Katy Dickinson

Diocesan Convention - 1st Day (Salinas, CA)

I am a convention delegate for the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real (ECR) and today is the first day of our annual convention here in Salinas, California. This is ECR's first convention since we elected our new Bishop, Mary Gray-Reeves. Bishop-Elect Mary will be ordained next month but she is acting as President of this convention.

My husband John is an Alternate Delegate and I am a Delegate from All Saints' Parish in Palo Alto. Our family is in the process of transferring to St. Andrew's Parish in Saratoga, which is closer to where we live in San Jose. We are finishing up our duties as delegates to our former parish this weekend.

There are about 250 of us at the convention today. Probably more will join us tomorrow when they are not working. So far, we have celebrated communion together (in both English and Spanish), passed the revised Constitution and Canons, and passed Resolutions 1 and 2 (supporting funding for the Millenium Development Goals and increased base clergy pay). Bishop Ernest Shalita, from the Diocese of Muhabura, Uganda who is visiting Calvary Parish in Santa Cruz briefly addressed the convention and talked about his work with education and youth. Most of today has been taken up with untangling the parliamentary procedure of multiple amendments (friendly and unfriendly) to resolutions. There will be more of the same tomorrow when we will consider the budget.

Each parish delegation sits at one or two tables and chats while we are waiting for vote counts and for amendments to be written up. It can be dry work but the people are wonderful.

Posted at 06:25PM Oct 26, 2007 by katysblog in Church  |