I know that my (quite conservative) teacher from our local church – I called the class Episcopalian 101, it was basically a Christian history/church history/Christian living course – was not very pleased with the appointment. But he hedged his words very well.
Essentially, he said he was rather surprised that someone with such a relatively small amount of experience would be chosen for such a high position, but that he wished her well and imagined that all those reasonable people must have been deeply moved by the Spirit in order to vote her in!
That’s what I like about him. He might be opinionated but he’s (almost) always ready to see the other person’s side. He just thinks it’s wrong.
He’s one of the best. As for the wine at the Shrove Tuesday Pancake Suppers, my current church is the first one I’ve been to which does this. On the other hand, they do a few other things I hadn’t seen before like using a live donkey and sheep for the Christmas Pageant.
I also apologize for the hijack and my response.
What was the general atmosphere like? Was it contentious? From the gatherings of Episcopalians I’ve been to and from what I know of us, I’d think it would have been rather fun, interesting, and spiritual. Then again, I’ve never been to a vestry meeting.
I found it exciting to be among so many others of my faith, and kept bumping into people I knew (including several I hadn’t seen in many years, from a previous parish which I used to attend before moving, and the rector of my in-laws’ parish in Vermont). I’m a policy wonk and a proud Episcopalian, and it really WAS “fun, interesting, and spiritual,” believe it or not. But then again, I’m on our vestry, and I find those meetings to usually be all three, too, so consider the source!
I hope it’s okay to resurrect this thread instead of starting a new one, but I just got back from the Episcopal Church’s 77th General Convention in Indianapolis which, if not quite as newsworthy as '03 and '06, still generated some controversey. I was a lay deputy from my diocese. I was also a deputy at the last convention in '09.
This year the convention voted to:
- approve 'provisional' rites for the blessing of same-sex relationships
- add 'gender identity and expression' to our non-discrimination canons, including for the discernment process toward ordination
- endorse equal treatment of existing same-sex marriages under federal law
- re-organize the bloated government structure of our church
- re-iterate that Christian baptism is a ("normative") requirement to participate in the eucharist
- about 450 other things
I’m assuming that this topic has limited interest (we’re a small denomination after all). But if anyone has questions about how the highest level of the church structure operates, or what it’s like to participate in the largest bi-cameral legislative body in the world, I’ll be happy to answer.
It was Methodist, Not Episcopal, and it was Annual not General Conference–so just the people from Upstate New York(er–now that I write that, I’m not sure whether New York has only two sections for the purpose of Annual Conference as opposed to more than that).
Still, I can tell you what they did there. Hand out at least half a dozen half loaves of bread, and a matching number of cups of grape juice, station pairs of clergy people all over the place, and have other people whose jobs were to tell each row which servers were ours.
My mother and I had gone to see the ordination of a lady who had been the Associate Pastor of our church, and is still a good friend of my mother. We were fortunate enough to be sent to her, and more fortunate still that she’d been given bread–she hugged us, and maybe everyone–I’d have been worried about spills if she’d had the grape juice.
The other coolest part was that the organist kept playing a variety of beloved old hymns, and all around us people hummed and sometimes sang along.
The Eucharist was pretty cool - over 1200 people in a huge hotel ballroom with a stage up front for the celebrants. One day fell on the feast of St. Benedict and there as a large choir doing plainsong chant in Latin as we entered. It was fucking tanscendent.
