“Meetings are indispensable when you don’t want to do anything.” – John Kenneth Galbraith

Tonight the Deputation from the Diocese of Olympia got together one last time prior to meeting up at convention on July 6th. As with all of our meetings, we gathered at the Diocesan House on Capital Hill and ate some delicious food. Our focus tonight was on which issues we felt were most likely to be hot topics on the convention floor and in committee meetings, as well as which issues we individually wanted to look for and address.

With the help of information provided by Sally Johnson (Chancellor to the President of the House of Deputies), five topics stood out:

1) Denominational Health Plan

2) Employee Pension Plan

3) Disciplinary Canons (Title IV)

4) Blessing of Same Sex Unions

1. Response to BO33 (Moratorium on the Election of Homosexual Bishops)

There were four other issues that we thought might raise some ruckus, or at least we think they should:

1. The revised Lesser Feasts and Fasts
2. The State of the Church Report and the annual membership loss the Episcopal Church is experiencing
3. The lack of youth and young adult resolutions (so far we’ve only heard of one resolution about summer camps)

I intend to do some more research on these topics and hopefully blog about them later this week.

Another important subject discussed was the way in which the deputation could communicate with the Diocese about General Convention both before and after Anaheim. First of all, the Evergreen Regional Spring Meeting is this Saturday at my own St. Columba’s Kent and they have requested 20 minutes with a member of the deputation. Based on my home court advantage it was decided that I should be the one to go, and I’m looking forward to talking with them about the big issues and my experiences in Columbus back in 2006.

We also began planning similar meetings for other deputies in August to debrief on everything that happened, not to mention the possibility of us presenting something to Diocesan Convention in November.

I think this increased attention to communication is key. Involvement creates interest, and the best way to get more people interested in the work of the Episcopal Church as a whole is to keep them informed and active.

I look forward to my new laundry list of topics to look up in my Blue Book, and I can’t wait to share them with you!