THE WIND OF THE SPIRIT

I am stunned. I have actually become increasingly stunned over the last 2 weeks or so. And that comes from a woman who prides herself in being able to "roll with the punches." I have had a lot of practice at that.

When I arrived in Anaheim on the afternoon of 7/6 I had no idea what to expect. Certainly we would testify. We would witness to our reality. But, accomplish anything. I had my doubts. My daughter calls me a cynic. I prefer "realist", as a descriptor. I found it necessary to leave on 7/12. Time to go back home, back to work, and to follow the events and those I had come to love from a distance.

Still I sit here on 7/17, the last day of the 76th General Convention of the Episcopal Church, stunned, bemused, grateful, joyous, and above all thankful. The Spirit took the willingness of people to stand in their own truth's, not just us, but all those willing to stand and say as Luther did, "I can do no other", and blew through this institutional gathering with a freshness that happens only seldom in a lifetime. I clearly acknowledge there are those brothers and sisters in Christ who may disagree. Since we are now coming close to standing on level ground, we can certainly continue the conversation in that fashion.

I have long since lost track of the alphabet soup that corresponds to the various resolutions that received our testimony and support, but they have passed one after another in both houses of our beloved church, and by substantial margins in both houses.

All this will need to unfold in actual practice. As has been noted elsewhere we still have miles to go, but this General Convention was certainly a milestone in that journey. Yes, there are those that maintain the moratoria laid out in BO33 continues, but even that voice seems to be strangely muted.

I look forward to continuing this wondrous journey with the brothers and sisters I have known for some time and those sisters and brothers I met in the last couple weeks. .

The Rev. Gari Green