"That's enough to cause all those words you laid down at the foot of the Cross to be resurrected..."

Yep, that was one of the quotations I heard today. A participant said this because his flight was overbooked by 15 people. It certainly takes all types, right? Well, today was the beginning of a long week. We still have a good deal in front of us this evening-- we're electing the Moderator of the GA. That's always an interesting process. I assumed today would be relatively benign as far as "hard" conversations about some of the committees and overtures but I was wrong. Our orientation on how the use of voting remotes (push 1 or 2 on the keypad to cast your vote) and passing the docket for the week was nothing compared to the unassuming "Riverside Conversations" which presentations by committees about some of the major topics at the GA this year. For instance, Civil Union, The Middle East, and How to be family in such a diverse denomination. I was able to sit in two of the 6 conversations and although attending the nFOG or the Stated Clerks Notes session sounded SOOO intriguing, I decided to go to the Middle East and Civil Union.

Outside of there being very little conversation, the sessions were helpful in understanding the process of each committee. Despite the overused line of, "As a committee, we've had very challenging and rich conversations," the committees worked hard and should be commended. I certainly don't agree with much of the Middle East Committee's exegetical and theological work or really much else that they came up with but they did work diligently. This will certainly be a hot button issue. The little dialogue we began to have was guarded, defensive, and heated.

The Committee on Civil Unions was perhaps the most disheartening and frustrating. In the last two years, the church spent thousands of dollars to put together a committee to talk about Civil Unions in our church and how they should be recognized and all that came out -- although valuable-- is that everybody needs to agree to stay at the table. The opinions and conclusions are the same as in 2006 with the PUP report but considerably less straight forward and muddled. No one can agree so we will continue to talk about this for years to come. Someone on the committee explained it would most likely be something that will continue for the next 20 years.

It's great on one hand because people are being asked to continue to talk and agree to stay instead of breaking off immediately. It's heart wrenching because there is a huge group of people in our denomination-- IN OUR CHURCH-- who will continued to be seen as less in some ways or not not acknowledged at all. The road seems impossibly long ahead and I want to scream for justice to ROLL DOWN. The committee called for us to look to Christ in the coming years and let Jesus be our bridging factor. But when there is so much at stake for each side, as far as Biblical Interpretation and the lenses we read scripture out of, it seems impossible for there to ever be an end-- which would seem like a win for one side of this equation.

We'll see how it goes.