Sunday, July 8 -- A slow start and a late end

This morning I slept in a bit and attended worship at the Convention Center. One of the cool opportunities at General Convention is to help in distributing either the bread or wine of communion. All you have to do is show up a bit early. That's been nearly impossible given our deputation's location towards the front of the hall in which the House of Deputies meets; by the time we get out of our session and headed to worship, all available slots to serve have been claimed. Not this morning! I arrived in time to be allowed the privilege of sharing the Bread of Communion at one of the stations.

Several hundred -- perhaps as many as 1,000 -- folks took buses and private vehicles to gather for a prayer service at the Hutto Immigration Detainment Facility, about 45 minutes outside of Austin, in response to the recent concerns about the treatment of immigrant families at our southern border. I did not attend, in part because I failed to reserve a seat on the bus in time. But also because I was really quite ready for a bit of quiet time.

To allow time for the visit to the Hutto facility, our only legislative session today didn't begin until 3:15, though it lasted until 7:00 pm. For the most part, we spent our time on various elections which required as many as four ballots each to elect the number needed to fill the various offices. This was, at best, a tedious process, one that inspired me to post the following image on Facebook:

We also began debate on B012, the resolution designed both to allow universal access to the marriage sacrament as well as provide room for those in The Episcopal Church unable to approve same-sex marriage. I expect we'll finish debate and considering amendments tomorrow morning.

Every Convention Bishop Johnson invites the deputation from West Tennessee to a special dinner at a really nice restaurant. We had a fabulous food and warm conversation. And now it's midnight, and my committee meeting at 7:30 is going to come awfully soon. Good night!