Now let us sing (Louise)

Photo by ktylerconk

This year's GA is set up a little differently than the last several we attended. This afternoon and tomorrow morning are 9 hours of "UU University Focused Track Programming." More on that later after I've attended; I'm skeptical but willing to give it a try since it is the "big thing" for GA2009.

The plenaries seem to be about the same amount of time as usual in the schedule and scattered around different days and times of day. So far we haven't done any actual business, so my inner Governance Wonk, Process Junkie and Robert's Rules of Order Groupie haven't surfaced to be sated.

Choir rehearsals are well scheduled this year, allowing time to eat and even digest a bit before singing. Unlike in Portland, we will be singing at Closing Ceremony! Hoorah! We will also sing at the big Sunday morning worship service, which is new for me at GA and also highly exciting. Two performances, both important and integral to services and ceremonies, mean lots of reward for the hard work of learning 7 new pieces in about 5 hours. Whew! I've had two rehearsals so far and am feelin' the love.

This morning was the CLF worship service, which was great. Jane was funny and smart and charming and wise, and Bill Schulz was less funny but very moving and powerful. And when we sang the hymns, the floodgates of my heart opened and I wept. Finally, finally, worship and song together, bypassing the intellectual brain and moving straight into my heart. Now THAT's church.

The schedule is filled out with several fora for hearing the candidates for various offices (including the biggie, Association President); a handful of open sessions of workshops, and our volunteer time in the CLF exhibit hall booth. Lunches are crammed down in 30 minutes and we're hoping for a few nice dinners.

I've given myself permission to skip all late night activities (including Ingathering, which was at 10pm last night), the Public Witness event, and probably either the Ware Lecture or the Service of the Living Tradition. I find both tend to be very intellectual rather than emotional, and sometimes its just too much thinking at the end of a long, long day. Compare and contrast CLF worship, above. We'll see.

So. Singing, delegate-ing, and UU University-ing, in that order, are my priorities for this GA.