angeles) attend. I sat next to a young man from Culver, CA – members of his congregation chartered a bus so they could be present. Our Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori presided, flanked by two past Presiding Bishops – Frank Griswold and Edmond Browning. I wish I had been close enough to take a photo. The preaching is great, and the singing is wonderful. The “postlude” today was the choir singing “There’s a sweet, sweet Spirit in this place.” Truly uplifting. Thanks be to God for the inspiring worship. I suppose there were about 6000 people in attendance. The entire worship event took about an hour and 20 minutes (including the United Thank Offering Ingathering, and the receiving of communion by 6000 persons).
I attended part of the Integrity Eucharist this past Friday. “Integrity” is the organization among Episcopalians for those who are gay and lesbian. Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire presided, and Bishop Barbara Harris (retired from Massachusetts) preached. Again, a most inspiring liturgy.
Legislation is quickly coming out of committee and heading to one of the two Houses (either the House of Deputies or the House of Bishops). I serve on the Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs. We have forwarded a resolution for full communion with the Moravian Church, which has already been adopted in the House of Bishops. While we don’t have many Moravians in our area, there are many in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. Folks from those states indicate that this full communion agreement will be extremely helpful for them in their ministry and mission.
I expect that the most followed debate will be on a resolution which may be coming to the House of Deputies today or tomorrow. It deals with B-033 from the 2006 General Convention (see my previous blogs) – addressing the election of persons to be bishop who might be gay or lesbian. One of the two primary writers (Ruth Meyers) was a classmate with me in seminary in the early 1980’s. If you’re tracking resolutions on the General Convention website, this is Resolution D-025 (http://gc2009.org/ViewLegislation/view_leg_detail.aspx?id=986&type=Original). I think that this is a great resolution for beginning our legislative discussions, inasmuch as it has been very carefully crafted in order to address a variety of concerns. I’ll keep you posted.
Approximately 500 resolutions have been proposed for consideration at General Convention. Many of them are duplicates, or take pro/con sides of a particular issue. And many of them have to do with minor changes, or fairly insignificant (at least to most folks). Our house has dealt with perhaps 50 of them so far. So we have a LOT of work to do. Please keep praying for us.
Blessings to you all.
Fr. Earle
I’m writing this at mid-day. The Holy Eucharist on Sunday is always has the highest attendance, as folks from around the host Diocese (in this case, Los Angeles) attend. I sat next to a young man from Culver, CA – members of his congregation chartered a bus so they could be present. Our Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori presided, flanked by two past Presiding Bishops – Frank Griswold and Edmond Browning. I wish I had been close enough to take a photo. The preaching is great, and the singing is wonderful. The “postlude” today was the choir singing “There’s a sweet, sweet Spirit in this place.” Truly uplifting. Thanks be to God for the inspiring worship. I suppose there were about 6000 people in attendance. The entire worship event took about an hour and 20 minutes (including the United Thank Offering Ingathering, and the receiving of communion by 6000 persons).
I attended part of the Integrity Eucharist this past Friday. “Integrity” is the organization among Episcopalians for those who are gay and lesbian. Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire presided, and Bishop Barbara Harris (retired from Massachusetts) preached. Again, a most inspiring liturgy.
Legislation is quickly coming out of committee and heading to one of the two Houses (either the House of Deputies or the House of Bishops). I serve on the Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs. We have forwarded a resolution for full communion with the Moravian Church, which has already been adopted in the House of Bishops. While we don’t have many Moravians in our area, there are many in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. Folks from those states indicate that this full communion agreement will be extremely helpful for them in their ministry and mission.
I expect that the most followed debate will be on a resolution which may be coming to the House of Deputies today or tomorrow. It deals with B-033 from the 2006 General Convention (see my previous blogs) – addressing the election of persons to be bishop who might be gay or lesbian. One of the two primary writers (Ruth Meyers) was a classmate with me in seminary in the early 1980’s. If you’re tracking resolutions on the General Convention website, this is Resolution D-025 (http://gc2009.org/ViewLegislation/view_leg_detail.aspx?id=986&type=Original). I think that this is a great resolution for beginning our legislative discussions, inasmuch as it has been very carefully crafted in order to address a variety of concerns. I’ll keep you posted.
Approximately 500 resolutions have been proposed for consideration at General Convention. Many of them are duplicates, or take pro/con sides of a particular issue. And many of them have to do with minor changes, or fairly insignificant (at least to most folks). Our house has dealt with perhaps 50 of them so far. So we have a LOT of work to do. Please keep praying for us.
Blessings to you all.
Fr. Earle
