Back from Hanford

An eventful day, to say the least!

Faithful Episcopalians from all over the Diocese of San Joaquin met at Church of the Saviour, Hanford with the theme: "Moving Forward, Welcoming All."

I blogged some comments from the floor over at Father Jake's place (the church had wifi) so I will only do a brief recap here.

The first thing was that we had far more people than we expected. We ran out of seating space early on and had to put up folding chairs. We think there was about three hundred fifty people there.

Cynthia and the Hanford people did a phenomenal job of hosting the event. There were a few mike failures and Liam did a great job of rolling with the punches when they changed the order of the PB's address (we thought it was supposed to come before Bonnie Anderson's presentation) and holding up a mike to his Mac when the sound system wouldn't work.

I searched throughout the assemblage for any sign of Brother Causticus, to no avail. (What was I looking for? I don't know, some piercingly intelligent, relatively young man with a verge) Perhaps, as Lisa pointed out over at Father Jake's, it is the idea of B.C. that is the important thing, knowing who he was may spoil that element of mystery...

A very moving theme that came out in the the Q and A is how many people in the DoSJ are waking up--finding out that they have been misled, and they are not happy about it.

Perhaps the most significant observation that crossed my mind today is the idea that we really are going to make it. Before today I had my doubts but after today there is no doubt in my mind that we will remain as a viable Diocese. And it's a wonderful realization.

So, many, many thanks to all of you who kept us in your thoughts and prayers. Please keep it up. But guess what:

The Kids Are Alright.