GCIndy#6

Fears of a “meltdown” here at the 77th General Convention of The Episcopal Church seem today largely unfounded. As I indicated in an earlier post, I have often been amazed that this somewhat unwieldy body of lay persons, bishops, priests, and deacons seems to find a way for common sense and the Holy Spirit to bring us back from the brink time and time again over the years.

At this point, it looks as though we will not only have overwhelmingly passed provisional liturgies for the blessing of same sex unions and made a rational, careful response to the proposal for an Anglican Covenant which will keep us at the table, but will pass a sensible (for now) budget for the next triennium, vote to relocate but not sell the Church Center headquarter in New York, establish a special task force and process for listening to the church and bringing to the next General Convention specific plans for restructure of our administration and governance. Not bad for eight days in the smoldering heat of an Indianapolis summer!

Had a lovely dinner with the Chicago deputation last night at which we included the provisional bishop and deputies from the continuing Diocese of Quincy in anticipation of the day when we will one day be reunited as one diocese of The Episcopal Church. From there, we went to a reception for Seabury/Bexely seminary. It was a packed room of energetic and supportive people for this new experiment in seminary education. President Roger Ferlo and deans Ellen Wondra and Tom Ferguson have their work cut out for them, but I sense a lot of support and enthusiasm for the project.

One more full day of legislation and then we’ll see how much work we will have to complete on Thursday before heading out of here. Hope no important issues get left untended to because of the press of legislation and the shortened time frame of this Convention. Nonetheless, we are all ready to be about done here!