Day Two: Redemption

So today it officially begins...the Convention that is. Yesterday was just a "pre-convention" day...

So here is what I saw today:

Stopped in the Exhibit Hall at many places, but also a fair trade place out of Israel----seeking to make us consumers of goods that actually support our fellow human beings and brothers and sisters in God's Kingdom

Mixing in with the House of Deputies: people in the United States, but also people outside our national boundaries, and realizing that God calls us to seek the wellness and wholeness of all of Creation--no matter our origin, our skin color, our gender or sexual identity....we are One in Christ.....

Taking part in Committee work that seeks to make the Church vital and flourishing so that God's Good News spreads throughout the world .....encompassing all that we do and all that we are......

Listening to our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry: "A way of Christianity that looks like Jesus" and  the President of the House of Deputies, Gay Jennings who calls us to remember that we were once strangers in Egypt so we are called to care for the strangers (aliens, refugees) in  our midst, and to the President of the ECW who referred to Verna Dozier who wondered: Are you a follower of Jesus or do you just worship him? And, Verna asked, What difference does it make that you believe.....?

And then participating in the liturgy for the reality of sexual harassment and the #metoo movement in the Church and dreaming of the day when the Church responds in a healthy way to the wrongs and injustices that take place within it...

Oh, beloved, it was a long day, but a good day. A day focused on the redemption and the healing of the love of Jesus.....

This, this is what I live for...on this fourth of July...I pledge allegiance to the Gospel of the Good News of Jesus Christ.....This I believe....This I trust...I set my hope on Christ.