Well here we are, on the last legislative day of the convention, still striving to complete the legislative calendar. In this morning’s session the proposed resolution governing blessing of same-sex unions was THE topic. It was obvious that the House could have spent the entire day, and into the evening, hearing debate on the topic. Because the need for restraint was obvious debate was limited to about one hour, and each speaker to one minute. President Anderson was diligent in seeing to it that equal time was given to speakers for and against the proposal. Before the debate even opened there were 75 people lined up to speak. Obviously not all of them reached the microphone, but after 25speakers on either side, the positions of those on either side of the issue became pretty clear. The vote, which was by orders, was preceded by prayer, an act that was taken before all the votes on controversial issues. Because a vote by orders requires paper balloting, it was not tallied by the time for the Eucharist arrived.
Today’s Eucharist, the closing Eucharist of the Covent ion, was celebrated by Bishop Schori. Every service bulletin, up to the bulletin for this Eucharist, was printed in side-by-side columns of English and Spanish. This one was printed in side-by-side columns of French and Spanish. Except for the sermon and one or two small parts, Bishop Schori conducted the service fluently in French.
After the lunch break work resumed on the legislation still before the House. A sigh of relief greeted each committee’s statement that their report was complete. I don’t have the complete statistics, but I do know that we passed, jointly with the House of Bishops, over three hundred pieces of legislation. Every action, even those that only dealt with procedural matters, had been prepared and presented by a committee, many of which had spent long hours in advance of the Convention in research, study and prayer. It falls to the Deputies to report back to their respective dioceses on the convention’s actions, and to begin implementing the legislated changes and preparing for the next convention.
A final note: A clear winner at this event was Federal Express. FedEx had offices in the Convention Center and in the hotels. Delegates accumulated so much material during the convention that they shipped it home, rather than deal with baggage and weight limits on the airlines. FedEx kept its office in my hotel open until 10 p.m. to handle the rush.
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