Annual Meeting - Joy Pleasure What

I have been contemplating the Bishop Whipple Mission 2008 Annual Meeting as directed by the Canons of the Episcopal Diocese of MN, Governing Rules, and tradition. The intersection of Canons and tradition is where my heart lies because that is the place where the rubber meets the road.

We gather as community, family, and church to elect members to the Bishop's Committee, the Region/Diocese delegation, and one Officer, the Junior Warden. This place of rules, that have evolved and changed, and Bishop Whipple tradition, which has not evolved or changed as much as the canons, is called the Annual Meeting where it was/is a mediated access to the leadership of the church. This leadership was not the same as the tribal government leadership or tribal leadership. These are nuanced but significant differences in role, authority and power.

The modern institutional church has a lack of clarity surrounding role, authority and power. I should probably move lack of clarity to the category of confusion, bewilderment or/and control. I have spent an inordinate amount of time locked in the throes of the meaning, implication, and outcome of the this lack of clarity. The only outcome that is definite and identifiable is the distraction from the call to discernment and discipleship God has continually and consistently laid before me.

So January 20, 2008 is the Bishop Whipple Mission Annual Meeting, where the lack of clarity will attempt to distract us from our walk through God's creation as Gospel Based Disciples.

Tata - that all folks.