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General Council Update Aug. 12, 2009 PDF Print E-mail
Wednesday, Day 4 at General Council Kelowna

Today began with children leading us in worship. I want to be sure to bring some of that to our congregations. Perhaps one Sunday I'll arrange for the children to lead worship—we’ll see. One of the hi-lites of today was the speeches from the 8 moderatorial-elects (yes there are eight of them!!). The children interviewed each of the eight and then just before each of them spoke the children's interview was run. The children asked the moderatorial-elects very important questions like: What was the most extreme thing you did in your life? One said that he threw a stone at a beehive and PAID THE PRICE! Another question was what bone in your body have you ever broken? One answered by saying: his toe, his nose and his finger. They gave them each a test to see if they could cross their eyes and roll their tongue, some could pass the test and some could not and the results were reported by the children. What a wonderfully humorous, holy, and happy way for each candidate to begin his or her speeches. We'll be voting on Friday but my choice for moderator at this time is Mya Landell. If you want to view her speech it is on the website (Liz put up the link to the General Council on the Valley website). As Maya was speaking she showed images on the big screen (these are not shown in the video). One of the reasons I chose Maya is because so many youth and young adults know her and believe that she would bring the energy of youth to our church. The adults also have told me that she has what it takes to be moderator (even at her young age of around 35 or 40??). Marion Best (a previous moderator) told me that Mya would make a great moderator, at a breakfast her and I shared one morning. The other reason is that I loved what she said in her speech—have a look!

That was yesterday and today is today. This is the day we get back to the proposals about Israel and Palestine. I was at the last General Council in 2006 and was in the group that was commissioned to address this same issue. But this is 3 years later and the sentiment of the court is much, much different this time around. Watch for us again in the news today/tonight as we (the United Church) are anticipating to act on the proposal.

Joey’s doing great. He’s dancing and singing and digging deep into the proposals (his favorite part).

missing you all and thinking about you ALL THE TIME as the National Church makes decisions for our future.

I heard you got some nice hot weather....wonderful!

with great love,
Barbara

Pray for PEACE! Work for JUSTICE! Sing for JOY!