I write this, not because Rob left anything out, but because I was asked to do a Blog for this day (the first Blog I have ever done). So here I am.
The Sunday Eucharist was indeed something. The theme was apt, and taken from the Collect of the Day, which was read by the Presiding Bishop in Spanish: ".that we may be devoted to you with our whole heart and united toone another with pure affection." (English). There were many visitors. Inspite of the vastness of the main ballroom, there were many standees in the room and in the halls outside. An overflow room was opened up downstairs.
Many of the visitors I expect came to see Presiding Bishop Katharine. They were not disappointed. She presided, she preached the sermon, and she even brought communion to those in the overflow room downstairs.
While I sit during the legislative sessions (as an alternate, I do not have a place at the table with our deputation), I have a spot at a table adjacent to the area where I can be seen and found by any of our lay deputies who desire a respite, which so far they have not. My neighbors are a priest from Nashville, TN and a priest from Lubbock, TX. Behind me is my old (actually much younger) friend Paul, a priest from the Diocese of San Joaquin. This diocese is one of five who seceded about five years ago. The Presiding Bishop then declared the see vacant, and appointed a Bishop to reorganize it. My friend Paul, a civil engineer, has had a long and sometimes difficult church history as a missionary, religious aspirant, and finally as a priest ordained by Bishop Katharine in Las Vegas who subsequently served a small and very humble parish just south of the "strip". He was called to the reorganized San Joaquin diocese and now serves there as a vicar of two small congregations 45 miles apart.
As deliberate as the deliberations of the House of Deputies seems, it has outrun the output of the committees that feed the resolutions to it for dispatch. That gave the deputies an hour or so of free time. Many took the opportunity to go to the Exhibit hall to see the propaganda of the hundred or more exhibitors there and talking with the people and their visitors. It was good to see our own Robbin Whittington at her Spiritual Resources booth there and some of the others nearby who also support Lifelong Christian Formation.
Faithfully,
David Trask
Alternate Lay Deputy
