Sunday at Convention

Sunday is always the gentlest day at Convention. There is nothing before Eucharist at 10am. So today I got to sleep in! Then there is a break until the House of Deputies meets from 3pm to 6pm.

According to the Chicago Consultation, we are considering a resolution this afternoon that opens all orders of ministry to all people. Here’s what they said:

Today at 3:30 pm, the House of Deputies is scheduled to take up Resolution D025. This resolution reaffirms the Episcopal Church’s participation in the Anglican Communion and that God may call gay and lesbian people to any ministry in the Episcopal Church, “which call is tested through our discernment processes acting in accordance with the Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church.”

I also heard in another report that this was going to come to us on Monday. I haven’t seen our legislative calendar so I’m not sure. I’ll twitter/facebook from the floor when we consider this resolution.

As for the same-sex blessing resolutions, my committee will start again tomorrow (Monday) morning at 7:30. We need to present a resolution soon if it is going to make it through both Houses (being amended along the way, no doubt) before Convention ends on Friday.

Yesterday we heard brief presentations from six Anglican representatives from around the World (Ghana, Kenya, Canada, New Zealand, Brazil and South Africa) assuring us of our close relationships and urging us to move forward on the justice issues facing us. Their testimony was powerful.

Here’s a report on one of the speakers:

On Saturday, July 12, Dr. Jenny Plane-Te Paa, Principal of Te Rau Kahikatea, College of St. John the Evangelist, Auckland, New Zealand, addressed the House of Deputies of the General Convention:

…If I could be so bold I want also to assure you that among ourselves as your international friends we are now all quietly urging you not to dwell unduly with any sense of uncertainty about your place within the global Anglican Communion. Sure the fearmongerers abound – they always have and they always will, but surely our gaze must always be fixed beyond the horizon of fear and just as surely that gaze must always apprehend first and foremost the images of those who are the least among us…

Read the full text of her prepared remarks here.

I wish I had time to track down other interesting reports and links to video or transcripts.

Dean Brian Baker