Day Zero

Since tomorrow, Wednesday the 8th of July, is the day of the first legislative sessions of the Houses of Deputies and Bishops, and of the opening worship service, this day before is sometimes numbered "Day 0" on the chronologies of the General Convention.

I was up a little before 5 a.m., got downstairs to the hotel fitness center at just about the opening bell (5:30 a.m.), and by 5:45 just about every treadmill and elliptical was occupied. After a shower and a quick breakfast in my room (instant oatmeal . . .) I was off to the morning session of the Committee on the Church Pension Fund.

(I wasn't assigned to a legislative committee for this convention, so that gives me the freedom to follow the work of several in which I have an interest.)

The presentations at Pension this morning began with a general overview of the state of the Fund (they're doing pretty well, though like everyone else they've been impacted by the economic downturn), and then the remainder of the morning focused on two of the major resolutions coming to this committee. One proposes a new Denominational Health Insurance Group which would in a mandatory system gather all the clergy and full time lay employees of the church into a single program. (At present each diocese arranges for its own medical/dental insurance.) The other would establish a canon requiring pension benefits for all half-time and above lay employees in the Episcopal Church.

Both of these proposals will be controversial, as their financial impact on dioceses and parishes and other church institutions will vary. With the proposed insurance gorup, some dioceses will find that they save money in a national program, while others will find that the national program costs them more than what they could contract for on their own. In aggregate terms the Denominational Health Plan is estimated to save the whole Episcopal Church millions of dollars over the next decade--but that general good news won't soften the edge of higher costs for some . . . .

I had lunch with a group of colleagues whom I have joined in a legislative proposal (listed as Resolution D-020) asking the General Convention to make a voluntary "provisional" gesture to support the evolving Anglican Covenant. In the next few days that resolution will come before the Cognate Committee on Mission, which is handling all the Anglican Communion-related issues. It's hard to gauge the real chances for success of this resolution in the current environment, but those of us who support it feel it is important for the deputies to have at least the opportunity in a reasonably direct way to signal something one way or the other about our desire to participate constructively in the process of adopting and instituting a Covenant Framework for future Anglican Communion relationships.

The afternoon was spent in orientation for the House of Deputies. We spent time being introduced to "Public Narrative," a training program for church leaders that will be a major theme of this Convention, and then we had an extensive introduction to the mechanics of the House of Deputies itself--with introductions of on-the-podium leadership and explanations of things like, well, how to use the electronic voting devices assigned to each deputy.

Most of the members of our Pittsburgh Deputation--including Bishop Johnson and the two representatives from Pittsburgh to the ECW Triennial meeting--had dinner together this evening. We will soon be preoccupied with the business of convention, and opportunities to get together like this as a group will be few, so it was a very nice thing to be able to do.

After dinner I sat for a while with a couple of friends--from California and Florida--for a good catch-up visit. In his article for the diocesan website Bishop Johnson called General Convention a "family reunion," and certainly that is for me one of the most enjoyable aspects of participation.

And so, off to bed--after checking a day's worth of e-mail. A bit earlier than last night, which is a good thing. A busy day ahead, official Day 1, tomorrow . . . .

BruceR