And here we are on Thursday...

Gotta admit - things are starting to blur together a wee little bit!  I can't possibly capture all that is happening in these short little reflections I am doing.  Hopefully it is giving you a glimpse of life here in the chaos of the world at General Council.

Yesterday much of the focus was on choosing our new moderator.  It is quite the process.  It began with seeing all 10 names up on the screen.

For each ballot there was 6 minutes where we were to sit in silence and reflect on the choices before us.  During that time our musicians provided music to carry us through - it was powerful to listen to the Bassoon, the theremin, and the tin flute - all played by the bearded man you see here on the stage:

Bassoon

Commissioners reflect in silence

Tin flute

Theremin - google it - it is a sound like you have never heard before!  He played Amazing Grace - eerily beautiful!

 After the 6 minutes of reflection, we were invited to press the number beside the name of the candidate we each chose.  Then throughout the morning, Nora Sanders would stand up, announce the names of those who would be on the next ballot, and we would pray for those who would not be moving forward.  It was respectful and in many ways felt like we were walking on Holy Ground with each new ballot and fewer and fewer names to choose from.  We began the process at 9 a.m., and by noon we had chosen our new Moderator, Richard Bott.  Full disclosure - he was not my choice.  I was really hoping Susan Beaver would be the person going forward.  However, as I watched Richard standing there, being blessed by the drumming of a group of First Nations women, I watched the graciousness with which they blessed him, and I did my best to open my heart to the same kind of grace.  Each Moderator brings their own gifts and skills to this position, and I am glad to have been here to be part of the choosing.

Our opening worship used the gift of raspberries to invite us into a reflection on social justice:  "to get to the sweetness of the fruit of justice, we need to go into the berry patch and prepare to be scratched."  After holding the berries in our hands, we were then invited to savour the sweetness of the fruit.  One of those worship experiences that engaged all of our senses - it was quite moving - the image will stay with me for awhile:



We also were invited to wear black on Thursday so that we could be part of a world-wide movement to speak against violence and rape.  Here is a picture of my diaconal colleagues wearing black.  Watch for the photo of the General Council commissioners who wore black - we filled the bleachers!  And since it is a rather sombre topic, we were asked not to smile - hard to remember that when the cameras are pointing towards you!

The afternoon was spent in discussion groups, but I was very tired and felt like I didn't absorb a whole lot.  So I took a break when my Aunt Lois, and my cousin Fraser came for a visit for a couple of hours.  One of Lois's soul mates is Michael Blair, from the General Council office - I'm glad they had a visit as well.

In the evening the Youth Forum did a very moving reflection on the apologies of the Church for the Residential School tragedies, and shared their own stories of reconciliation.  

 This is a picture of Jimmy, watching the youth.  At the end of the presentation we asked the two Elders at our table - both indigenous men, both in their 70's, what they were thinking.  Jimmy told us that it made him think of his own 4 daughters and how he had apologized to them for not teaching them his language.  He said he was told he couldn't speak it at all while he was in school, so it took him many many years to have the courage to speak it again - and his children missed out on learning it from him.  The other man, Jim Angus, is from B.C.  He spoke about how his sister was taken from their home when she was still a baby - and he has just gotten in touch with her in the past few months.  Very emotional for him to hear these young people speaking in such hopeful ways about learning the story of what had happened, and speaking out so passionately about our need to work on reconciliation - he said our hope is in their passion - it is not in our remits and proposals!

They ended their presentation by weaving together ribbons and placing them on the stage, remembering the ways we are bound together in love - even when we get scratched a little moving towards that point of living into right relationship.

And now it is Friday morning and we have an extremely full day ahead of getting through as many proposals as we possibly can.  May I have the stamina to stay engaged!  Here is the rising sun out of my bedroom window, calling me into the day.  Remember the question that I often speak about on a Sunday morning - what will we do with the gift of this brand new day??