This convention I have been frantically busy as the chair of the Committee on national and International Concerns. This Committee had 53 resolutions covering issues from support of fellow Anglicans in countries as diverse as Pakistan, Sudan, and Honduras, to civil rights at home and abroad to environmental issues. We had 28 hours over 7 days of open hearings on the resolutions, and then tweak or rewrite them for presentation to the whole convention.
As of the end of the morning of the last day all of our resolutions will have been heard by the Deputies or Bishops, so we have high hopes for final action on all, by the end of convention. But getting them through does not necessarily mean the statements have had adequate discussion in both houses for full educational value, or to “perfect” them all.
Listening to the witnesses and the knowledgeable people on our committee taught me a great deal about many subjects I had only passing acquaintance with. Two stand out: the discussion of the environmental problems with bottled water – not just the question of the energy consumed in making the bottles, or transporattion for sale, or trash piling up after.. But even more alarming, the practice of multi-national corporations buying up aquifers and draining them in the process of providing their products. Water is not such a renewable resource.
[I also learned a great deal about] transgendered persons – I have little experience with any transgendered persons, so I was ignorant of the hostility and brutality they regularly face, whether they are walking down the street, at school, or in trying to find work or a place to live. Once again, with blinders removed, I’ve learned to be alert for man’s inhumanity to man, – for ways in which the baptismal promise “to respect the dignity of every person” is being violated.
Our daily worlds are so small and protected. What does it take to give us the eyes and heart of the Samaritan?
– Becky Snow, Alaska
