Your Eyes Will Soon Be Opened...

I arrived in Indianapolis this morning for the 77th General Convention of the Episcopal Church.   I was greeted by my one of my best friends from seminary, the Rev. Matthew Stewart.  He's here working as an editor of the newsletter of the Consultation, a federation of several advocacy groups who also put out a newsletter every day of Gen. Con.  

I spent the day helping set up the booth for the Episcopal Service Corps and then manning the booth when the exhibit hall opened.  I serve on the board of the Episcopal service Corps.  We are here to raise awareness of our mission, and to advocate for young adult leadership of the church.  You can read more about the Episcopal service Corps here.

Later, Matt and I went to dinner at P.F. Chang's, and, as is the custom at a lot of American Asian restaurants, they gave us a fortune cookie at the end of our meal.  Mine read, "Your eyes will soon be opened to a world full of beauty, charm, and adventure." Well, I certainly hope that is the case.  It would be nice for the governance of the church to be beautiful, charming, and adventurous. Sadly, even though I am a first time deputy, I've been around the church long enough to know that governance can become ugly, spiteful, or worse, dull.  We shall see what we get, but I am going to try and choose my attitude and look for beauty, charm, and adventure.

I was reminded of a bible verse from the Epistle of James today:  "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world."(James  1:27 NRSV).  It is my fervent prayer that for the next 9 days the religion of the 77th General Convention will be pure indeed.