The Home Stretch

We're coming into the home stretch and not a minute too soon! The bishops are all starting to look like Joe Palookas - rubbery legs, leadened arms, ears all cauliflowered and eyes puffy - as they are sent back into the ring, actually the big top, for one more round. Like a good corner woman, I have been giving my bishops, to borrow another sports metaphor, the win just one more for the gipper speech 'cause the folks at home are depending on you...well maybe my readers are depending on you...well maybe I'm depending on you so that I will have something to write...well actually it's you, you are depending on you to do the right thing. I have too many sports things going on here but I thought the 14th round of a championship fight sounded better than describing horses getting ready for the glue factory besides the animal rights group are really big here.

Yesterday the Conference devoted all of 90 minutes to the elephant in the room - human sexuality - and depending on your group leader, you may have had the conversation in triads, quads, Bible Study Group octet formation or in a few cases, by full Indaba. Where I get confused is when there are many sub-groups, how does the Indaba listener listen and how do the unlistened to voices get fed into the listening process?

On the one hand, I would like to give kudos for not giving this one topic any more time and attention than any other but, on the other hand, we can't be ostriches about this thing and pretend a great cloud isn't hanging over the entire Conference. This waiting until people are hang-dog tired has to be part of a strategy to wear them down - just wear them down and maybe they'll be too tired to talk.

As one voice from the pew, I really don't appreciate the timing. These folks are so tired and that Big Top is so hot and humid that meaningful conversation has been shifted and pushed to the margins just for the sake of some fresh air. We have spent a small fortune to get to this point in the proceedings and now we see time slipping away. Today is the penultimate work/study day. There will be a hearing on the human sexuality portion of the conference report as well as Bible Study and Indaba. Today's topic is the Windsor Process and Covenant - the penultimate work day - let's not rush into these important matters.

The conference report hearings have turned into an opportunity for the same ilk of voices to give pre-prepared addresses to the largest possible gathering under the pretext of word smithing - or getting your licks in by any means possible.

So now, today we have entered the home stretch but alas things aren't always as them seem. Unlike the diocesan tracks of The Big A and Belmont, if you're looking in the wrong direction, you might miss the finish line as they enter the home stretch at the Lambeth Derby.