It could be described as a sacred block party.  Or maybe a mystical family reunion.  It is our diocesan convention, and while its radicalness might not conjure images of Abbie Hoffman or a Greenpeace rally, what gathers Episcopalians is pretty radical: people not united through dogma but understood relationship.  Among the 350+ diocesan folks gathered at Kanuga this Friday and Saturday will be Republicans and Democrats, evangelicals and pentecostals, members of the military and pacifists, vegetarians and hunters, and perhaps a few anarchists, socialists and capitalists (whatever those terms mean these days).

You will see people praying their rosaries, some walking the labyrinth and some speaking in tongues.  And you will see them all on the porches and in rocking chairs fussing and laughing together.

This church of ours continues to be a radical experiment: a gathering of all sorts and conditions of folks; a place where on our best days we recognize the deepest presence of God in each other.

There will be reports of where we are seeing God in our lives and work (Baptists call that testimony, we call them 'reports'), reports of our common life with children, youth and adults and with the whole globe, and reports of our commitments to each other through work, prayer and finances.  We will make family statements (resolutions) of where we see ourselves called by God.  We will worship and socialize throughout.

Keep those of us gathering in your prayers.  We sometimes get so invested in issues we forget the sacred right before us, forgetting the issues are the paths upon which we walk more deeply into mystery.

I am a sucker for family reunions.  When I attend them I always learn more about myself, my family and the mystery that flows in and through each and every one of us.

Peace,

Todd Donatelli

p.s.