Reflections on Day 2 (which is really Day 4), by Kathy Horvat

One of the interesting aspects of the many-thousand member "family gathering" is the language we use. For instance, today may be Thursday to you, but here it is Day 2, and everything thahappens is identified this way, including the Daily Eucharist. We came on Monday, with activities beginning that evening for Province VIII members and full convention gatherings on Tuesday, but we didn't start counting the days until the formal opening of the first Legislative Session yesterday. Other phrases I have heard include "I rise to speak," which makes me think that is what has been said by legislators for the last 200+ years. Never mind that they are being recognized as they stand by a microphone and we can all see them from the many projectionscreens and TV's around the gigantic room. If you log on towww.episcopalchurch.org/gchub you will have a choice of watching the same things we areor hearing speeches already given by the Presiding Bishop, Archbishop of Canterbury and the President of the House of Deputies.

Between Legislative Sessions, among other things, I have attended legislative committee hearings that deal with the issues of the Millennium Development Goals and establishing committees that focus on women, my special interests. Somehow, I found myself being one of 51 people who testified before the committee on Program, Budget and Finance on Tuesday morning. They were establishing priorities and I spent a long minute attempting to persuade them to make the MDG's one of their top priorities. This is especially important, because we want to make sure that the Episcopal Church continues to highlight them. It was intimidating because the room was huge, as was the committee.

It occurred to me this morning that the ultimate purpose of much of the resolution process is for the Episcopal Church to express it values and commitments, but the ways it chooses to spend its money, the commissions and committees that are set up to encourage action and study in various areas, and by the public statements and issues that it chooses as focuses for advocacy.