Reflections on General Convention

I always come back from General Convention weary, but uplifted.  I am uplifted again this convention by the experience of the church still learning how to be the church for our day and time, and for the future.  This is such a Biblical enterprise, from the wandering Israelites through the early church at Pentecost. We have always been challenged to discern and integrate God’s ongoing revelation to where we are and what we are being called to do – now.

The most heartening part of convention is that we discover anew that this discerning work is done best in community through common prayer and common conversation seeking clarity in our common mission.  While hard work, this is fundamentally sound, and it works as we  grow in the spirit of ‘Ubuntu’ into our truest selves in Christ.  While never perfect, new and exciting possibilities emerge as out of a solid foundation.

With more to be said about Ubuntu and the particulars of convention in the days ahead, your Deputies and I are already planning communication to the Diocese.  For now, we are clearly a “learning and changing” church, and as unsettling as this can be at times, it is the only way to be the living Body of Christ. In the words of our forbearer Benjamin Franklin, “When we stop learning and changing, we die.”