Convention

Well, I made it through another convention relatively unscathed and (TBTG) unelected.

The convention theme was, "I Have Called You Friends: Discovering the Power to Partner with Christ."  Our guest speaker was Margaret Babcock and she did a good job of leading us through discussions of leadership, power, friendship and how we frame all those issues within the church.  It was good.

We had two resolutions to consider.  One was a resolution to study the possible future divestment of fossil fuel companies.  There was some debate about it, but not much, and it passed with ease.  The other resolution was for the Episcopal Diocese of Oregon to support marriage equality in Oregon.  There were a few people who spoke in favor of the resolution and nobody spoke against it.  It also passed with ease.

The big drama of the convention was when our voting for General Convention delegates began to drag on.  We needed to elect four clergy and four lay.  The four lay people were elected rather quickly, but the voting for clergy delegates dragged on.  And then we found out that there were invalid ballots because people voted for people already elected or they voted for three when told to vote for two, or some other such whatever.  At one point a gentleman approached the mic, introduced himself, and said, "I have some experience with Robert's Rules of Order ...."

My head hit the table.

He was overly concerned with the distinction between ballots collected and votes cast.  I won't go into the whole thing, but the discussion took way longer than it should have.  Eventually the chair made a ruling, we moved forward and finally had a complete election.

Social times, display tables, the banquet dinner and all the other stuff surrounding convention was good. 

And my bed was comfortable, so it wasn't all bad.