Coming home

I’ve just eaten my last breakfast bowl of instant oatmeal, dried fruit, and walnuts in my Anaheim hotel room and will soon be leaving the eternal sunshine of southern California for the sweet hills of the Upper Valley and home.

It’s probably too soon for a competent assessment of General Convention 2009, but I’m pretty sure that what will long linger is my sure sense of a church that is pulling together, toward a future securely rooted in the love of God and in the confidence that God is working God’s purposes in the church. Those purposes include the inclusion and tender care of all God’s people–most especially the marginalized and those in need. We have work to do, and we are prepared to do that work together.

The way in which we do that work together will be leaner, more economical of resources, than it has been in the past. And this is a good thing. It will encourage us to be more resourceful and creative. We will discover new ways of doing things and doing them better.

I leave Convention with a renewed sense of wonder at the breadth and depth of our Episcopal Church. The people gathered under the “tent” of the dazzlingly huge Anaheim Convention Center were wondrously diverse and gathered from far and wide. A member of our PB&F Committee, representing Province IX, travels to meetings from Bogota, Colombia and is assisted by an interpreter. I was tutored and stretched by the testimonies and opinions offered at committee hearings and during debate in the House of Deputies.

All of us on the New Hampshire deputation look forward to reporting the Convention to you. In the meantime, keep checking this blog for more................

Looking forward to home,
Judith