Convention Day

One of the things I love about the Episcopal Church is that it functions with a distributed power through the forum of a convention. Ordained and lay people meet together and have authority to influence and direct the life of a diocese. It seems only fitting in a country where democracy is the form of governance, that the church functions with a similar democratic structure. Today we will pray together, speak together and decide together some important proposals for the future of The Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina. I have not always been voting with the majority in my life as a lay person or as a priest in my years of ministry. I never stopped participating in the process even when at times I knew I was a part of a fading minority.
One thing I dislike about the Episcopal Church is that it functions with distributed power through the forum of a convention. I love our democracy, but right now all I see is a political game that ignores reality for the good of politics but not the good of the country or it's people. We are lost in a battle of words that causes paralysis by analysis. I've watched our country be manipulated in one direction or another by those in power without much concern for the common good. The same political process has been escalating in the decision making of the church, sometimes for good, but often for particular agendas that may not consistent with God's will. Unlike our country where our government is formed to uphold the right of all the people and to fulfill the will of the people, the church should only be concerned with God's will.
So I go today willing to play the part allowed for me in the ongoing life of this diocese in the work of God in the world. I will seek to represent God's will in this moment as best I can not my own personal agendas. My prayer is that we can find the will of God in great unity as we pray and decide together today at convention. Politics aside, this could be a great day.