I was up at the crack of dawn this morning to get to the Peace Breakfast. It was a great event, and an opportunity to meet with people I know and have known of for years. The former moderator of the Genera Assembly announced that he had agreed to work with the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship for the next year. He had been elected as Co-Moderator of Presbyterian Peace Fellowship just before being elected moderator of the Assembly and admitted to not being able to fulfill many of the duties of the Peace Fellowship in the past two years. Chris Caton from our Presbytery was commissioned to participate in the Colombian Accompaniment program, along with another woman from the PPF. It was very good to see a friend, Alexa Smith who lost her job with the Presbyterian News Service in the last round of staff cuts. When we had been in touch before she said she would not be going to the assembly, but she had a temporary assignment from Presbyterian Outlook to be a reporter at the Assembly.

Much of the rest of the day was spent as an observer at the Church Orders Committee.

After listening to the debate in the Church Orders committee I was moved to tears. There were many negative and narrow minded things said, but people on the committee also gave testimony to their own experience with friends and relatives who were gay or lesbian. Others spoke about the indadequacy of the understanding of scripture that is used to justify the exclusion of GLBT people. Many of the things that we said in our presentation last night were repeated again by commissioners. One man talked about our presentation and the testimony in the public hearing from Gays and Lesbians and how it had changed this thinking on the matter. When at last the vote was taken in the committee the motion to recommend to the General Assembly that this overture be disapproved passed by the narrowest of votes, 30 to 28. I was thinking that we lost by two votes and someone pointed out that a motion fails on a tie vote, so it one more person voted no on disapproval. So this recomendation goes to the assembly, but the vote totals are reported to the Assembly as well as the recommendation, so the matter has about as much of a chance in the Assembly as it ever has. At least that is my thinking right now. Earlier this afternoon I was feeling pretty low, alternately being tearful and on the verge of tears, and most of the Advocates were feeling the same. Many of us went to the evening worship sponsored jointly by More Light Presbyterians and That All May Freely Serve, the two national organizations to which Presbyterian Promise is related. There among friends I was able to cry openly and found release, encouragement and affirmation.

Eight of us went from that service to pile into an SUV and go eat Ribs at Dreamland Barbecue. The ribs were great, the sauce had quite a bite to it, and the beer was cold. I came home feeling much better.

A final up note was riding back on the Shuttle to the Hotel and realizing when we got off at our hotel that I knew an African man who got off with us. a Rev. Warren LaSane. Warren and I both attended a number of events for Black Pastors at Pasquals Hotel in Atlanta years ago when I was pastor of an African American Church. I was invited because of my position and welcomed for years as the only white speck in an otherwise all Black Event. It was good to see Warren, and to find that we were both at the Multicultural Event in Orlando a few weeks ago, although we never connected there. He is working on a Presbytery staff to work with multicultural issues and we exchanged cards.