Day 6

WOW - What a day. I don't know where to start, but I better start since it is 12:30 and I am just starting. We recessed tonight at 11:20 after working from 2:30 on with legislation that added money to what had been previously agreed to by the budget and program groups of the church. (GCFA & Connectional Table) Well, I am not a judge.

The Judicial Council elections went better than I could have hoped - except by getting elected. I had been in discussions with the Common Witness folks since last week about the nominees by the Council of Bishops and that I was probably not on it. I told them that if we could elect progressive candidates I would step aside either before voting or early on so as to not be in the way and steal votes. I was not on the list from the Bishops, the endorsed list came out and I supported it. They had suggested that if I did not get 60 votes on the first ballot, should I withdraw. I said I would. Well, I got 18 votes. So I got the Bishop's attention and went to a mike and asked if I could withdraw from the election for JC, but be back on the ballot for alternate (there would be 6 of them). The Bishop consulted the staff up there and said that I could not, but that from my speech I had informed those voting me of my intent. I said something about thanking my 17 friends (big laugh from the conference) and sat down. On the second ballot, I still got 6 votes - I was not one of them. We then elected 2 lay and then 3 clergy that were all on the Bishop's list and on the CW list. We were stunned. A huge win, and we got rid of several of the people that voted for decision 1032 (I can explain that one sometime later), and elected some really good people.We then voted for the 6 alternates and I did not win that either, but I got 279 votes!

A BIGGER WIN TODAY ! ! ! The petition for codifying the Discipline was passed unanimously in committee, which means it will be on a consent calendar for final voting Wednesday morning. They amended it in committee, from being a study to "WE SHALL CODIFY THE 2012 BOOK OF DISCIPLINE". The people form the publishing house came to the committee and said, that it could be done so that helped too. I will try to call Rod once the vote is taken Wednesday morning. It is possible for someone to lift it off the consent calendar, but I have not heard anyone against it.The sermon this morning was excellent. Bishop Ernest Lyght - "Someone's knocking at the Door." He talked about a neighbor that knocked on his door years ago looking for help since his house was burning. He had knocked on another door and no one answered. He talked about the prodigal son and Moses - providing enough bread for each day's meals. The Bread of Faith, the Bread of Hope and the Bread of Love. He said, "Wake up Church - people are knocking at the door." "The church can't afford to offer stale bread to feed the soul. I want to go to an alive church where they are serving fresh bread. Evangelism is just one beggar telling another where the fresh bread is."My tie today - golfer.

At one point today a speaker said: "God loved the world so much that he didn't send a committee.

"We passed the new hymnal committee that will bring a new hymnal to us in 2012 by a 450 - 336 vote. Closer than we thought it would be.It is now 1:00 am and I have a 6:00 am wake up call at the front desk.

Tuesday is Barrett's birthday - he will be 3 and is having a party in his school in Lagos, Nigeria. He is VERY excited. Then later Tuesday Deb starts to fly home to LaGrange Park - keep her in your prayers for a safe journey.

We only have 4 more days and probably about 1300 petitions to go. Our committee is not done yet. We got lunches and took them to our committee room and worked through lunch. We finished 3 petitions in 2 hours. Remember me telling you how impressive and smart the whole group of (mostly) lawyers was. Well, they are, but crossing T s and dotting I s is their business and we are moving along, but slowly.

Peace to all, Jack