Legislative Day 4

 Day 4...and it's the final day of General Convention. In that past, we weren't even halfway finished on Day 4! Shorter, smaller, safer. And as it turned out, faster!

Last time descending to the House of Deputies.

During the service of Morning Prayer, PHOD-Elect Julia Ayala Harris preached.

Julia Ayala Harris Sermon

As part of morning announcements, Dr. Rodney Coldren, health officer for the General Convention and responsible--with others--for developing our plans to maintain Covid-safety, gave his last report. He brought welcome news. With around 800 members of the House of Deputies, the anticipated infection positivity rate was expected to be around 10%, meaning 70-something deputies could have contracted the virus. And while we don't yet know who might become sick after arriving home, he reported that only sixteen persons are known to have fallen ill during our days in Baltimore. He expressed how moved he was by our care for one another throughout this gathering.

We than dealt with some amendments, concurrences with resolutions acted on by the House of Bishops. Then came a big batch of courtesy resolutions honoring those who are retiring from service to the General Convention. Among them, the Chancellor, the Vice President, and lastly, the President.

PHOD Gay Jennings offers her final closing remarks.

NH Unofficial Deputy Moose has descended from his perch and listens intently.

Passing of the gavel to the Julia Ayala Harris...

Who posed with some deputation members after the session...

which ended at midday!

Here is the deputation's group photo. Look at those happy faces! We got a free afternoon, and will gather again for our deputation dinner on the Inner Harbor.

Front: Gail, Tina, Benge, Bishop Rob, Jason

Back: Sue, Colin, Sarah, Margaret, Moose, Kelly

Thanks to the Episcopal Church of New Hampshire for following our adventures. Stay tuned for more updates and reports of the outcomes and insights from this hopeful, forward-looking, historic, and unusual General Convention.

Legislative Day 3, Part 2

Day 3 was long and eventful--but when isn't that true?

Here's what else we did...

The NH Deputation spent the lunch break poring over the proposed budget of The Episcopal Church, identifying expenditures included and questioning which ones had been voted via resolutions but might not be included. 

The House of Bishops entered the House of Deputies, seated at the back (Covid protocol) rather than with their deputations as in the past. After the presentation on the budget, there was time for questions.

Our CFO Benge Ambrogi was the first person to the microphone.

He alluded to the manner in which he and our deputation spent lunch break. And instantly, on what we refer to as the House of Twitter, our Math Lunch became a thing.

In the afternoon, we also voted on the Vice President of the House of Deputies. If the President is a layperson, as Julia Ayala Harris is, then the VPHOD must be elected from the clerical order. There were two priests nominated. The Rev. Rachel Taber-Hamilton, a woman of indigenous heritage, of the Diocese of Olympia is the next Vice President.

Afterwards, it was time to honor our outgoing President of the House of Deputies, The Rev. Gay Clark Jennings. 

PHOD-Elect shares her experiences of working with Gay.

There were many testimonials from the floor, and one very surprising tribute: from the former speaker of the British House of Commons, The Hon. John Bercow.

Your blogger presented some courtesy resolutions. This is my view from the Platform, where the podium is located. Its pretty impressive, the sight of all those Deputies--about 800.

And at the tables on the platform, the President of the House of Deputies, presenting the HOD Medal to our hardworking and amusing Parliamentarian, Bryan Krislock.

The evening session concluded at 9:30.

Yawn.

Legislative Day 3, Part 1

This day being Sunday, we began with Holy Eucharist. The sermon was given by The Rt. Rev. Eugene Sutton of our host diocese of Maryland. Wonderful insights and inspiration

We remain being in our legislative calendar, as is always the case. We'll see how far we get...

Tina is assessing the resolutions

Benge and Sue confer

The sermon was given by The Rt. Reverend Eugene Sutton, Bishop of the hosting Diocese of Maryland.

Sermon by the Rt. Rev. Eugene Sutton

Vice President of the House of Deputies, The. hon. Byron Rushing, who has served in 16 General Conventions, was called to the podium for an address to the House. He represents so much history of the body and our Church.

And we're starting--

And the PHOD recognizes...

The Rev. Canon Michael Barlow for Announcements.

More later...

Legislative Day 2

Our third day of legislative business passed a blur of activity.

But at the start,  Margaret and Sue were bright-eyed and filled with spirit.

We began with a service of morning prayer, which included a sermon by The Rev. Gay Jennings, President of the House of Deputies. 

Sermon by The Rev. Gay Jennings

We then moved to elections...with the usual wifi issue delays, and some decisions requiring multiple ballots. 

At lunchtime,The Rev. Deacon Geof Smith (of NH) of The Episcopal Church office joined the deputation gathering.

There was a scheduled session following lunch--which the PHOD opened by stating there would also be an evening session. No surprise! The big event was the election of Julia Ayala Harris of Oklahoma as the next President of the HOD. Her term begins when the adjournment gavel comes down on Monday.

Oh, and Deputy Moose and Alternate Deputy Moose acquired rainbow masks from a friendly Eastern Oregon deputy.

The dinner break preceded the evening session. There were several debated resolutions and points of order. The long, long Third Legislative Day ended at 9.30 p.m.

The exhausted deputies retired to their rooms.

A Lengthy Legislative Day 1

Our NH deputation sits near the back of the House of Deputies, kind of towards the middle. 

This morning we had a problematic issue with the wifi system necessary for accessing our Virtual Binder--and most importantly, the voting system. Fortunately it was resolved, and we managed a successful electronic vote--yay!

The deputation gathered at lunch time, but there wasn't much to discuss.

Two resolutions on today's Consent Calendar were removed, and will go on a future Legislative Calendar, allowing debate and more informed decisions.

We approved the Special Rules of Order, with amendment, followed by meaningful and inspiring special-ordered resolutions from the Racial Justice and Reconciliation Committee.

But we hadn't made it very far through the full calendar by the time we had our dinner break. After both Houses recessed, the Bishops United Against Gun Violence held a visibility with prayer at the site of a tragic and fatal gun violence event that occurred yesterday, a few blocks from the Convention Center. 

Hoping and praying for more speedy conduct of business in the evening legislative session!

Colin Chapman, Tina Pickering, Jason Wells, Deputy Moose

Everyone looked so lively and eager and well-caffeinated first thing this morning!

 

The New Hampshire Deputation has arrived!

 NH Moose, our honorary deputy, checked out the Convention Center this morning. Even though he was appropriately masked, he was not officially certified as a deputy. Nevertheless, he will attend every legislative session.

If he had been able to register, he would have received a nametag, and ipad with the General Convention Virtual Binder, containing all the legislative information for the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops, resolutions, and much more. Anyone can access it! And follow the action via Media Hub/Live Streaming.

There is also a goody bag. Contents: 5 rapid Covid tests (one to use each morning), breath mints (to help with KN95 mask mouth), coloring book and pencils, mini-composition book for doodles and scribbles, a cookie, and wooden reusable non-plastic environmentally safe eating utensils. Plus a fan, which cannot offset Baltimore's overwhelming humidity!

Our deputation's hotel home is the Renaissance Harborplace, a few big blocks from the Baltimore Convention Center. Everyone who traveled today arrived safely.

Early this evening, we held our first deputation meeting to discuss resolutions of interest to our diocese. Most of our members were in the suite, a couple of us Zoomed in--one from the same hotel, one from New Hampshire.

Gail, Tina, Colin, Jason, Benge, Margaret, Moose, Bobbi

out of frame: Kelly, Sarah (birthday girl) & Sue

Bishop Rob, Gail, Tina

Tomorrow, Legislative Day 1 will begin with worship, the Bishops and Deputies in their separate Houses. Followed by morning, afternoon, and evening legislative sessions.

Baltimore Bound!

 Members of our New Hampshire deputation are on the move, or soon will be, traveling by air or by car--destination, Baltimore.

From Friday through next Monday, we will be spending most of our time in the Convention Center. The presence of the 80th General Convention is already apparent from the signage there. 

Welcome sign @ the Convention Center

The weather is far warmer and far more humid than in New Hampshire. Rain showers and thunderstorms are predicted.

Up & down temperatures. Wet & dry weather.

Baltimore Skyline

National Aquarium, left & Inner Harbor, right.

Late this afternoon, the showers moved across the distant edge of the city...and the faint rainbow that appeared afterwards seemed like a good omen.

Registration and deputy certification takes place tomorrow, as well as the first gathering of the NH deputation. 

Our First Legislative Day is Friday, and will begin with worship.

Convening Virtually

 Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 80th General Convention did not take place in 2021 as scheduled.

Instead of a Triennium, we find ourselves in a "Quadrennium."

The New Hampshire deputies began meeting online, sharing information about our legislative committee work, making assignments for monitoring committee hearings conducted on Zoom, and those of us assigned to committees have been attending them.

Our assignments are:

     Bishop Rob--Sexual Harassment, Sexual Exploitation, & Safeguarding (House of Bishops)

     Sarah Ambrogi--Secretary, Churchwide Leadership

     Margaret Porter--Chair, Privilege & Courtesy

     Kelly Sundberg-Seaman--Member, House of Deputies News

     Jason Wells--Member, Dispatch of Business

The Presiding Officers of General Convention created committees charged with making recommendations for a safe convention. Ultimately, the advice received was to shorten the length of the gathering and reduce as far as possible the number of persons attending. Therefore, the dates for Baltimore will be July 8-11. Only bishops, deputies and first alternate deputies will be present. All other adjacent church gatherings (Episcopal Church Women, Official Youth Presence, etc.) have been cancelled. Full vaccination is mandatory. Masking in all meeting places is required. Self-testing for Covid will take place daily. And other restrictions will be in place regarding worship, food consumption, and son on.

For those who have attended prior conventions, this one will be like no other. For those new to our deputation, they have begun their service in a strange season.

We ask your prayers as we finalize preparations for our pilgrimage to Baltimore!

Our Zooming Deputation

Election of General Convention Deputies for 2021

At the 217th annual Convention of the Episcopal Church of New Hampshire, the following were elected to represent our diocese at the 2021 General Convention, to be held in Baltimore, MD:

Clergy:

The Rev. Canon Gail Avery           

The Rev. Jason Wells                     

The Rev. Kelly Sundberg Seaman             

The Rev. Kate Harmon Siberine                

Alternates - Clergy:

The Rev. Colin Chapman               

The Rev. Sue Poulin                      

The Rev. Kate Atkinson                

The Rev. Richard Davenport        

Lay:

Canon Benge Ambrogi                   

Canon Tina Pickering                      

Sarah Ambrogi                                  

Margaret Porter                               

Alternates - Lay

Marti Hunt                                         

Roberta Beavers                             

 In addition to the deputies elected in each order, first alternates also attend convention.

The view from the farthest balcony

From The Rev. Kelly Sundberg Seaman

I’m fairly sure that this is the third General Convention I’ve followed closely via Twitter, which is just about as long as it's been possible to do so. True, that's only a sample of what’s going on: “social media General Convention” isn’t any more the full picture of GC than a parking lot conversation is the full picture of the meeting that preceded it.

That’s not quite a fair analogy, though, since much of what comes across social media with the hashtag #GC79 isn’t after-the-fact chatter. Yes, there’s a lot of passionate advocacy on line, and the occasional wave of snark. But folks posting on Twitter also provide on-the-spot reporting from committee hearings and legislative sessions, like meeting minutes in real time. The team from Austin’s own Seminary of the Southwest have done a particularly fine job this year with that kind of reporting. 

And the House of Deputies uses Twitter as a transparent communications tool: addressing @HODPlatform is one of the ways deputies can ask for clarification on policies and procedures as the House does its work.

General Convention deploys a lot of technology to enable folks at a distance to engage with the church at work: open sessions of both the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops are live streamed (i.e., broadcast) and archived on the convention’s Media Hub, as are the convention’s worship services. Videos of press briefings are posted on that site, as well as recordings of special topical conversations on Creation Care, Racial Reconciliation, and Evangelism.  Anyone with an internet connection has access to the “Virtual Binder” that publishes and tracks changes in the resolutions being considered at Convention. Between the official news feeds and the unofficial ones, there’s an abundance of ways to “be there” in Austin without actually being there. And with enough browser tabs open, you can be (well, almost, virtually) more than one place at a time. (You can certainly get from House to House more quickly than you could on the ground.)

Following General Convention this year as a deputy from a distance  has reminded me of something taught in practical theology: Sometimes you need to be on the dance floor, in the thick of things as they happen. And sometimes you need to take a balcony view: a little distant, a little abstracted, looking for patterns only visible from above.

So—as I wrote in Holy Spirit & St. Mark’s weekly e-news on Thursday—here’s what General Convention has looked like to your second alternate clergy deputy, from her virtual balcony:

For the past two weeks, the Episcopal Church has been gathered in General Convention. A great part of the work done in Austin has been about our church’s willingness to confess that we have fallen short, sinning “against God and our neighbor,” and then deciding how, over the next 3 years, the Episcopal Church will commit our energy, time, and funds to amend our common life.  (As we pray at Compline: “Grant that we may never forget that our common life depends upon each other's toil.”(BCP 134)

General Convention does its work through legislating resolutions. But what those resolutions are, at heart, are prayers and promises. Prayers and promises that we will work to do better at how we treat all God’s children. Better at caring for God’s creation. Better at telling the truth about ways that we have fallen short and hurt each other. And above all, better at trying to love each other as God loves us.

Report from Cathie Lewis of Tamworth

Cathie Lewis, of St Andrews-in-the-Valley, Tamworth, writes from General Convention in Austin. Cathie is in Austin out of sheer love for Convention: “I admit it wholeheartedly and unabashedly. There is a physical and spiritual energy that captivates me. Then, too, the politics fascinate me!” After worshipping and serving in dioceses including West Virginia, Southern Ohio, Ohio, Springfield, Eastern Florida, and Connecticut, she’s been in New Hampshire (“blissfully and sincerely hopeful that it’s my final move”) for about nine years. She’s a delegate to NH’s convention from the Lakes Region, and recently finished a term as the Lakes Convocation's lay co-convener.

July 3: Arrived late afternoon and took the “Super Shuttle” into town. It’s supposed to be a 25 minute ride, but the driver knows some short cuts… 12 minutes later, we were at the Hilton, complete with a knowledge of Austin history and the driver’s shared story of his London birth of Nigerian parents and his immigration to the USA and his naturalization 17 years ago to "the greatest country in the world".  What a beautiful and dramatic introduction to General Convention!

July 4: Today was to have been a day of personal organization and acclimation, but what a wonderful surprise.  A small group (only a few hundred or so) of early arrivers met in the House of Delegates for “introductions.” First up to bat (can't get away from baseball analogies, as the Sox are going so well) was Michael Curry, hereinafter called the PB. Some of us may be familiar with the historic 14 minutes several weeks ago in London???  That was then, that was nothing, compared to this is now!  He was rousing, he was compassionate, he was outraged, and he was determined. We will respond, and we will make a difference -- with the immigration situation and with the #metoo movement.

July 10: How?  How to describe what goes on here.  That is rhetorical, because there really is no answer.  The Episcopal News Service (ENS) and the NH Diocesan Newsletter can give a day-to-day report, so I'd like to share impressions and my own thoughts.

The Presiding Bishop is still being the Presiding Bishop, of course!   Here are some of his thoughts, offered randomly by me:

     Jesus is the Vine; we are the Branches. Do you hear Jesus whispering, "You are the Episcopal Branch of my movement!"  

     Only LOVE can change the world. How? In a world that is profoundly un-loving, we must keep our hand on the Gospel and our eyes on the prize.  In the Sea of Galilee, Peter could walk on the water in the storm until he lost focus on Jesus—he lost sight of the Prize.  We, every Episcopalian, need to throw ourselves into the hands of Jesus, turning to the direction of the Son, until our spiritual practices become instinctive.

     Seek JUSTICE and RECONCILIATION, not just victory.  This way we can help Christianity reclaim its soul.  (Wow, says I. How profound is that!)

     I do wish there could be some way to convey the passion, the love, the drama, that is shared all around here.  

  Blessings to all, Cathie

Update on Legislative Day Four

It's the 4th Legislative Day here at General Convention, but most of us have been in Austin for almost a full week. In the House of Deputies, most resolutions we've passed have been on our Consent Calendar. We have debated and approved the prayer book revision resolution, which now goes to the House of Bishops. We've begun debate on marriage liturgy but didn't get very far.

Here are some photos to illustrate what the NH Deputation has been doing in recent days:

Gathering the Vine

Each deputation has a sign at its table to identify the diocese--and they get decorated. Ours has a moose and a New Hampshire plaque and a cap with our Tending the Vine logo. But we decided we also needed a real vine. The early birds among us--Bishop, Benge, Sarah, and Gail--pay a visit to Austin's Barton Springs Pool early in the morning (walking, jogging, or biking). On one of their excursions, they gathered a vine and brought it back and installed it.

Bishop Rob and the Vine

Gail takes the Vine to breakfast

The Vine is installed

Tending the Vine--we keep it watered

Worship

We attend worship daily. The Convention Eucharist is multilingual with a wide variety of musical styles and hymns.. The Presiding Bishop preached at the Opening Eucharist. The Episcopal Church Women presented UTO contributions at an Ingathering, with Gloria Gallant representing New Hampshire.

Bishops on their way to Eucharist. Ours is window-gazing

Dancing in the aisles

Electronic service bulletin in iPads issued to the Deputies

The Revival & Texas Night

The Diocese of Texas, our host diocese, sponsored Texas Night on Saturday. The first portion consisted of an exuberant Revival style worship, with multicultural music, praise singing, prayer stations, and a rip-roaring sermon by Presiding Bishop Curry. Dinorah Padro, his Spanish-language real-time interpreter, was just as vibrant and eloquent a presence as he was. After the Revival, we went outside to eat an array of items from Food Trucks and listen to music, and were bused back to the Convention Center.

Group selfie while waiting for bus to the Revival

At the Revival: PB & interpreter Dinorah & TX Suffragan Bp. Jeff Fisher

 Bishops United Against Gun Violence

Most of us attended the Sunday morning witness in a park beside the Convention Center sponsored by Bishops United Against Gun Violence. The crowd was large, and local police were present. The main speakers were the parents of Parkland High School shooting victim Carmen Schentrup, and Abigail Zimmerman, who organized a  walk-out at her Waco high school after the tragedy in Florida. Afterwards, there was a Eucharist in the Convention Center. Some Convention attendees worshiped in local parishes. Others boarded buses for the journey to Taylor, Texas and Hutto Detention Center.

Our guardians

The crowd

Carmen Schentrup's family

Bishop Curry giving closing benediction

Hutto Detention Center

Not very long before  Convention began, awareness of our proximity to the US Border and to migrant detention facilities, sparked a plan to be present at one of them. Hutto Detention Center in Taylor, Texas, outside Austin, was the chosen location. Buses transported Convention attendees to the site. Initially the group was stationed far from the building, then moved closer, then was moved back. Our bishop described seeing hands lifted behind the long, narrow windows, proof that those inside were aware of the Episcopalians and others praying for them far beyond the walls. Many of our NH deputies and Bishop Rob were present.

Episcopalians in Taylor, Texas

The Hutto Detention Center

Presiding Bishop Curry

Gail (credit: EPPN via Twitter) 

Legislative Day Four

After everyone returned to the Convention Center, it was back to business. The Legislative Session was delayed by an hour to allow return travel for the Hutto visitors. Some of us visited favorite booths in the Exhibit Hall.

Kate coloring the mural at the  ERD booth

In the House of Deputies, it was Voting Day. We do it electronically. It took a lot of time--we had many board positions and officers to vote for.

Electronic voting device

So many resolutions we have yet to debate and to pass....