2016 Spring House of Bishops, Day 1

Here's a shot from Camp Allen (courtesy of Bishop Matt Gunter), near Navasota, Texas, about an hour northwest of Houston, 30 minutes southeast of College Station. The recent pattern has been for the House of Bishops to meet here in March of even-numbered years. It's a large and reasonably commodious facility, and, apart from its somewhat remote locale, works pretty well for us.

The day began with breakfast at 8am, followed by Morning Prayer (one reading, one canticle, mostly BCP-compliant, except for the canticle, which came from a source I'm not familiar with--it was scriptural, though!). We then adjourned to our meeting room below the chapel, where we sit at familiar round tables. The first meeting after each General Convention, there are new table assignments for the following triennium. It looks like I will be spending a lot of time with the Bishops of Southeast Florida, Rochester, San Joaquin, the Suffragan of Virginia, and, just for this meeting, since he's retiring, the Bishop in South Carolina. We spent the rest of the morning doing "check in," wherein we go around the table sharing what's been going on with us personally and professionally,

After lunch, I had a nice phone conversation with my old friend, the Bishop of Calgary, mostly over some Nashotah House-related business.

At 2pm, we were back in our meeting room for a retreat-style meditation from the Presiding Bishop--except, if you know Bishop Curry, there's not very much "meditative" about his delivery! He challenged us to reflect on how--the various ways--Jesus has been in our lives. About 45 minutes later, he sent us out into silence, asking us to return at 4:00. Then we divided into pairs, and shared our "Jesus story"--the fruit of our retreat reflection. What a concept: A bunch of bishops talking about Jesus.

We headed back upstairs for a celebration of the Eucharist, at which one Vice-President of the House presided and the other one preached. Nothing scheduled then after dinner ... which leaves time for things like blogging!