July 17, 2009

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

9 comments:

June Butler said...

Welcome home to the "peace and quiet of the beautiful Bronx".

I enjoyed our lunches in the cafeteria and our brief meeting with you and James in the lobby of the Hilton while I was talking to Terry Martin.

PseudoPiskie said...

Looking forward to your thoughts after you get home. Safe travels with minimal stress.

plsdeacon said...

May God bless you and grant you safe travel back to NY.

YBIC,
Phil Snyder

motheramelia said...

Safe travel and a blessed rest to you too.

Rick+ said...

Godspeed!

klady said...

I am so thankful you were there at GC, working so diligently and prayerfully. Makes me feel guilty -- I spent the time unplugged from the internet (and t.v. and radio) in the North Woods, finally reading your book at a leisurely place sitting in a chair on a pier overlooking a lake. The book is an extraordinary contribution to the field, and I hope was well circulated and read among GC attendees and observers, esp. from outside TEC. Am looking forward to your reflections on GC after you have a chance to relax at home. Thank you so much for all you do for the church and may you have a well-deserved rest from the fray.

Göran Koch-Swahne said...

What the others said, dear Tobias!

Fr. Bryan Owen said...

I hope you can get some well-deserved rest once you get home. I look forward to reading your reflections on what happened at GC.

oldmiler said...

So good to put a face with a name. Conventions do that. As I said at my introduction, thank you for your thinking and writing, especially when it pushes me.
Chaplain Dann Brown