Never heard of it? Neither had I.
Turns out it's a great meeting and conference center literally a stone's throw from the airport so it's easy to get to by plane, train or automobile ... and well suited for the work we'll be doing here for the next three-and-a-half days on the SCLM Blessings Project as we continue to respond to General Convention resolution (C056) calling us to "collect and develop" "theological and liturgical resources for the blessing of same gender relationships."
It turns out lots of other folks HAD heard of it. Lots of Episcopal folks. Which explains why when I arrived last night the first person I ran into was House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson ... followed closely by long time colleague Diane Pollard, Bishop Steve Lane and Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows.
It was starting to feel like one of those weird dreams where people who have nothing to do with what you're doing are popping up all over the place ... until I found out there's another TEC "interim body" (The Standing Commission on the Structure of the Church) meeting here, too.
Who knew??? It was good to see some old friends and meet some new -- and it turned out some of them were as surprised to see me here as I was to see them! :)
Anyway, now it's off to work. Our SCLM task force members will be arriving throughout the day and our work together begins this afternoon and goes through Friday morning -- working on drafts of the reports of our work that will be offered to the SCLM for the "Blue Book" heading to Indianapolis and General Convention 2012 next summer.
I've got piles of paper to go through and lots of PDFs that came in over the last week while I was traveling from the four task forces: Theology ; Liturgy; Pastoral Care & Teaching; and Canonical Issues. I know our work will be rich and rewarding and it is an enormous privilege to be part of creating and developing these resources for the Episcopal Church as we continue to move forward into God's future.
One last note before I quit blogging and get to work: Loved that the first email I saw this morning was from a Canadian colleague with the Subject line "Seen this yet?" ... and it was a link to this article from CBC News Canada entitled "Anglican same-sex blessings OK'd" -- reporting that Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island had approved liturgies for blessing at their Synod meeting last weekend. Of course Episcopal Cafe is "on" the story ... you can read about it here.
It is so very encouraging that while parts of our wider communion family are still living in the anxiety of who might leave if we include everybody others are stepping out in faith and opening doors to welcome all into this Big Fat Anglican Family of ours. So a "Bravo" to the Diocese of N.S. & P.E.I. and a "Good Luck" to the work of the Standing Commission on the Structure of the Church and "Safe Travel" to all those heading here for our meetings.
And now I have homework to catch up on, so:
Here endeth the blog.
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