GC July 15

Today was a grueling slog in the HOD through massive amounts of legislation. We passed the denominational health plan. This was a vital step to help cut costs. It will eventually be mandatory. and should save the whole church at least 10 %. I had attended a one day seminar on this in the spring.
We completed voting on the Executive Council, and Trustees of General Seminary. It took time, even with electronic voting.
Our Eucharist today was paperless with prayers and Hymns projected on video screens. The music mixed the traditional with less well known. I sat at a table with Ron Taylor , retired Bishop of NY now serving in Jamaica. As usual, I picked a table at random as they are not assigned.
Steve Charleston assistant Bishop of California delivered the sermon and it was masterful and compelling, a call to arms about global warming. I want to lift your spirit and serve our planet, this island home. I speak for our mother earth and my ancestors here. The clock is ticking. The alarm is ringing for anyone who would hear it. If it takes a prophet to say it, I am that prophet.
Bishop Taylor leaped to his feet and said to me, "That is the best sermon I have heard in many years".
After lunch we slogged through many resolutions beginning with passing the Lay pension plan making it mandatory for lay employees with more than 1000 hours in a year.
We then had a joint session as our Bishops joined us. See the picture. The PB presided as the budget was presented. "Mission is out reason for existence", said the PB. We must have creativity in responding to the reduced budget. There will be Resurrection. Many reductions in our budget because of reduced income. Our General Convention will be shortened by 2 days and will be mostly electronic. I am glad we are going to computers and internet, because the paper notebooks are cumbersome, slow and expensive. But it will be very difficult to deal with less days of legislation. It is already exhausting!
After the bishop left we ran through a lot of legislation. Here is a sample.
A 074 Inter religious dialogue
D 039 Fix broken labor laws
D 012 support transgender civil rights
A 167 protection from human trafficking
B027 Peace between Israel and Palestine Tear down the wall, end land confiscation, a sovereign state
D 035 Repudiate doctrine of discovery rights of indigenous people
D 054 Eucharistic sharing with Methodists.
Towards the end of this, my head wanted to fall down on my notebook. But we finally finished a bit after 6.
Tomorrow we will probably have an evening legislative session as we are still behind in the calender.
I spoke with our song leader and the hymns in the HOD were pitched correctly today. He said he had a cold.
The bishops in the picture above all have come from our diocese. They are left to right -- John Tarrant (Bishop-elect of South Dakota), Lawrence Provenzano (Bishop-elect of Long Island), John Bauerschmidt (Bishop of Tennessee), Gordon Scruton (Bishop of Western Massachusetts), Mark Beckwith (Bishop of Newark) and George Councell (Bishop of New Jersey)

good morning to you all
John