Catching up Part II

Ok let's get this caught up.

It was great looking up at the pulpit the other day and seeing a friend preaching to GC. Not just someone I know but someone I truly call my friend. Miguelina D'Espina is a priest from the Dominican and a former provincial youth ministry coordinator. She is a wonderful person and deep in her faith. And she fired up for her sermon! It was fabulous. The other sermons have been good but it's just so wonderful to hear someone you care for speaking to the entire church.

Speaking of speeches - the young people have been doing a great job addressing various bodies here at GC. Alexa from the Dominican addressed ECW, David from SE Florida addressed the Bishops (second GC in a row that a young man from that diocese has addressed the Bishops!) Jessica from Central PA addressed the Deputies and Ernie from N. Dakota addressed the UTO dinner. Great reviews on all of them. It's amazing the insight that they've found.

Funding priorities gave a bit of a fight. Youth had been given the #1 spot last time and had dropped to #2 this time behind Peace and Justice. So the battle began, youth, Peace and Justice, or Evangelism/Reconciliation. Round and round and round. I can't argue with any of them and actually the theologically based arguments for Evang/Reconc were fairly convincing. But the Roberts Rules circus was in full flight. In the end nothing changed. For the youth ministry we just hope that the needed funding is still there.

Lots of folks from WNY here, visiting, volunteering, attending various other related events (like E3 for youth Deacon Cathy Basile and Ryan Cinque from my home congregation of St. Luke's are here) and a bunch of folks from all over Province II as well. Oh and maybe we'll get a real insider working in youth ministry in the Province. Don Carlson from CNY is running for Executive Council! Yes, I'm having LOTS of fun yanking his chain about that!

I'm working on about 6 hours of sleep a night so my tail is really dragging. Yesterday was my day in charge so I was on the bounce from 6 AM till 11:30 PM. I'm glad someone else is in charge today.

Tonight the youth are meeting with the previous Official Youth Presence. A LOT of that group were elected as deputies or alternates this time. It's great to see more young people moving into leadership roles.

OK that's most of the news from here. I'm seeing lots of folks I've met before and lots of friends. I bought a present for my lady wife but she may check in here so I can't tell you what it is. But it's something beautiful for a beautiful lady.