Deion Branch is seen with his 11-year-old twins Deiontey, right, and Deiondre, who has brain damage from meningitis in this undated photo.  - Courtesy Sherlene Shanklin

Deion Branch is famous for catching Tom Brady's touchdown passes, a role that earned him Super Bowl MVP in 2005. But off the football field, Branch is raising awareness and funds to tackle meningitis in honor of his son.

Branch was 21 years old when his twin boys, Deiondre and Deiontey, were born in Louisville, Ky. Small but strong, the twins toughed out two weeks in intensive care before coming home from the hospital. But six days later, Deiondre would be back.

"He wasn't eating. And he'd cry when you picked him up," said Branch, recalling the new-parent panic that prompted a late-night trip to the emergency room.

A series of tests revealed Deiondre had meningitis, inflammation in the lining of his nervous system triggered by a viral infection.

"The disease was already taking over his body," said Branch. "The doctors gave him six months to live."

But Deiondre fought hard and lived despite irreversible brain damage. He is now 11. And although he can't walk or talk, he lights up when he sees his dad.

"He always smiles and he's always going to make me smile," said Branch. "It's an honor to have him for a son."

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The 77th meeting of the Episcopal Church's General Convention is being asked to sift and winnow a variety of answers to the question of what to do about the Episcopal Church's structure that, as one group says, it "no longer needs, nor can it afford."

At least nine of the committees, commissions, agencies and boards  (CCABs) of convention touch on the issue in their Blue Book reports. The comments and proposed solutions range from the over-arching to the extremely specific.

Some, but not all, of those nine CCABs have supplemented their comments with resolutions (designated by the letter "A") meant for convention to consider when it meets July 5-12 at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the Diocese of Indianapolis. (Legislative committee hearings and some other convention activities begin July 4.)

The CCABs are not the only groups weighing in about how the Episcopal Church should change. Resolutions may also be submitted to convention by three other groups: bishops (B resolutions), dioceses (C resolutions) and deputies (D resolutions), and at least 29 of the church's 110 dioceses have already filed resolutions about the church's future structure.

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Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, a former Girl Scout, greets Girl Scouts after an April 28 service celebrating 100 years of girl scouting at Washington National Cathedral. - Courtesy Lucy Chumbly

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, a former Girl Scout, preached at a packed April 28 interfaith service at Washington National Cathedral that celebrated a century of girl scouting.

Before the opening sing-along began, with a rendition of "Make New Friends," girls in green sashes and badge-embellished waistcoats scampered around the cathedral, taking photos of the stained glass windows with tiny phones. (Extra credit went to those who found, and photographed, the Girl Scout trefoil carved into a boss stone in the cathedral's west entrance).

Welcoming the members, families and friends of the Girl Scouts Council of the Nation's Capital, the Rev. Canon Mary Sulerud, the cathedral's interim director of worship, recalled spending a hot July day at the Juliette Gordon Low house in Savannah, Georgia, "so that our daughter could earn her badge."

Juliette Gordon Low, nicknamed "Daisy," founded the Girl Scouts in 1912 on the principle that all girls should have the opportunity to develop physically, mentally and spiritually. One hundred years on, there are 3.2 million Girl Scouts in the United States.

Low was also a committed Episcopalian and lifelong member of Christ Church in Savannah, Georgia, where she was baptized, confirmed and married. After her death in 1927, hundreds of Girl Scouts attended her funeral there.

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While much public attention focused on its work on same-gender blessings, the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music tackled multiple other issues during the 2010-2012 triennium.

"The work that is put into the lap of the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music is breathtaking," said the Rev. Jennifer Phillips, commission vice-chair and rector of St. Francis Episcopal Church, Rio Rancho, New Mexico.

The SCLM Blue Book report to General Convention offers new rites for honoring creation and the care of beloved animals as well as prayers to supplement the Daily Office. It contains resolutions to authorize continued trial use of Holy Women, Holy Men (successor to Lesser Feasts and Fasts) and to include new commemorations within it. And it proposes forming a congregational song task force and expanding the World Music Project's work.

The commission's report also recommends continued work toward revising the Book of Occasional Services, addressing Christian anti-Judaism and developing liturgies for the adoption of children.

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May 6

May 6