Deputy Booker - Day Seven

When the calendar for General Convention is published, one day stands out because it’s the day when legislative meetings are scheduled to run late.  Really late.  Yesterday was that day.

Here what our schedule looked like:

7:30-10:00 Committee Meetings

10:30-1:00 Legislative Meeting

2:15-3:15 Joint Budget Meeting

3:45-5:00 Legislative Meeting

5:15-6:30 Eucharist

7:30-9:30 Legislative Meeting

So, the day was long.  Quite long.

I started the day by having breakfast with the Rev. Melanie Barbarito, who used to be our priest at St. Francis’ in Eureka.  One of the nice things about General Convention is that you run into people from all over the country who you don’t see that often. 

We started the legislative day by voting on a resolution to bring the Diocese of Cuba back into The Episcopal Church.  They were kicked out in 1966 and were excited to have the opportunity to return to the fold.  Once the vote was complete, their delegation was given seat and voice at General Convention.  It was a lovely moment and really the highlight of the day.

 

Other legislation of interest was approving $5 million for anti-racism grants (later reduced when he budget was resolved).  There was a Resolution passed to allow babies on the floor of the House of Deputies so that their parents can care for them. 

The small amount of levity in the meeting revolved around a pigeon who flies around the Austin Convention Center.  It has its own hashtag.  We also had a special hashtag for the evening called #GCAfterDark.  If you look it up, you can see some of the procedural frustrations that people had that evening.