Live From Anaheim V.5

The proposal on same sex unions hit an emotional gridlock today expressed as a parliamentary tangle. Tonight a self-selected group of 30 bishops met from 9 to 11 p.m. in the Indaba Group style we learned at Lambeth. We told our stories, shared hopes and fears, described the communities in which we minister. We have just closed with prayer and gone to our rooms to pray alone and "sleep on it" quite literally, keeping an eye on our dreams.<br /><br />We will gather again and resume the process tomorrow at 7 a.m. and continue until 9:15, when we have to go back into legislative session. I don't know what will happen on the floor of the House of Bishops, but we grew much closer tonight. We were left, right, and center -- north, south, east, and west -- older and younger -- veterans and rookies. All those lines were crossed to form personal bonds. It doesn't mean we will vote the same. But it does mean our votes will not break our commitment to each other in Christ.

Live From Anaheim V.5

The proposal on same sex unions hit an emotional gridlock today expressed as a parliamentary tangle. Tonight a self-selected group of 30 bis...

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Don't want to be bedridden in your old age? Read this!

I worked until 8pm today, another 12-hour work day. Long story and I won't bore you with it. I don't really have a choice. Perhaps unemployment, but that's not really an option.<br /><br />I was home by 8:30pm, after deciding not to go to the gym tonight. I had a horrible night's sleep last night, coughing and tossing and turning, the sleep of the old and the sick. I had skipped my morning workout. This makes four days of not working out.<br /><br />I was whining to my husband that this is how it starts, miss one day, then two days, then four, next thing you know it's been a month of not working out. Four days of no gym is a near record for me in the past 17 months. He started telling me that I needed to ease up on myself, that I was going to make myself sicker and blah blah blah. We've had this dicussion many times in the past.<br /><br />As if on cue, right at that very moment a program came on PBS about Aicar and it's effect on the human body. It's some sort of 'exercise in a pill" drug (not FDA approved, yet). I was fascinated, but one part really touched a nerve with me.<br /><br />They talked about how Aicar could be helpful for the elderly that are bedridden and can't exercise. They did an experiment on a healthy 60-year old woman (remember, I'm almost 54). She stayed in bed for ten days, and wasn't allowed to get out of bed for anything, not even allowed to sit up. In ten days of bed rest her muscles aged....are you ready for this? <strong>Fifteen</strong> <strong>years</strong>! Ten days of bed rest was equivalent to aging 15 years. She had also lost <strong>two pounds</strong> of muscle from her legs alone in those ten days!<br /><br />Are you thinking what I'm thinking? OH MY GOD! These are damn scary statistics.<br /><br />If you want to watch the videos, they're <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/0403/03.html" target="blank">here</a>. The program will be online in it's entirety on July 15.<br /><br />All of it was interesting, but I was really intrigued about the Aiding Aging Muscles. Most of you reading this are mere children compared to me, but keep this in mind for when you get older. Exercise is essential, not optional (unless you want to end up in a wheelchair or completely bedridden).<br /><br />Yeah, try to keep me out of the gym tomorrow morning. No way in hell am I going to miss another workout.<br />~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br />In a effort to prove to you guys that I eat more than enough food, I'm going to start posting what I eat every day. You'll be amazed at how much food I eat on this unintentional maintenance thing I've been doing. More tomorrow about my plan to get back on plan and actually lose weight again.<br /><br /><strong>Breakfast</strong><br />Coffee with nonfat sugar-free creamer<br />(the creamer is a bad habit that started recently and must stop) - 1<br />1 free-range organic fed chicken egg (from a friend that has chickens in his backyard) - 2<br />1 Thomas Light multi-grain muffin -1<br />1 sl. 2% extra sharp cheddar cheese (3/4 ounce) -1.5<br />4 sl. extra lean Canadian bacon - 1<br />Points = 6.5<br /><br /><strong>Lunch</strong><br />1 Light Flatout bread (sundried tomato) -1<br />5 oz. turkey breast - 5<br />Spinach, 1/2 cup - 0<br />Tomato, 1/2 cup - 0<br />Light mayo, 1 T (usually use hummus but was out) - 1<br />Points = 7<br /><br /><strong>Afternoon snack</strong>:<br />2 cups fresh blueberries - 2 .5<br />Points = 2 .5<br /><br /><strong>Dinner</strong><br />(this is unusual but it's late, almost 10pm, and I'm not at all hungry because I'm still a little sick)<br />6 oz. yam slices, baked with two teaspoons olive oil and sea salt - 3 + 2.5 = 5.5<br />1 cup 1% organic milk - 2<br />Points = 7.5<br /><br /><strong>Total Points for the day = 23.5</strong><br /><br />Without any APs, I'm allowed 19 daily Points, plus 5 weeklies, or 24 Points maximum. I was within my Point range for the day.<br /><br />This was a strange day. Too busy at work for snacks, and I'm really not very hungry. A very rare occurrence for me and one I intend to take advantage of.<br /><br />By just typing out what I ate today I can see major flaws. Not enough protein or veggies or fruits or dairy. I'll do better tomorrow.

Don't want to be bedridden in your old age? Read this!

I worked until 8pm today, another 12-hour work day. Long story and I won't bore you with it. I don't really have a choice. Perhaps u...

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Live From Anaheim V

GLBT INCLUSION: I have been hoping there would be Inclusion Resolutions I could support. In that respect D 025 was a blessing. It is a mostly well-crafted resolution affirming our commitment to the Anglican Communion and affirming the ministry of gay and lesbian people in all orders of ministry. I could readily endorse those principles especially when held together in the same resolution. After passing the House of Deputies by a margin of about 2 to 1, it passed the House of Bishops by a vote of 99-45-2. I was pleased to be voting along with Bishop Katharine in support of this Resolution. I was also pleased to see the provisional bishops for San Joachim, Pittsburgh, Fort Worth, and Quincy support it. That’s the good news.<br /><br />The down side is that any resolutions we pass (or reject for that matter) are open to interpretation. D 025 is no exception. This resolution will be interpreted by some in divisive ways that will wound the Church and impair our mission. There will be a price to be paid in some of our other dioceses, in our international relationships, and in Anglican churches in developing nations. But the Resolution simply acknowledges what we have already discerned and affirms that we will continue discerning calls to ministry following our own canons. I feel we have done the right thing. Now it is time to pray and exercise forbearance with one another as we proceed with Christ’s mission.<br /><br />Today we took up a resolution to study and develop rites for same sex unions to be formally considered in 2012. The Liturgy and Music Commission and Theology Committee would be acting in parallel and in communication. I support this more readily than I supported D 025 – but then came the amendments and amendments of amendments. The resolution is currently caught up in a parliamentary tangle. Some folks think it doesn’t go far enough fast enough, but their efforts to amend it at this point could torpedo the whole thing. I hope we can get it worked out to the satisfaction of all.<br /><br />COMMUNITIES IN SCHOOLS: We have just passed a resolution encouraging parishes to form partnerships with local public schools to insure the education and well being of children in our communities. This is what Nevada has already begun this year through our developing partnership with Communities in Schools. It is great to have the whole church getting behind our mission and to know we are ahead of the curve. BTW, I did not introduce the resolution. It is out of New York. But I did speak in support.<br /><br />LIFE LONG CHRISTIAN FORMATION: We passed the Charter for Life Long Christian Formation. This is precisely what our Ministry Development Commission and the Frensdorff School for Christian Formation are about. The new Charter will give them a boost. It calls for each diocese to develop a plan for lifelong Christian education. Again, it’s good to see Nevada just ahead of the curve.<br /><br />5 MARKS OF MISSION: We endorsed the 5 Marks of Mission articulated by the Anglican Consultative Council: Proclaiming the gospel; baptizing and forming new Christians; acts of mercy; social justice advocacy, and sustaining the environment.<br /><br />LATINO EVANGELISM: We asked for the allocation $3.5 million for Latino evangelism, with a goal to increase the number of Latino congregations by 15% in the next three years and to increase attendance in existing Latino congregations by 30%. We voted to fund Spanish language curricula for church camps and for use in Province 9 (our largely Spanish speaking dioceses outside the US). Todos Los Santos in Las Vegas is ahead of the Latino ministries curve but Nevada as a whole is not. I plan to ask for seed money from the diocese to grow our Latino ministries next year, and then explore other funding options to make this a major priority in Nevada for the following years.<br /><br />COMPANION RELATIONSHIPS: We revised the curriculum of College for Bishops to help new bishops develop international companion relationships such as the one Nevada is working on with the Diocese of Santiago, Philippines. 20 Provinces around the world have sent visitors to this convention. 13 of the visitors are the Primates of their Province. We formed a Companion Province relationship with Brazil, which is particularly good because Brazil will support us in the wake of the other decisions made here. And we endorsed common mission projects by Anglican Churches in the Americas. So we should have more chances to work together with fellow Anglicans in the Western Hemisphere.<br /><br />NATIVE MINISTRIES: We endorsed a program for domestic poverty with a focus on community development projects in Native communities. We also endorsed a plan to protect Indigenous burial sites.<br /><br />HEALTH INSURANCE FOR CHURCH EMPLOYEES: A canon was passed requiring all Dioceses to participate in the Medical Trust of the Episcopal Church. Nevada already participates so this will reduce our premiums a bit in the near future and a great deal in the long run. It is a particular boon to small dioceses. We will be asking parishes to study and discuss health care issues on the United States.<br /><br />DISCIPLINARY CANONS: Title IV, the canon law for disciplining clerical miscreants, has been in the process of revision since the year 2,000. A completed new Title IV was submitted in 2006 and shot down. Now, after 9 years of work, we have it back, new and improved. This time it passed.<br /><br />EVANGELISM: Multiple evangelism resolutions passed including covenant partnerships with other mainline denominations; strategies for evangelism, and an innovators network.<br /><br />Along the way, we were greeted today by the interfaith clergy of Los Angeles. A male trio sang a blesssing for us -- a Christian in English, a Muslim in Arabic, and a Jew in Hebrew -- all singing together. Yesterday we had a great children's choir from the Bronx offering an African folk song and folk dance. I enjoyed a dinner with my bishop schoolmates (class of 08) last night. It was good to have fellowship with my friends after a long hard day of legislation.

Live From Anaheim V

GLBT INCLUSION: I have been hoping there would be Inclusion Resolutions I could support. In that respect D 025 was a blessing. It is a mostl...

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Getting old sucks!

My sister is 17 years older than me. I'll be 54 in a few weeks and she'll be 71. It's actually kind of nice having a sister so much older because in a way, I can sort of foresee my future. On the other hand I know I'm going to outlive her and that breaks my heart. She's one of my very best friends.<br /><br />The good news is she's healthy as a horse. She's also beautiful (she got the looks and the smarts), and she looks like she's in her early 50's. She looks my age. She eats healthy, watches her weight and goes to a water aerobics class five times a week, every week.<br /><br />She's has never had a major illness and has only been hospitalized three times in 71 years, for the birth of her three children. This was exactly like our mother, three kids, three hospitalizations. Our mom lived until she was 86 and went from healthy one day to a coma the next and five days later she was gone. The doctor didn't know what caused her death. It's a long story, but we think moving from her own home to an assisted living home ten months earlier is what killed her, but that's another story.<br /><br />Here's what my sister told me yesterday about getting sick when you're older. It's true that the symptoms seem more severe, that colds last longer and generally she feels much worse than when she was younger. A little cold will put her in bed for a week whereas when she was younger she went to work with a cold. Just like me, she said they knock her to her knees these days.<br /><br />So my unscientific research tells me that getting old sucks. Oh wait, I already knew that!

Getting old sucks!

My sister is 17 years older than me. I'll be 54 in a few weeks and she'll be 71. It's actually kind of nice having a sister so m...

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