General Conference – Day 2 – April 25, 2012
Poster of the Day (do look at this one, it is very helpful)
Today was to be two conversations titled “Holy Conferencing”. They started late and some had significant technical snafus. There wasn’t good time to move into the process through various cultural differences. The poster of the day was particularly pertinent. Together with the handout, “When Holy Conferencing is Neither“, we were unfortunately prescient about the short-term worth of these events. Gil Rendle had some helpful comments about divergent cultures and how to frame a mission field in light of these current realities.
There was also a sign that you may find helpful:
Addresses – Episcopal, Lay, Youth
We anticipate inspiration and visionary words. We will see how they can be lived out in days to come.
Holy Conversation (in groups of 100)
Holy Conversation: Foundation on Identity and Theology(75 minutes)
Holy Conversation: Human Sexuality (55 minutes)
Read: When Holy Conferencing is Neither
Reflections on the Day
The day started with decisions about the Rules of the Conference taking an inordinate amount of time as the more conservative elements tried maneuvering their anti-demonstration preference into rule form. Ultimately it failed, but there were statements that their desire to limit demonstrations was already present in the rules without making it more explicit. In a way this is helpful in that negotiation of the limits of a demonstration are no longer on the table, a demonstration simply will occur on its own.
Today we were told that we could not have our chained church located on the convention property. We could have it being moved and so we pulled it around in a circle. This was not the most most enjoyable task in Tampa’s sunny clime. But it did meet the letter of the law. In fact it was more dangerous to people being pulled, than stationary for an hour. As per usual, such factors did not prevail (though Love always does prevail).
The most discouraging aspect of the day was the “Holy Conferencing”, which wasn’t.