Diocese of CNY General Convention

Tonight was the first part of the General Convention (annual mtg) for the Episcopal Diocese of CNY. Since I am not an official ECUSA clergy, but am not really a lay person either as I have a pastoral position, Bishop Adams graciously has someone make a motion every year to give me voice in the mtg but no vote. He always makes me stand and says something nice to me. He's very gracious, classy and caring. Tomorrow morning I am hoping to videotape the Bishop's address. I'll them make a .mov file and play back at Trinity and put on our website. I was appalled this evening. Trinity has 3 delegates, all of whom I saw there during the registration process. 2 of them bailed on the mtg when it started. They handed their ballots to the 3rd member, who was stunned, and said something about a 'prior commitment'. Now of course they have only known about the meeting for the last year and signed up to participate about six months ago. The church paid for their registration and hotel rooms but they just bailed. Incredible. Numerous procedural matters were voted upon tonight, as well as the various ballots for the various leadership positions in the Diocese but they couldn't stay. That really bugged me. One interesting note: because of the wider problems in ECUSA stemming from the Gene Robinson incident, St. Andrew's of the Valley in Syracuse has not paid their assessment or pledge. The pledge is optional, but by canon law, the assessment is not. Therefore, they were invited to attend the meeting but denied any voice or vote. St. Andrew's is a charismatic, evangelical congregation. It appears as if they have cut ties with ECUSA. There was also a resolution spelled out in detail in response to the Windsor Report. The resolutions asks Convention and Bishop to do just what the Windsor Report asks: express their regret for what they did in confirming Gene Robinson as Bishop, and for the circumstances it caused worldwide. As the Windsor Report does, the Resolution asks the Diocese & Bishop to separate itself from the Anglican Communion if it cannot abide with these choices. This should make for some interesting discussion tomorrow. I brought my trusty old Apple Newton, an original PDA, to play games but make me look busy in case I was bored. I may not need it. I'll say more in the coming days about tomorrow's meeting with budgets, resolutions, etc. Many Diocese around the country are suffering serious financial shortfalls, we'll see if that's true for CNY.