No business (Sean)

Yesterday morning we attended Plenary #2..  We had a brief moment of panic when neither the phone conference nor the web login for voting was working for us, but we finally realized that there was no actual voting business on the agenda for the 45-minute session, and reasoned that they simply did not turn the system on.  A quick email to support confirmed this.

We did watch the entire session on streaming video, and it consisted mostly of procedural details, repeated at every GA, for the conduct of business through the remainder of GA.  This year there are mini-assemblies only for the CSAIs (5 of them) and a single resolution, repudiating the doctrine of Discovery.  Again I will not repeat it all here as these can be found in the Agenda, available for download.

As long as we already had the streaming up on our large-screen TV and all was working smoothly, we remained on-line for Worship, another two hours.  This is the first time we've ever streamed any part of GA (we usually attend in person) and so it was a bit surprising to me to find some of the service blacked out due to music copyright issues.  Perhaps those of you who stream GA regularly are used to this aspect.  Louise also likes to sing along with the hymns, but the stream does not show us the lyrics so she can only do the ones she knows.  Other than that is was a nice service.

We opted not to "attend" any of the mini-assemblies.  We seldom do even when there in person, and in this case, they are not streamed on-line but rather are being teleconferenced by phone.  None was particularly moving to us in any case.

In a few minutes we will be back on-line for today's business session, Plenary #3.  We will be voting on the CSAIs, and Louise is on-line right now looking for any updated text from yesterday's mini-assemblies.  This is another first for us; in person, delegates are handed printed copies of any updates as they enter the plenary hall.