off the floor

So as a person new to General Convention, I found myself a bit skeptical about the notion of the Church gathering around a legislative construct (i.e., wondering if Jesus really called us to gather together to legislate) And yet despite my ambivalence about that, the first posts I sent were details re:the formal legislative mechanics. I think perhaps because the sheer complexity and enormity of the organizational task is so vast, it would be easy to write back to you only about that.


However, plenty else goes on at General Convention away from the legislative sessions. For instance, in simply following the threads of anti-racism work here, I have attended legislative committee meetings, diocesan presentations, and a film screening- all of which provided networking opportunities and all of which stand on their own as encounters with the topic, but which at the same time inform the final versions of legislation that is eventually brought to the floor.

Pictured here: Constance Perry giving testimony before the Social and Urban Affairs Committee; The Rev. Brian Wilbert (from OBerlin, OH) speaking at the evening meeting considering the ongoing work of dioceses in addressing the legacy of the trans-Atlantic slave trade http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_112441_ENG_HTM.htm ; and finally at a screeening of a new film Reairing the Breach, Deputy Ed Rodman Katrina Browne, maker of 2006 documentary Traces of the Trade. )