Saturday July 11, 2009

Welcome to Day 3 of the General Convention!

The 76th General Convention is in day 3! Some fun things in today’s issues: podcasts with Deputies Josey Nickles & Kay Flores, and article by Deputy Dan Land. The General Convention Media Hub has created a picture site, as well: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gcmediahub09 Plus plenty of pictures and blog stories on the .Ning site: http://generalconventionroundup.ning.com and tweets (Twitter) from the convention: http://www.twitter.com/wyomingdiocese.

-Andrew
andrew@wyomingdiocese.org

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From Deputy Dan Land:

Saturday the Joint Committee on Program, Budget and Finance are beginning to put numbers on lines items of income and expenditures. As I indicated in an earlier post the original proposed budget from the Executive Council projected increases in income from Dioceses over the trinennium(2010-2012) when, in fact, subsequent reports indicate that this income will be dramatically reduced from these levels. This means that we are looking at having to cut expenditures from this proposed budget by around $15 million. Plus the House of Deputies continues to pass resolutions with funding implications thus adding to the amount of cuts necessary. As we get into the "meat" of this process, I'll report further.

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From Deputy Kay Flores

A podcast with Deputy Kay Flores. Kay talks about her experience as a new deputy and first time convention attendee: http://tinyurl.com/n8apfx

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From Deputy Josey Nickles

A podcast with Deputy Josey Nickles. Josey talks about what she is experiencing at convention and the issues that involve her. Josey is the youngest member from Wyoming and the 2nd youngest Deputy at Convention: http://tinyurl.com/lc8wog

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What’s a birthday without a cake? The Living Stones Partnership is 15 years old this year, and that gives us much to celebrate. Fifteen years ago a group of dioceses gathered together to talk about how they could better do the work of baptismal ministry in their parishes and as a diocese. In the time that has passed the number of members has grown to 26, including mostly dioceses, but also other communities and seminaries.

“It’s a think tank,” said The Rev. Canon Margaret Babcock, Canon for Ministry and Congregational Development from the Diocese of Wyoming, and one of many leaders in Living Stones. “When we gather [at Living Stones meetings] we don’t listen to lectures or visit booths, or even make very many decisions. We gather to tell our stories about what has worked, and not worked in our context, and then share ideas about how to improve.”

Baptismal ministry is improved when we learn new ways to discern members’ gifts for ministry, when we find new ways to empower ministry teams for action, when we encourage one another to live out ministry in our daily lives, and in mission with our neighborhood and the world. At the yearly gathering of Living Stones members every February, we have been looking at these questions together for 15 years, growing up, not quite into adulthood, but into that in-between state of being teenagers.

And so we gathered Friday at 1:30 pm to have birthday cake and to give out presents to all who passed by. We sang as loud, and as beautifully, as we know how.

Living Stones Partnership members includethe following dioceses, seminaries, and organizations: Anglican Parishes of the Central Interior, California with CDSP, Community of the Holy Spirit, Eastern Michigan, East Tennessee, Episcopal Divinity School, Idaho, Iowa, Kootenay, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, Northern California, Northern Michigan, Northwest Texas, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, Olympia, Rupert's Land, Southern Ohio, Spokane, Vermont, West Virginia, Western Michigan, and Wyoming.

For more information on the Living Stones Partnership, contact Warren Frelund at warren@wyomingdiosese.org or 307.254.3473 or visit our website at www.livingstonespartnership.org.

Also, check out the podcast with The Rev Liz Magill on Living Stones turning 15: http://tinyurl.com/kjth8k

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In a family moment of The Episcopal Church...

Photo by GC Media Hub 09

The House of Bishops opened this afternoon's public session with the light hearted 'pay off' of two friendly bets.

The Diocese of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh Steelers) had a friendly bet with the Diocese of Arizona (Arizona Cardinals) on the outcome of Superbowl. The Steelers won.

The Diocese of Pittsburgh (Pittsburg Penguins) had a friendly bet with the Diocese of Michigan (Detroit Red Wings) on the outcome of the Stanley Cup. The Penguins won.

In honor of the winnings (and losings) Bishop Bob Johnson of Pittsburgh presented a Pittsburgh Steelers Superbowl hat and a 'Terrible Towel to Bishop Kirk Smith of Arizona and a Pittsburgh Penguins Stanley Cup hat and towel to Bishop Wendell Gibbs of Michigan. A condition of the bet was that the losers would wear their new hats for the remainder of the today's session.

Bishop Smith raised the ante by offering to donate $100 to the Diocese of Pittsburgh should the Steelers win. Bishop Johnson matched that donation and both bishops agreed to donate their combined $200 to the Diocese of Michigan.

Photos are available on the Media Hub (flickr) http://www.flickr.com/photos/gcmediahub09

Nancy Davidge

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