|
General Convention Report
The Episcopal News, Diocese of Los Angeles
Reporting from Salt Lake City, Utah
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Opening Eucharist:
A call to build roads
in the wilderness Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori celebrated the opening Eucharist of the 78th General Convention of the Episcopal Church on the morning of June 25, the feast of St. John the Baptist. In her sermon, Jefferts Schori recalled the desert landscape in which this convention is being held, and evoked the struggles of pioneers who built roads through the wilderness to reach their goal and raise new cities in the West. "This convention is about road-building in the desert," Jefferts Schori said. She told the congregation that road-building means working together, with the goal being a world in which no one is excluded, and all are treated with dignity and respect. "We won't reach our journey's end unless we go together in company, in solidarity and partnership, trusting that God has provided what is needed -- if we share the work and the gifts," she said. "That is the deepest meaning of forgiveness of our sins, which are always bound up with self-centeredness and selfishness. Remember that in the heat of debate!" She concluded, "Follow Jesus into the neighborhoods. Travel light." (The full text of the sermon is here.)
 Among the 40 or so deacons serving the Eucharist on Thursday were Guy Leemhuis of Holy Faith Church, Inglewood; Jamie Hammons of St. Barnabas' Church, Pasadena; and Margaret McCauley of the ProCathedral of St. John, Los Angeles. Deacons and lay Eucharistic ministers from many dioceses took part in the service.
Photo / Diane Jardine Bruce
|
L.A. deputies, others attend opening Eucharist
Above, from left: Deputy Kathryn Nishibayashi, Deputy Michael Bamberger, Debbie Bamberger, Deputy Lester Mackenzie, Deputy Janet Wylie, and Steven Nishibayashi, candidate for Executive Committee, attended the opening Eucharist. Seated in the next row (below, from left), were alternate Deputy Susan Russell, Deputy Dan Valdez, Deputy Jim White, Deputy Melissa McCarthy and Bishop J. Jon Bruno. Both the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies have begun legislative sessions, in which they consider resolutions that are presented to them after being refined through committee meetings and hearings -- a continuing process throughout General Convention.
|
|
People at General Convention
|
|
 People at convention
Keith Yamamoto, rector of St. Mark's Church, Upland, is a supervisor for the Public Safety team at General Convention. Yamamoto, who has worked previous conventions as coordinator of the print shop, stepped this year into the security role that was filled by Jon Bruno in the years before he became a bishop. Photo / Pat McCaughan
At right: Colin Stewart of St. George's Church, Laguna Hills, is a volunteer on the tech support team. He helps keep the "virtual binders" -- iPads loaded with information for bishops and deputies -- up and running. At this General Convention, the pads are being used for nearly everything that used to be printed on paper. Even bulletins for worship are virtual, and may be accessed on iPads or cell phones, though some convention-goers have found it difficult to read prayers, lessons and especially hymns on small devices -- glitches to be ironed out with experience. It looks like the paper-free, digital, "green" convention is here to stay.
 Lent Madness invades
the Exhibit Hall
 Laundry Love is noted
at General Convention
At left: Christian Kassoff and Stephen Bruce, who helped to found Laundry Love in the Diocese of Los Angeles, are flying the successful outreach ministry's flag at General Convention. Laundry Love, in which church members offer laundromat services free of charge to poor and homeless people, has gained considerable interest, as reflected in a short Episcopal Church-produced film on the program that is being played on video screens throughout the convention center. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori mentioned Laundry Love during her opening remarks on Tuesday as one of several model programs being carried out in various dioceses. Photo / Diane Jardine Bruce
EDS booklet features Los Angeles graduates, bishop When she stopped by the Episcopal Divinity School booth in the Exhibit Hall, EDS graduate Ada Wong-Nagata, assisting priest at Church of Our Saviour, San Gabriel, found to her surprise that a photo of her, fellow Los Angeles Diocese graduates Gina Gore and Christopher Montella, and Bishop Diane Jardine Bruce is prominently displayed in a seminary promotional booklet. The photo was taken on the day last Spring that Wong-Nagata, Gore and Montella graduated from the Massachusetts seminary; Bruce was there to offer support and congratulations. Photo / Stephen Bruce
|
|
Today at General Convention
|
On the schedule for Friday, June 26:
- Legislative committee meetings
- Community Eucharist: Bishop Mary D. Glasspool, celebrant; the Rev. Gay Clark Jennings, president of the House of Deputies, preacher
- Joint Session: Presiding Bishop Nomination & Structure conversation
- Legislative sessions (House of Bishops and House of Deputies)
- Hearings, including Program, Budged & Finance
|
|
Reports from Episcopal News Service
|
|
The 78th General Convention of The Episcopal Church opened with a call to join the hard communal work of building the road to God's kingdom.
More General Convention-related stories from Episcopal News Service may be found here.
|
The Report will be emailed each day from the 78th meeting of General Convention in Salt Lake City, Utah, June 25 - July 3.
Photos, except as noted, by Janet Kawamoto.
To subscribe to the Update list, click on the link below, or send a request to news@ladiocese.org
Janet Kawamoto, editor
The Rev. Pat McCaughan, correspondent
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
