 At the 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church meeting in Columbus, Ohio, June 13-21, 2006 |
East Tennessee
perspectives: Bishop vonRosenberg, members of the East Tennessee deputation and East Tennessee visitors to the General Convention used these pages throughout the convention to share with the "folks back home" their impressions, activities and insights: Settling in •
Day One • Day Two • Day
Three • Day Four
• East Tennessee photo gallery at the convention |
 Other pages related to the convention:
• Episcopal News Service convention coverage |
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The Rev. Maggie Zeller, alternate Received Wed 06/14/06 10:32 p.m. There's not much to say about today that has substance. The House of Deputies did elect a president-elect - Bonnie Anderson, the current vice president - and voted "yes" on several pieces of legislation dealing with world mission funding. The headline for the day that you won't read anywhere is "Episcopalians Defeated by Electronic Balloting!" The first ballot for Church Pension Fund trustees was scheduled for this afternoon. First, the voting secretary had the deputies run a "test" ballot. Almost 20 percent of the ballots were invalid. Then there was a vote to return to paper ballots, a voice vote, which sounded like it passed but someone asked for a recount. That meant using the dreaded electronic keypads and we were off to the races - the only problem is we were all tortoises. Finally, the voting began with the provision that if there were 10 percent or more invalid ballots, we would throw it all out and resort to paper. Well, you know what happened. After almost 90 minutes to get to the end of the ballot, it didn't count and there will be a paper ballot tomorrow morning. Sometimes, it pays to be an alternate! This evening there were two hearings, and I would guess that everyone at convention was at one or the other. The first was an open hearing for the Special Commission on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. Seating was limited to 1,500 and there was not one empty seat, I'm told. I went to the second meeting, an open hearing of the Program, Budget and Finance Committee. We had 90 people sign up to speak for programs/resolutions they would like to see the Episcopal Church fund at a higher level, restore funding or begin funding in this triennium. I think over 50 ministries were discussed. I was particularly impressed with our young people. Several spoke on the importance of funding programs for children, youth and young adults. One had just returned from Honduras where he spent a year as a missionary. Another came back from her ministry in Panama, and there was a priest who returned from the Sudan to plead for funding to be restored to world mission initiatives. We don't realize how very active the Episcopal Church is in the world. The Primate of Mexico asked that we continue to help them with funding. So did the Canon for the Philippines. Naturally, the media were outside the Hyatt where both hearings were held. I can assure you they were not covering Program, Budget and Finance. Please check out the news releases from Episcopal News Service to balance what you will hear from the local and national news outlets. And now I am going to check the list of hearings for tomorrow and get into bed. Days are long at General Convention but they are rarely boring.
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Ms. Lynn Schmissrauter, deputation chair Received Wed 06/14/06 11:33 p.m. You heard it here. There is so much to tell but let me begin with some images:
By the end of this convention, over 10,000 people will have registered and attended, and I think we will see every one of them. My time the past two days has been spent in hearings, legislative sessions and brief deputation meetings. My committee, for consecration of bishops, begins at 7:15 each morning. So far we have voted to recommend the consent of five of the six bishop elections (Texas, West Texas, Eastern Michigan, California and Albany) and tomorrow we will discuss the election process in Northern California. Our time spent in legislative session was spent getting organized yesterday and today. Well, we spent lots of time trying to use remote voting devices - now officially but not affectionately called "doohickeys" by one of the deputies from Western Louisiana. We have received visitors: Episcopal Relief and Development, youth representatives, Episcopal Church Foundation, the Archbishop of York who brought a message from Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury (while I wonder why he didn't come himself ...), Diocese of Southern Ohio (our hosting diocese), Church Pension Group. We have elected a new president of the House of Deputies, Bonnie Anderson of Michigan, who is a friend from my work with Fresh Start. We also elected convention officers and tomorrow, God willing and machines cooperating, we will elect trustees for the Church Pension Fund. Tonight after grabbing a very quick supper after dashing from afternoon hearings and legislative session, many of us attended the hearings held by the Special Commission in response to the Windsor Report. I must say that I felt a lot of what I felt at the 2003 convention. There are some difficult decisions to be made and much prayer to be had. I sat next to Bishop Barbara Harris and the Archbishop of York at the hearing and ran into my dear friend, Ed Bacon, who called me into ministry as the canon pastor at the Cathedral of St. Andrew in Mississippi. Such joy amid such anxiety here ... So, it is 11:30 and tonight I promise myself to actually turn off the lights before I go to sleep, so off I go. Whoever is reading this - please pray for us all. We miss our friends and families but are building precious community here as your diocesan deputation and support team (Stephen and Patricia Askew, Donna Lodge, Lisa Leopold, James Johnson, Al Minor and someone got a sighting of Martha and Carroll Sterne tonight). Martha has written another book and will be signing it in the exhibit hall. Others will come in later in the week. I also saw George Glazier today - he was the former rector at Grace Church and looked super. Matilda Dunn is also here somewhere but I haven't seen her. Also David and Pam Bateman came today, and we ate both lunch and dinner with them. Here's an interesting tidbit - John Danforth, who is also an Episcopal priest in addition to being a U.S. senator, will speak to us tomorrow night at a panel discussion on global reconciliation. |
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The Rev. John Talbird, deputy Received Thu 6/14/2006 8:27 a.m. Last night several of us went to the PB&F (program, budget, and finance) rather than the "hot topic" of the Special Committee on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. Since I had been following World Mission hearings, I was asked by a member of that committee to give some personal reflections on what our parish had done. I went 30 minutes early to sign up to speak. There was already a massive line cued up to speak. I stood in line for 30 minutes to sign up. There aparently were almost 200 of us wanting to speak for our alloted 3 minutes. After two and a half hours a number of us did not get to speak. This is what I would have said. I want to tell a short story about the planting of seeds for mission. In the mid '80s a cardiologist from our parish went to Haiti as a short-term volunteer at Hopital Ste. Croix in Leogane. He has continued going there and has taken several in our parish for short-term medical mission trips. Through these relationships we have joined with our Haitian partners to develop the Children's Nutrition Program of Haiti with the mission of raising a generation of healthy children in Leogane. At the same time people from our parish have joined with people from other parishes to build a school on a remote mountaintop at Petite Harpon in the southern mountains of Haiti. Over a period of four years we took down about 75 different people to work on this project. We have just sent a team to plan to add an addition to the school for secondary education. The cardiologist's son was one of the first Young Adult Service Corps workers in Haiti. He is now a Rhodes scholor studying in England. These partnerships have changed the lives of many Haitian children. However it is our lives and the life of our parish that have been radically changed. I am here asking you to support the World Mission resolutions financially as a complete package. My stories are directly adressing resolutions A116 (short-term mission pilgrimages) and A114 (Young Adult Service Corps). I am asking you to support our mission programs by putting our money into who we say we are - The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Episcopal Church. The seeds of short-term mission pilgrimages grow into long-term partners for mission. Thank you. |
