Seeing the Possibility

Convention, like real life, is a series of ups and downs.  Sometimes it feels like there is no way forward and that peace and change is impossible in this world.  Sometimes there is a glimmer of hope that perhaps the prophets who demanded a better world were crazy, but they were crazy enough to make a the impossible possible. 
Yesterday I posted about the dire necessity for change. This post came out of a low moment in a valley.  It came out of a moment of seeing the need for change but not seeing where this change would come from.  I still believe that change is needed, now more than ever, but today I have a more hopeful attitude that this change might actually happen in my lifetime.  There are many events in the past 24 hours that have brought me to this more hopeful position. Two events have particularly stood out to me.
The first was last night. I attended the Structure Committee hearing. This meeting was held at the same time as the Same Sex Blessing hearing, the PB & F hearing and a final committee hearing on the Israel/Palestine issue. For some reason, (read Holy Spirit) I chose to go to the boring structure committee.  In this meeting the committee introduced a substitute resolution which they had written.  This resolution (C001) gives me hope that change in the Episcopal Church is possible. This resolution, if passed would open the door to having the serious conversations that the Church needs to have about her future.  There are two items in this resolution that I am particularly excited about.  First, the task force that is being created is independent and the committee specifically asked that those appointed are not already involved in Church governance.  Hopefully, that means that the people appointed will have a fresh perspective.  Secondly, I glad that the necessity of including younger people in the decision making processes.  (In whose concept, except the Church, does young adult go all the way up to age 40!?)  This resolution offers a possibility of real change and it gives me hope.
The second was this afternoon.  I spoke with an alternate deputy that I had met a few days ago at a committee meeting.  We were pretty much on the same page about a lot of things.   This deputy is not considered young, but he is still well under the median age of Episcopalians (57).  I began to lament that I felt that although young adults were being represented at general convention in larger numbers but that our presence was mere tokenism.  Since there are so few deputies under 30 our presence does not have a “real” impact.  He corrected me and said that this was not true.  In fact he had seen that the testimony given by the young adults in the committee meetings, and the youth presence in the House of Deputies, had a large impact on the outcome of resolutions.  I left that conversation feeling lifted up, that although I was not a Deputy I was still an integral part of the Convention process. Then later this evening over ice cream one of my colleagues in the Young Adult Initiative told me that committee members shared that since she was the only one that testified on a resolution for prison ministry they are now recommending that it be adopted.  If no one had testified they would have dropped it and this important work within the Church might not have gone forward.  Although we do not have voting power, we do have power. 
It seems that in Convention life has a different speed.  The highs and lows of life that sometimes takes weeks, months or even years to change are changing in 24 hours at Convention.  Perhaps I shall be back in a valley tomorrow, but today I saw the possibility that can be seen from the top of the mountain.  I hope that I can remember these feelings and ideas the next time  I am low and seeing only the obstacles to the change that needs to happen in this Church.