Coming up for air

The 76th General Convention has adjourned sine die and I admit to the customary exhaustion. This session of the Convention was very ably conducted, and managed to get through more business than any in my memory.

When I'm back to New York and settled in mind, body and spirit, I will reflect a bit more on my perceptions of what happened here in Anaheim. For this post I would just like to note that the Spin Doctors of the Church are already well at work, doing their oracular tasks and scrying the entrails of the General Convention while still warm. However, I believe that historical reflection, like revenge, is a dish best served cold. You will hear some very panicked reaction in the next few days (indeed, a certain Fulcrum is already teetering rather wildly) and language of abandonment of all that is good and holy, when from my perspective the actions of the General Convention are mild-mannered in the extreme, and need cause no histrionic outbursts. But more on that when I'm back in the peace and quiet of the beautiful Bronx.

In addition to the business of Convention, there were also the fringe events, not directly related to the actions and legislation. Here too there were high and low points. The lowest position goes to the extremely unattractive false prophets who stood outside the Convention center from time to time uttering their curses at our apostasy. High marks go to Jenny Te Paa and Rowan Smith, and others, representing a broader spectrum of the Global South than we tend to hear from in the popular church press. I was particularly happy to have dinner with Rowan Smith, and to have Jenny Te Paa express thanks for my recently published book. (I asked her if we might count on her for a jacket blurb if if goes to a second printing!) Somewhere in the middle must lie the brief face-time (or is it eyebrow-time?) with the Other Rowan, him of Canterbury. Again, more on that at another time.

And now to pack, and so I bid a good night to all, a blessed rest, and a prayer for safe travel for all who will be heading home over the next hours and days.

Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG