Yearly Meeting Day One

Day one of the yearly meeting sessions was interesting. Things were a bit less organized then I had expected them to be. The registration tables were closed between 3:30 and 8:30, so I was on my own a bit for figuring out what was going on. With the help of a nice guy from Friendsview Manor, I found where I was supposed to go.

The Representative’s pre-meeting was a preview of what was to come. There are some issues that should cause sparks to fly. There seems to be some language ambiguities that could lead to undue centralization of power. That will cause some lively discussion.

The other big event was the keynote speech by Colin Saxton, the yearly meeting Superintendent. The speech was translated into Spanish, as some of our Spanish congregations were represented this year. It was a little clumsy, but well meaning and I think that our Latino brothers and sisters were honored. The main thrust of the speech was that the planning for change was ending and that the implementation began after this. He then talked a lot about fear, and reminded everyone of all those scriptures that say fear not. I think that Colin got his point across, but I don’t know if everybody was in synch with change as a good thing.

After the speech I finally got registered so I am ready to face the sessions tomorrow. The ice cream social was enjoyable. Ice cream is good when it is 80 degrees and humid. I finally met the other Gil George, and we enjoyed a good discussion about the ribbing we had received.

All told it was a good day. See you all tomorrow,