Day 5, General Convention

This was the fourth legislative session day of the 79th General Convention of the Episcopal Church “GC79” (in Austin, Texas).  I am with the Deputation of the Diocese of El Camino Real (Central California).

This morning started with witness and protest against gun violence (at Brush Square Park in downtown Austin) and for immigration reform (outside the Hutto Detention Facility in rural Texas). More than 1,000 Episcopalians were transported for 40 minutes in 19 buses to the town of Taylor outside of Austin.  We stood in the hot sun to sing to and pray for hundreds of detained women immigrants.  We sang “Here I am, Lord” and “We Shall Overcome” and “Amazing Grace” and other hymns in English and Spanish, followed by inspiring preaching and prayers.  Most of the Diocese of El Camino Real Deputation participated.

Some in the crowd could hear the women inside the detention center pounding the walls to communicate.  After we returned to Austin, a Tweet was posted by @Grassroots_News:

“A woman called from Hutto after today’s prayer and told us they were glued to the windows until the last bus left the detention center. Women inside were crying, saying they knew they weren’t alone after seeing so many people there. Thank you”

In the afternoon GC79 legislative session of the House of Deputies, we voted for candidates for a variety of GC offices, then started the discussion of B012 – Marriage Rites for the Whole Church. The Rev. Gay Clark Jennings (who was re-elected today as President of the House of Deputies for the third and final time) told the clergy and lay Deputies from 110 diocese that although there were 443 resolutions, 417 of them are incomplete. So, the work load ahead is not as dire as we feared.  A regular source of comments and entertainment has been provided by the House of Deputies pigeons who have their own Twitter site: @gc79pigeon

We ended a long day with dinner for the Diocese of El Camino Real Deputation and friends at the Moonshine Grill.  The GC79 discussion on Marriage Rites continues tomorrow morning.

These blog posts and other GC79 news are posted on the Diocese of El Camino Real website.

If you want to receive Katysblog posts by email, please sign up using the Sign Me Up! button (upper right). Images Copyright 2018 by Katy Dickinson.