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Monday afternoon… and looking backwards.

 

Well, I certainly have not been very good to this blog!  Folks should know (I think I said this) that I only have access to a computer from about 9 to 5 in one of the offices here at the Convention Center – and believe me, most of that time I can’t get anywhere near to it.  Too much to do!  This afternoon we have a special order of business to deal with all the “Windsor Report” resolutions – “Special Committee 26” has been working early mornings and late into the night to bring us the resolutions.  They are a diverse (theologically) body.  I think I might have mentioned that Tuesday night they had a special hearing to hear points of view == 1500 chairs were set up and there still were lots of folks standing!  I gave up my seat this afternoon to Kim Byham, who has spent so many hours on these issues.  Let us keep everyone in prayers.  Before Special Committee 26 begins, the budget was presented to a joint session (Deputies and Bishops).  It is a wonderfully prophetic budget of mission and vision – it will be brought for a vote tomorrow.  By the way, we began our day today in a Eucharist with the music by Elizabeth Von Trapp – yes of THE Von Trapp family – and as we recessed, sang Edelweiss (of course…)

 

But I’m sure folks are wondering about yesterday.  What an unbelievable shock!  When the word came that the bishops had elected on the fifth ballot, and the chair of the elections committee came to report we were waiting on the edge of our chairs.  And when he said the Right Reverend…and then hesitated a moment of two and said “Katharine Jefferts Schori” the place erupted.  First of all, a woman – who would have thought!  But also, I had heard so many folks say that she was probably the best candidate “but” (the but implying since she is a woman, she would not be elected.)  She also is wonderfully young (they are referring to her as the first baby boomer to be elected).  And she has a priority of MISSION!  She spoke at the budget hearings the other night on the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) and the importance of our church responding. 

 

AND in order for the bishop to be “elected” the House of Deputies had to concur.  And who offered the motion to concur??? Marge Christie of our deputation.  It was an unbelievable moment in history – Marge, who fought so hard for women’s ordination in the 70s (actually, probably starting in the 60s), was able to offer this motion at this historic time.  And then woman after woman after man got up to speak in support.  Only one person spoke in opposition (because of the fear of what would happen in the Anglican Communion).  Then “Vote by orders” (Clergy and Lay report separately) – and it overwhelmingly passed in both houses (95 plus for, about 12 against in each order.)  Bishop Jefferts Schori was then brought to the House of Deputies to be introduced – and place stood in wild support for a VERY long time.

 

Well, I’m off to go back to the House to watch the debate on Special Committee 26.  I can’t even remember what I have told you about.  I know I told you about the Integrity Eucharist which was so spirit filled.  There has been very little time for proper meals – basically the day starts at 7 a.m. with hearings – I have been monitoring the National and International – and we’ve discussed Iraq, Israel/Palestine, environment, etc. etc.  (I’ll be happy to share a whole listing at a later point.)  Hearings end at 9, and Eucharist has usually been from 9:30 to 10:45.  And then we meet from 11 to 1 in Legislative Session (and then includes noonday prayer, including a reflection, by one of the 4 chaplains.)  Lunch from 1 to 2:30…and then meet from 2:30-6:00.  And then in the evening, seminary dinners (last night), parties and receptions, hearings from some committees.  I’ve tried to get into the exhibits to visit some of the 200 plus exhibitors – ministries, bookstores (Jane Tomaine was signing her book on Sunday…and had w workshop in Triennial Sunday too.), clothing and jewelry, etc.  And lots of time to meet new folks, and renew friendships with long time friends and colleagues.

 

I will certainly try to write a message or two before leaving Thursday morning – we adjourn Wednesday at 6:00.  And then hopefully when I get back I can write some final thoughts of reflection on this extraordinary experience.  If I am elected again for 2009, I will try to have a laptop so I can do these messages more often.  I’m trying to give you the spirit of Columbus these days….and also it helps me try to remember what I have done and am doing day by day during these 12 days in Ohio.

 

For now ….

 

Faithfully,

 

Martha Gardner

 

 

hello again...finally

Ok, well it looks like I need to go backwards now!  It’s not surprising to me that it’s Saturday afternoon and I haven’t been able to work on this blog for a couple of days!  I know that ENS is releasing lots of stories about the substance of our convention, so let me try to continue to give random thoughts….

 

We just left the largest Eucharist of the convention – the UTO ingathering.  The music was wonderful and spirit filled – including some original pieces commissioned in honor of the Presiding Bishop.  To see all the bishops process in their red robes up one aisle, all the UTO diocesan coordinators process up another aisle (Newark’s Anna Byrne did us proud!) and the altar party come up the center aisle was wonderful to see,  The preacher was (Dr.) Jenny Te Paa, from New Zealand.  I have worked with Jenny over the years and preached a wonderful sermon, in her calm, New Zealand accent.  Jenny was on the Lambeth Commission that produced the Windsor report and brings great wisdom to the dialogue and she had a wonderful message for all of us.  (I’m getting a copy, hopefully by e-mail, so I can share it with all of you.)  Now we are in recess until 2:30 when the PB nominations will be made in a joint session.  I will be leaving shortly thereafter to go to the Episcopal Peace Fellowship/Witness (Magazine) reception where there will be several award winners, including Marge Christie of our diocese.  That’s from 4 to 6, so I will miss the rest of the legislative session (Michael Rehill is taking my place on the floor today) and the tribute to retiring House of Deputies president George Werner at 5…but will return for the tribute to the Presiding Bishop at 8:00.

 

Last night was one of the Eucharists that is often one of the highlights of convention for me – the Integrity Eucharist.  Unfortunately, the church was smaller than ones we’ve had it in before, so thanks to Lindsay McHugh for saving a couple of great seats!  (She was able to leave earlier than us since Triennial ends at 5, and the House of Deputies ends at 6).  There were hundreds who were turned away.  Bishop Gene Robinson preached and was so wonderful in his message about love.  “Love them anyway.”  Whatever they say or do to you, love them anyway.  He cried, we all cried – and was a wonderful witness of the gospel and a man who is willing to stand up for it, against so many odds.  Probably a 4 or 5 minute standing ovation afterwards….And the singing! So loud, with one voice.  Again, this is what convention is about—the gathering of people trying to do the best they can to live the gospel.

 

More later –

 

Faithfully,

 

Martha Gardner

Thursday morning (I think!) in Columbus

Good morning!  It’s kind of hard to believe that it’s only “Day 3” here in Columbus – it must have something to do with the fact that hearings begin at 7:30 a.m. and the day continues until about 11 at night (if not longer…)  I’m not complaining, though – the days are energizing and spirit filled.

 

To pick up where I left off yesterday….and go back to “Day 1” – Tuesday.  After the morning hearings (which I don’t remember what was discussed at this point) we went to the daily Eucharist.  We have been assigned to tables where we sit every morning for Eucharist.  At Table 101, we have the Bishops of Oklahoma and of Venezuela, and deputies from New York, Western North Carolina, Ohio, Iowa and women attending the ECW (Episcopal Church Women) Triennial.  After the sermon – preached by the Presiding Bishop on the opening day, we have 10 minutes for table conversation and response on what we heard.  These morning times were one of the my favorite things from the last General Convention – people who may differ theologically and politically come together in this time and space and build community.  I see it happening already here. 

 

Our morning session – our first – in the House of Deputies was all that organizing “stuff” you do when you first gather.  Again, it’s wonderful how community is built – Newark is next to the deputation from Easton (Maryland) – behind Central Florida, and in front of Wyoming.  And trust me, after 10 days together, 6 hours a day, community gets build!  Again, no matter how we differ politically and theologically, relationships are built.  And we have had lots of laughter already!

 

For lunchtime I walked with Lyn Headley-Deavours to Trinity Church (about ½ miles away – just behind the Capitol) for the lunch and presentation of the Economic Justice Network.  Geoff Curtiss (rector of All Saints, Hoboken) is the past chair of this national network.  Wonderful people doing wonderful work – and we were fortunate to hear from the Rev. Richard Gilette speak from his new book on Globalization and how Christians can respond.  The Network has just published a training module on economic justice – I am hoping parishes will use it! 

 

As many of you know, I have been involved with the Anglican Women’s Empowerment (AWE) where we bring women from all the Anglican provinces to New York for the annual two week UN Commission on the Status of Women meeting…and are building a network of women from all over the world.  Phoebe Griswold, wife of the Presiding Bishop, has thrown everything she has into this work and I joined her as she was making a presentation to the bishops’ spouses.  This is a group that has its own identify and relationships and meets together during the Convention.  Mostly women (!!) – although a few men were certainly present – were very responsive to what Phoebe had to say.  Already several wives of bishops are actively involved – Karen Sisk (New York), Karen Chane (Washington, DC), Kate Smith (Connecticut), Marcie Lipscomb (Southwest Florida), Susanne Watson Epting (whose husband is Ecumenical Officer of the Church).  By the way,  I am so reluctant to use the term “wives of bishops”  because these women bring their own professional and personal experience to the work but the fact remains that sometimes being partnered to the bishop can give greater visibility to the work.  It’s just the reality of our church.  By the way, the Rev. Nancy Roth (who many of you have met at St. George’s since her son and his family lives in Maplewood) is chaplain to the bishops’ spouses.  It was lovely to see her and we are going to have lunch today (Thursday).

 

I know this is detailed, but it’s so helpful for me to write down what’s happening so I can reflect back.  But I want to say at this time that with the underlining tensions that may be at this convention – with some of the decisions we need to make later – there is also such a sense of hope and spirit.  First of all, there are young adults everywhere.  There is an official youth presence in the House of Deputies and they are testifying at several opportunities.  They are at the hearings, in the hallways, everywhere – and bring hope to me.  Second, although there is focus on our Convention about what decisions we will make and the future of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion, the presence of other work in the Anglican Communion that is happening at the grass roots level – like the women’s work I talked about above – and many of the Anglican bishops I have met here – show me that the Anglican Communion is also something different than around the issue of sexuality.  And third, everyone you go, there is a focus on “MDGs” – Millennium Development Goals and our church’s commitment to eradicating poverty. More on that later, because it really has become a very important theme here and the priority of our churches witness in the world.

 

We returned to the House of Deputies Tuesday afternoon around 4:00 and one of the folks who spoke to us was the Archbishop of York, who brought greetings from the Archbishop of Canterbury, and also added his own wonderful comments.  Uganda-born, he was lively, provocative and full of the Holy Spirit.  Again, more hope for our Communion being in relationship with each other.  After we recessed around 6:00, we were able to go to Bishop Croneberger’s suite – the “hospitality suite” to debrief.  Although the Bishop was still not feeling 100% by any means, he wanted to have the opportunity to hear what was happening and see all of us – it was our first time of gathering.  It was so good to see him up and about. 

 

And now, I must sign off – it’s time for our daily 9:30 Eucharist – more later (will I ever catch up to real time???)

Faithfully,

 

Martha Gardner

Day Two

I have finally been able to get to have a few minutes and get to a computer to post again.

 

Monday evening I ended up leaving here and running into Bishop Julio Murray, bishop of Panama, who I had been looking for.  (Panama is our Companion Diocese).  Unfortunately, he had received a phone call from his diocese that morning telling him that his predecessor (and godfather), Bishop Hayes, had passed away – he left this morning to fly back to Panama to officiate at his “celebration of life” on Friday.  He hopes to come back to Columbus this weekend.  We ended up walking to the “overseas bishops dinner”, hosted by the Church Periodical Club.  I found out pretty quickly that it is the place to be! Several of the overseas bishops here were present, as well as many of the bishops of our church and lots of other folks.  It was a wonderful evening – and ended at a reasonable time (8:30!)  Diana Clark and I then spent a long time chatting with Bishop Marc Andrus (bishop-elect of California and currently suffragen bishop of Alabama) and Bishop Nettie Rivera, the first Latina woman bishop elected (she serves as suffragen bishop of Olympia – Washington State).  The four of us walked back to our hotel and in doing so, passed the State Capital where that morning, Episcopal Peace Fellowship had set up the exhibit which is traveling around the country honoring the victims of the Iraq war.  Two thousand four hundred plus pairs of boots were laid out in lines, organized by states, and each one tagged with the name of the serviceperson who died in combat.  Also, there were piles of shoes in the middle – including baby and children’s shoes – each pair representing 50 Iraq civilians (mostly women and children) killed.  It was about 9:00 at night, the sun not having gone down too long before and there were several people walking around in silence holding candles.  From the steps of the capital, a man was chanting the prayers of his Muslim faith.  It was indeed sacred space.  Apparently, the exhibit will not be shown again in its entirety – it has become too large.

 

Diana and I returned to the hotel, just as Bishop Jack and Linda McKelvey were leaving for some dinner, as he said “I just left your bishop at the hospital.”  That’s when we heard that Bishop Croneberger began experiencing great pain around 7:00 p.m. and as it continued to worsen, he knew he had to go to the hospital. Both Bishop McKelvey and Michael Rehill accompanied him and then Bishop Carol Gallagher joined them, and waited with the Bishop.  Fortunately, he was discharged that evening – just after midnight – with some medications to ease the pain of the kidney stones they diagnosed. 

 

WELL, I need to leave now to return to the House of Deputies --  more tomorrow morning I promise!

 

Martha Gardner

Day One in Columbus

Hello from Columbus!  My access to this computer ends in a few minutes so I just want to say that I arrived safely late last night and spent the day visiting the exhibits and seeing old friends as we ran from one place to another.  I attended the first of the “brown bag” lunches, sponsored by the Episcopal Church Center – this one hosted by Phoebe Griswold and Brian Grieves (the director of Peace and Justice) and honoring Bishop Riah of the Diocese of Jerusalem.  It was a wonderful gathering of people giving testimony about their ministry in and on behalf of the Holy Land, especially the Palestians.  It is such a painful situation, but Bishop Riah was still able to give us words of hope.  I went from there to the unofficial opening session (Day One is really tomorrow), with remarks by the Presiding Bishop and the President of the House of Deputies, George Werner.  Then orientation for the deputies (it IS a confusing process) and then conversation at small tables – how the Christian faith is important to us, how the Episcopal Church is important to us, and what we will tell our grandchildren in 20 years about this convention (!) Despite the underlying anxieties about some of the decisions we have to make in the days ahead, at our table with folks from all over the country, there were signs of great faith and great hope.  Just about everyone responded to our first question – what is important about our faith – that knowing we are already saved and loved, no matter what we do, liberates us in allowing God to do with us what God will do. Ultimately, we want to be authentic and a witness to the struggles of the world at large.  I’m off now to a quick dinner, and then legislative hearings tonight in the “national/international committee” – lots of interesting resolutions to discuss in the days ahead.

 

Until tomorrow, then –

 

Faithfully,

 

Martha Gardner