Convention - Day 7

Pray for the Diocese of Ecuador Central. The diocese has been served by appointed interim bishops since the deposition and removal of Bishop Larea a number of years ago. Bishop Ramos, formerly of Connecticut, was the last of these. Bishop Ramos has worked hard to prepare the diocese to elect their own bishop. A small but vocal faction of the diocesan clergy have been advocating for an Ecuadorian bishop over the past few years. The recent election called a Colombian priest, and this small faction has contested the election. The election came before General Convention and was ratified by the House of Bishops.

Ratification in the House of Deputies, however, was contested. The Deputation from Central Ecuador is split, and those who want an Ecuadorian bishop gathered some support in that house. I will not go into all the details. I have worked with all of the Ecuadorians involved and have come to love and respect all of them. People I care about are hurting. The diocese is hurting. They, and their new bishop, need our prayers.

In Legislative news:

• D085, Ministry of the Child, came to the Education Committee and was passed without discussion.
• The subcommittee working on Do64, the Young Adult event in Europe, submitted a substitute resolution, which passed unanimously. However, a later motion to reconsider was made, and the committee will deliberate further on this.
• D077, a resolution to commend the Office of Young Adult and Campus Ministry, was passed with a recommendation to Dispatch that it be put on the Consent Calendar. Putting a resolution on the Consent Calendar means that it is one the committee feels will need no discussion or input by the House of first action (in this case, the House of Deputies), and it is put on a list of resolutions that is voted on as a block.
• D096, Prevention of Domestic Violence, is scheduled for a hearing tomorrow morning
• D062, Implementation of Sexual Abuse Misconduct Prevention Training, was amended by the House of Deputies. Essentially, it took out the whole focus on children, which was the point of the resolution. You can see the change here.
• In the House of Bishops there was an attempt to amend A082, the Lifelong Formation Charter. However, the Presiding Bishop pointed out that if they amended it, the resolution would have to go back to the House of Deputies where it would probably die because the deputies would not be able to take it up again before Convention ended. That effectively ended the amendment.
• The House of Bishops made a couple of minor changes to D025 and sent it back to the House of Deputies, which will probably take it up quickly and concur with the bishops' changes.
  

This evening the Evangelism & Congregational Life Center hosted a reception. This was the brainchild of Suzanne Watson when she was still our Center Director. Since she had committed the Center to a time and space contract, we had to go ahead with it. While it was not as well attended as we might have hoped, given all the other receptions that were held this evening, most of us felt that people who did attend had a good time, and we made some good connections.

And here we are in Salon F:

Here is the Japanese Reconciliation Tea Ceremony that was held several times throughout the evening. Most of our guests spent time here:

We also had Nathan, a Vietnamese comedian who also did magic tricks. He arrived late after getting stuck in traffic, and he performed for a small but enthusiastic audience. Ruth-Ann took him over to the Young Adult Festival when our event was over, as he would have the chance to perform for a larger audience there.

Here's Nathan showing us the magic rings:

Only one button today:


Peace,
Jeff