Rainy and sedate Sunday here in Columbus. Folks gathering from all over. Conversations with representatives from the Convocation of American Churches in Europeand a Palestinian woodcarver. Time to catch up with my boss, Howard Anderson (above left), the Warden of Cathedral College, who seems to know everyone who ever lived in Minnesota.
Then there were times to chat with several people from the Diocese of Washington (Carol Cole Flanigan, Randolf Charles, Linda Grenz); John Johnson from the Office of Government Relations and member of my parish in DC; Elizabeth Ring from Maine; Kesha Brennom, the staff officer for children’s ministries at 815; a Buddhist-Episcopalian doing AIDS activism work in Kenya.
And then there was Jim Bradberry from Norfolk, who said that when he heard that my spouse, Nancy, had ended up at “St Thomas,” he thought, “I always wanted to live in the Virgin Islands!”
It’s actually hard to know what’s really more important than these conversations; they really are what makes possible all the other work that gets done here — the Episcopal Church really is about relationships, even when they’re going badly. And little of that was evident in any way today.
Even business was done today over drinks and among friends. The most interesting meeting I attended was a briefing this evening by Integrity. Susan Russell and Michael Hopkins (center picture) led discussions of issues most directly impacting the gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgendered community. Conversation was thoughtful, sobering, oft-times hilarious.