Convention - If It's Day 4, It Must Be Friday

Good news this morning. The Education received three new resolutions for consideration:

• D044 - Title IV Training


• D062 - Sexual Misconduct: Implementation of Sexual Abuse Misconduct Prevention Training


• D064 - Youth Meeting in Europe

D044 asked to provide training on the Title IV (the disciplinary canon) revisions that have not yet been approved by Convention. The committee approved this but will hold on to it until the revisions pass, if they pass. If the revisions do not pass, they will not release this.

D062 was written by the Education networks that work with my office and proposed by a deputy who is a member of the Education Committee. She spoke to the resolution, and when she pointed out the line item in the proposed Triennial Budget was approximately $24,000 per year, the committee gasped audibly. The committee passed the resolution with a minor change that corrected a wording problem. After they passed the resolution came some discussion about the online training that is available. I was called upon by the Bishops' Chair, Bishop John Rabb. I explained that yes, there is an online program for Safeguarding God's Children, but as a trainer and someone who has worked with survivors of abuse, it was not a good idea to use the online version for a first time training.

D064 calls for a Young Adult gathering in Geneva for the Churches in Europe. The title of the resolution is Youth Meeting in Europe, but the body of the resolution speaks of a Young Adult gathering and the Office of Young Adult Ministry. Later this morning I spoke with Jason, the Associate Program Officer for Young Adult and Campus Ministries. He told me that in Europe "youth" means "young adult." I let him know that the language would not be understood people here.

The major issue I and many of the educators here at Convention have with D064 is that they are asking for $50,000 for scholarships for a one-time event. That is half of my entire budget for the triennium and a quarter of the Adult Formation budget for the triennium. Tomorrow morning's meeting should be interesting.

The rest of today was light in terms of schedule. I spent most of the morning in the Church Center Staff Office on the second floor of the Convention Center. I checked email and filed off a bunch of email read over the past few days, since we can access the Church Center public drives from the computers set up in the office. I attended the daily Center Director Check-In, which is open to any staff free/available when it is held.

I went down to the worship hall early to assist with the arrival of the children. The movement of the Children's Program participants from place to place is much easier now that we've had a few days under our belts.

After lunch I dropped by the Discovery Center and had a chance to spend some time with Robyn Szoke who hired me at the Church Center seven years ago this month. It was good to catch up with her, and we're hoping to have some more time together while she's here.

The Children's Program came to the Discovery Center at 3:00 for story time with Nancy Tennyson and learned about bishops. Stephanie Wight assisted with the demonstration of a bishops' vestments. Here are two future bishops:

One of the great blessings to the Children's Program is the presence of staff from Camp Wrightwood. They adjusted their Summer Camp schedules and brought four of their young leaders to assist with the program. The directors have participated in the planning of the program from the beginning. The diocese is lucky to have these folks as part of their organization. Here is one of the young leaders in the tee shirt they all wear in various versions:


Good rules of the road for almost any situation, don't you think?

In other legislative news, A082, the Lifelong Formation Charter passed the House of Deputies with some minor changes. You can find the current version here. A084, Continued Development of A Province IX Curriculum, is also on its way to the House of Bishops. Resolution A085, Ministry of the Child, has been filed, but it has not yet been assigned to a committee.

I collected lots of buttons today, but not as many as the daughter of one of our volunteers. Emma Li had covered her hat with them and then filled it half-full with more. Her mother figures she will go home with one of every single button available at Convention. Three of these buttons are part of the series of four produced by the Older Adult Ministries network. I picked up the first one--a child's hand holding an older adult's hand--a couple of days ago. And I couldn't escape the EfM booth without one of their buttons.

Two of these buttons are from the organization pushing for 1% of the Episcopal Church's budget to go toward the Millennium Development Goals. Devon Anderson, executive director of Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation and a deputy to General Convention, is the daughter of House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson. My favorite of this group is the one from Heifer International that says "Love a Llama."

And here is the last of today's collection:

As a member of the Church Center Staff, I have to be very careful about buttons, etc., because it could be seen as advocating for something. This is especially important when it comes to any organization promoting anything that might be related to the work of my office. So I am not even wearing the Evangelism & Congregational Life button I have.

Joe and Trudy invited me to have dinner with them this evening. I had planned on attending the Integrity Eucharist, but after a week of ever increasing crowds, the last place I wanted to be was at one of the most heavily attended events of convention. We went to a Red Lobster not too far from the Convention Center, but far enough away that there were no other identifiable Episcopalians in sight during our meal. Time away with a couple of good friends was the perfect way to end my first week in Anaheim.

Even though tomorrow is Saturday, it is a work day. First up will be the 7:30 a.m. Education Committee meeting.

Peace,
Jeff