Praying for and Praying with General Convention

As Tim alluded to in his great blogdown of the Y'all Come in San Francisco, a group of us are going to General Convention this summer with the express purpose of doing something that can seem bizarre and out of place in the craziness of legislative sessions, the exhibit hall, and church politics: We're going there to pray. For those of you who have never gone to General Convention, it can be a rather high-stress environment, especially around high-profile resolutions and any number of spontaneous eruptions of controversy. My hope for this presence at Convention is simply to be there to pray with delegates, bishops, and everyone else, without any other agenda.

Rosa Lee Harden generously donated the unused Via Media exhibit hall booth for our use. The plan so far is to go there, set up a welcoming, comfortable space in which to offer prayer, and offer services and spontaneous prayer throughout the convention. There is something wonderful about the idea of being situated, within the hubbub of people selling "Episcopal Bling," books, and ministry kits, promoting political-theological programs, and demanding people's attention for any number of other good and exciting reasons, being situated there, and not demanding anything of anyone or trying to convince them of anything except that they might could do with a little bit more prayer.

If you are interested in helping to create this space at General Convention, to share with the conventioneers what emerging worship is and looks like instead of talking about it, sign up in the General Convention group in the groups area, and send me or Stasi McAteer a note so we can start putting together a list of folks. If you're going to be in Anaheim, feel free to come by the booth or plan to sign up to spend some time there praying with folks.

This is going to be great! Hope to see lots of you there!

Peace,

Andy Shamel