On Wednesday morning we all woke up excited for what the day would bring. The line at Starbucks was not too bad and we were able to move through the morning's necessities quite efficiently. Many of us had committee meetings or attended meetings to begin to get our bearings on legislation.
I have been assigned to the Committee #6 on Structure. This is a cognate committee meaning that there is a committee of deputies and a committee on bishops meeting together. I am the bishop vice chair. In our first meeting we began with Eucharist, then got to know one another. We discussed our hopes for our time together: that we were interested in structural change discerned through the lens of mission.
After the meeting we broke for lunch. During the lunch hour I met with a group of deputies and bishops interested in working on increasing the dollars being given to the Anglican Communion. There are a number of hearings and we want to work towards influencing this work. The dollars in the Anglican Communion Budget are important because they go to the indaba project which builds communion relationships. The majority of dollars go to work against gender violence globally. This is VERY important and so we are hoping that we will be able to restore some of the cut funding. That takes a lot of effort.
After that meeting we had a joint meeting of the two houses where we heard from both the Presiding Bishop and the President of the House of Deputies. You can follow this link for the address: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/notice/general-convention-opening-remarks-presiding-bishop-katharine-jefferts-schori
The address for the President of the HOD is here: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/notice/general-convention-opening-remarks-house-deputies-president-bonnie-anderson
Following the joint address we went to our house (the House of Bishops - HOB) for an orientation. That went well.
Then we jogged over for a wonderful meeting with Committee #7 where we presented/introduced Jeff Fisher for his consent hearing. They passed him and there was great cheering. The best part was when Jeff stood up and did the hook'em horns sign after the vote! Awesome! There was an immediate motion to reconsider; just kidding of course. So Jeff is expected to be approved by both houses today and will be introduced to the HOB as soon as we have the approvals.
Then I went to a committee hearing. During this time our committee discussed and worked on a number of resolutions. One of the most interesting discussions was the one about decreasing the size of the Executive Council. It was not the right time for this (in my opinion) but it revealed the committee's eagerness to do the heavy lifting people are expecting.
After that meeting I had a lovely dinner (all be it quick) with seminary classmates. Best part of the day!
Then I was off to discuss the politics of changing our structure with a group of committed leaders. It was a great meeting and I felt that we have a lot of energy and that there is a lot of excitement around mission. It is really wonderful. There is frustration too; as the vision hits the legislative structure...but that is ok.
I then joined the Wimberlys and Trey Yarborough, Bill Miller, and Pat Miller in our suite to watch the fireworks.
I ended the evening with prayer and got a good night of rest.
Rt. Rev. C. Andrew Doyle, D.D.
IX Bishop of Texas
Sent while out of office.
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