The Thursday that felt like Wednesday

I suppose it is because we began meetings on Tuesday but my internal clock is telling me it is a day earlier than it really is. Another component may well be that I am wondering how we can possibly do what still has to be done in the time left. This is not a rationale for a longer Convention!

I began the morning at 7:00 with a two hour Prayer Book meeting. We spent the entire time reviewing, editing, amending - pick the word you like best - six sets of commons and proper prefaces. Think of these as generic "feast day" collects. I think we managed to do good work despite our size - about 35 people - and our varied liturgical backgrounds. A key question was, "do all collects need to end with a trinitarian doxology?" Kind of makes you wonder how I managed to stay away, doesn't it? :-) Oddly, I rather thrive on this sort of thing.

This afternoon, we had a hearing for people wishing to speak to the resolutions that have been proposed on same sex blessings. I would guess there were more than 500 people in the room. Thankfully, not all of them wanted to speak! We will begin discussing the next step tomorrow morning at 7:30. Subcommittees will need to be formed so that we can get through all the legislation assigned to us in a timely manner - in other words, before we all fly home. At this point, I have no idea what will come out of the committee on same sex blessings but I can assure you it will have been prayed about, deliberated on at length and given very serious consideration before it leaves our hands.

This afternoon, the House of Deputies met as a Committee of the Whole to begin talking about how/if this Convention will return to B033, our agreement not to consent to the election of a bishop whose lifestyle is offensive to the Communion. We heard the history and a summary of the ways we can reasonably move and then we had one on one conversations with someone we did not know about our own experience of B033, the church's experience and what God is calling us to do now. It was a useful conversation and time well spent. We will continue that conversation tomorrow morning and the World Mission Committee is still in a hearing on the subject as I type (my own Committee's evening hearing wore me out or I'd be there).

So, dear readers, I am going to brush my teeth and go to bed. Tomorrow begins early and will be a busy legislative day since resolutions are beginning to come out of committees. It won't be the rush it always is at the end of our time together but it is enough to keep us from getting bored.