Another Crazy Day

A good day at General Convention!  One of my resolutions, as modified by the committee, passed!  I got to hear ++Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, speak about the global economic crisis.  And I worked long and hard on an exciting new initiative for Latino/Hispanic church planting.  

The day began at 8 with a legislative session, mostly just preliminaries like electing a secretary and treasurer.  We had a terrific opening Eucharist, with ++Katharine Jefferts Schori presiding and preaching about evangelism - wonderful!  The music was spirited and lively too.  We then moved into legislative committee hearings.  

As part of the Evangelism committee, I got to participate in hearings on a new strategic plan for Latino-Hispanic church planting, and then worked in a subcommittee that drafted a resolution for this initiative.  If this resolution passes, it will be expensive - $3.5 million over 3 years -- but it has huge potential for impact.  The national church officer for Latino/Hispanic ministries, Anthony Guillen, did a terrific job on pulling together a strategic plan.  I am excited about his work, and hope it will be a model for a general church planting strategic plan.

The afternoon's legislative session brought one of my resolutions to the floor:  the proposal to adopt the 5 Anglican Marks of Mission as strategic priorities for the church.  Actually, it was Bonnie Anderson's (the president of the House of Deputies) very similar resolution that passed, but they amended it to add one of the important provisions from my resolution - the provision that names the 5 Marks of Missions as our top 5 strategic priorities, used in creation of the budget, beginning in 2013.  I feel pretty amazed that I could write a resolution that is actually going to make a huge difference to the church for years to come!  I could get hooked on this sort of thing!  

This evening, Archbishop Rowan Williams addressed the assembly.  They carefully prevented him from talking about sexuality or relations with the Anglican Communion, which was disappointing.  But he gave a nice talk on the global economic crisis.  See news story here:  http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_112163_ENG_HTM.htm  He was very warmly welcomed - given an enthusiastic standing ovation, as was our own Presiding Bishop, ++Katharine Jefferts Schori (to her obvious embarrassment; she kept waving for us all to sit down and stop clapping).  

Tomorrow my day starts at 7:30 a.m. with testimony at a hearing about my other resolution, the one to create a strategic plan for church planting.  Wish me luck!