Day 5, General Convention 2009, July 11th

Dear Ones,

This day did not seem like a Saturday.  I started off with hearings at 7:30 a.m., mine again being the Stewardship and Development Committee.  We met for the entire time and then went into Legislative sessions in the two Houses.  After about two hours there, the Daily Community Eucharist was held.  On this day Ray Suarez, Chief Correspondent and TV Commentator preached.  It was a rousing sermon, encouraging us to share all the riches we have in the Episcopal Church with the world! 

We then had a break.  I actually got to eat lunch with my wife.  My son spent the day building a Habitat House inside the arena attached to the Convention Center for Orange County Habitat.  I visited that site to see them at work.  In the afternoon the third session of our Public Narrative process was held which I did not get to attend do to some added committee work.  The two Houses then had an afternoon session.  In the House of Bishops a slew of legislation was taken up, including passing of the Earth Charter, and a great discussion our our preparedness for pandemics.  While the proposed legislation did not pass the discussion was well worth it, sometimes the main reason for bringing it up in the first place.  The Mission Funding Initiative, which has been called back up for reconsideration was passed in a substitute resolution which keeps the Initiative on track. 

It was then my great honor to be the keynote speaker for the Episcopal Peace Fellowship as they honored former Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning and his wife Patti.  There was a great turnout and I must say it was a bit daunting to speak to a room with two former Presiding Bishops and a lot of other folks I have looked up to in my life.  This was also the night of seminary dinners which I did not make but for which I know many here from Olympia did. 

I wanted to end this post with a most beautiful prayer I used as the ending of my keynote address, and was prayed the day before at the close of day in the House of Bishops, written and prayed by one of our able chaplains, the Rev. Carol Wade. 

O source of surrender, your whisper of peace is as close as our breath,

yet you have made us with bodies that reach beyond our own skin. 

Gazing upon ourselves we are not right,

but in the face of another our eyes do glean hope. 

For when we turn from exclusion and into embrace,

you are embodied in the world and the world in your body. 

May we cease to put asunder what you have joined together,

for until we give way to your love there will be no peace.

Blessings,

+Greg

Comments

[Judith Williams]

I caught 2 glimpses of you and Nedi singing heartily in the choir on my FB page.

[Michelle Harvey]

Hi Bishop Rickel, thank you so much for speaking last night at the EPF reception. I know I thanked you afterward but I wanted to let you know again how much your words meant to me; it was the first time a clergy person has made me cry because he/she actually GETS it (with young adults). Thank you so much, and keep it up.