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