General Notes Part 2

I couldn't get to sleep at all last night -- perhaps from excitement but perhaps from the three hour time difference. So, the 10:15 (read: 7:30 West Coast time) lobby meeting time came early. By the way, Heat is not a movie I'll ever watch again.

Going to church with all the other deputies who were streaming in to Columbus was interesting. There was a little celebrity-spotting atmosphere in the air that I found amusing and made me want to make a mocumentary about celebrities: the real inner lives about famous Episcopalians. People were saying: Oh, there's that ONE bishop who's running for PB over there. Oh! There's so-and-so, YOU know, over there. Amusing, and yes, I participated.

One of the great things about General Convention is that many people come for many reasons other than to do convention business. Vendors and church-business set up their wares and services in booths in the exhibit hall. From vestments to Isreali wood-carvings to missionary agencies to AA to software developers to iconographers to the live music of the youth band of Southern Ohio -- it's in there. And everyone gives out food goodies, a plus for sure. People WILL try to hand you literature on everything you never wanted to have literature on, though, so be careful and look ahead if you don't want to tote home the entire contents of the Cursillo raison-d'etre and schedule of events. (But, no thanks, I've never been to Cursillo....no really, I'll tell people the booth is here.....oh, ok, thanks for the notebook!)

Other events take place simultaneously to convention, too, like the trienniel meeting of the Episcopal Church Women, and until this year, a weeklong convention of the Daughters of the King. Members of the Anglican Global Office are in town, too, and the delegation and bishop from Liberia came and worshipped at Trinity where there is a Liberian clergyperson and an ongoing relationship of friendship between the two. They came up to the front of the packed church and the Trinity staff person spoke about what the people of Liberia have gone through and how exciting it is that they are here. People started shuffling when the introduction and speaking became long, and that counts as my second amusing experience of the day. It was clearly a snapshot of a cultural difference -- all the white people looking at their watches, wondering when this "announcement" was going to be over, and the Liberian clergy and delegation rejoicing to be present and together where they were.

And it was Trinity Sunday, and the preacher did a great job talking about the Trinity as relationship, as friendship and urging us to put aside our own differences and be friends at convention. Great message at a great time. You could feel the energy in the room as he spoke. We were all gearing up for the good juicy fight scenes that Convention promises us. He tapped into our anticipation and I was glad to hear it named so I could be convicted about it. Plus he made quite a few historical references and I felt like Church History 1 and 2 were mighty relevant for somewhere other than our own seminary chapel! It was a relief. :)

We wandered around the convention center, each of us seeing people we knew and hugging and catching up. We registered and mapped out how long it was going to take us to get places, grabbed some lunch and wandered some more. I was starting to need a break and retreated to the hotel for awhile and began reading the resolutions that will continue to pile up throughout the convention. We took a long hike north for dinner, went grocery shopping, and then picked up our student intern at the airport. That's right, we get someone to help us get things handled and run smoothly! I think technically he is here to help our bishop, but surely we can snag him for some non-bishoply tasks. There is just so little time when the schedule gets going; I'm already dreaming of the ways he can help. :) And it's lucky because he is an old friend whom I haven't been able to talk with in a long time so hopefully we'll get to catch up. He's in love, for starters!

Committee work begins at 8 am tomorrow - so I'm overdue for bed!