General Convention update

After the General Convention in 2003, I attended a forum at St. James Episcopal Church in Columbus. Part of that was a report called something like "What happened at Convention that *wasn't* reported on CNN". And indeed there were plenty of things that happened at the convention in 2003 that by all rights should have been considered "newsworthy" but that I'd never heard about.

So, part of my purpose in blogging about GC 2006 is to help provide a more complete picture than the mainstream media coverage which, in all likelihood, will focus on contentious issues. Such focus is not only incomplete but, in my opinion, both unfair and unbalanced. (Perhaps we can make a game of counting how many headlines we see which include the words " a church in crisis".)

As I mentioned in my earliler post, I've signed up to receive convention updates from the Diocese of Southern Ohio. Here is part of this morning's report from Columbus...

A commissioning service of the volunteer supervisors and coordinators was held on the morning of June 10. More than 60 people -- many from the Diocese of Southern Ohio -- have committed to nearly two weeks of volunteer service to the General Convention and the Episcopal Church. These supervisors will guide the work of more than 1,500 volunteers throughout the course of the convention.

Bishop Kenneth Price Jr., bishop in Southern Ohio, celebrated at the Eucharist service. Debby Stokes, chair of the local arrangements committee for the Diocese of Southern Ohio, offered thanksgiving for the commitment of the volunteers.

The Rev. Gregory Straub, executive officer of General Convention, preached the sermon. He offered these words of advice to the volunteer coordinators: "Maintain love. Be hospitable. Serve one another."

Father Jake Stops the World did a post about General Convention resources, and if you visit that link you can find, among other things, links to blogs that will be covering the convention.

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