General Crazy

This afternoon I walked around the exhibit hall of the Convention Center. Hundreds of organizations and groups; I’ll have more pics to share. My camera said it was out of memory after about 12 pics. I’ll have to figure that out later.

Later we attended orientation for the legislative process – lots of Robert’s Rules. They did a nice job. Tomorrow starts the first legislative session. We learned how to vote with the little electronic voting devices, and we heard from Michael Battle about Ubuntu, the theme of GC2009. I would have included a link here to a page describing Ubuntu, but the official General Convention website only has a description of the logo, so here’s what I’ve been able to glean thus far:

Ubuntu is a deeply embedded concept in sub-saharan Africa. If you think about the Western outlook on rugged individualism and every man for himself, Ubuntu is diametrically opposed to that. Someone operating in an Ubuntu paradigm knows nothing about herself save what she learns from others. It is a way of thinking about community that is rather difficult to grasp if you’re not born to it. Theologically speaking, you could say that salvation of any one of us is only possible when all of us are saved. Some of the pithy adages that have been tossed about include “I am because you are”, and “I in you and you in me”.

After the orientation session I had another planning meeting for tomorrow’s soiree with the Archbishop. I’m feeling much better about that than I was. We will have a powerful witness to share with him.

Later tonight around 9:00 we’ll all gather in the bishop’s room to debrief and have some fellowship. We’ll probably do that almost every evening, keeping in mind the need to let the bishop get adequate rest.

There may be some late breaking news about B033. If I get any news on that I’ll try to post it late tonight or early tomorrow.