So--my dear friends, cher Anglicans and others, you may be saying or thinking, "Deb, this is all well and good, but what actually happened?"
Well, again it is not my job to provide Thee with all the "hard news". other places, such as http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/ens/, the Episcopal News Service, or Anglicans Online! (http://anglican.org/online/) provide a steady diet of facts.
No, I am your humble color commentator. And, I am absorbing all I can see or hear or be told as deeply as I can, faithfully. This means that soon, so very soon, I must actually exit my hotel room, and leave my computer Thor the Filekeeper, and re-enter the current of the swirling bubbling Episcopalianae, downstairs.
I will return, one hopes, before this evening to inform you more fully on the lovely meditative and useful and necessary Forum on Spirituality held last night in a slightly-darkened ballroom here at the Marriott. I did not want to go to this seminar. But I am so glad I did. Spiritual food indeed.
The participants were: Martin Smith, SJE, Esther de Waal, Madeline L'Engle, and the musical commentary, on Harp, of Brother Andrew, of West Park. Talk was of St. Benedict, of Celtic tradition, of the heart, the soul, the body, and The Body. The Erotic surfaced there as well. Odd coincidence, perhaps? but, being mainly Episcopalians and Lutherans, we all managed to behave. Yes, even I behaved. So--are you tantalized?
Actual facts, just in case no other word has reached you:
Medical benefits for same-sex domestic partnerships of those employed in this Church PECUSA have been approved.
Big trouble has begun in the discussions and the wordings, proposed compromises re the under-consideration Canon III.8.1. By "big trouble" I mean merely that tempers of the opposing sides are beginning to glow and flare a bit.
Morehouse Publishing held a lovely reception in honor of a wonderful man, E. Allen Kelly, President and Publisher of Morehouse for many many years. He is going to retire, to travel, golf a bit, etc.--but also, no doubt, to continue his work in the Church. It was Allen who had faith in me and Ana Hernandez, in our guise as The Miserable Offenders (musicians)--and in so many others of the Church for decades. George Gallup, Locke Bowman+ and Ann and +Geoffrey Rowthorn spoke. We, the weird MOs, sang Allen's praises to the tune of "Let Us Break Bread Together". We were asked to sing (at the podium, no accompaniment) 2 or 3 minutes before the fact--and had to write appropriate words very quickly. Luckily, to praise E. Allen Kelly is phenomenally easy...
Trouble seems to be developing, or rather, misunderstandings are now occurring amongst and between those working on the proposed Communicatons Resolutions. Pray for the committee as they strive to explain this new electronic world to the Church. We really should learn to communicate outside our own borders.