Day 4-NYC-Tuesday

Today we woke up really early in order to get to 815 by 9am. David lead the reading of the Litany for our morning prayer time. I thought it was really nice way to start the day and was new to me so I learned something also. We hopped on the express train to get down to Gran Central which was interesting. It was the first time we have gotten on a train during rush hour, so it was really packed and kind of hard to keep everyone together.

We met first with Nicole Seiforth from the YAMN. She took time off of work to come speak to us which I thought was really cool. I got a chance to talk to her about some of my frustrations with the way they have handled supporting our group. I think she really heard my concerns and will go back to the commission with some good feedback. Next was the PB, she seems really nice and really shy. She stayed with us for about an hour as we talked about what kind of work each of us is doing in the church. Toby and Amanda showed up just as she got in the room. We gave her a bunch of gifts and spent some good time hearing about the upcoming General Convention and her work. Next was Robert from the ERD. He showed a great power point and I think we were all surprised to hear all the great work they are doing.

We went to Eucharist at noon in the chapel and got a quick lunch. The PB was having a book signing that afternoon, so everyone went down and ordered an advanced copy. Then we had a number of people come talk to us during the next hour John from Episcopal Migration Ministries, Chris and Margaret from Advocacy, Toni from Partnerships, and David Copley from Mission. They all had some great things to say about the work they are doing and we remarked later on how passionate they are and how much they seem to enjoy working together. Last we went and saw Bob who is the temporary head of Evangelism, but does Church Vitality when he isnt doing Evangelism stuff. It was neat to hear him give his prospective on the ways we need to judge the success of a parish. I think the whole office was very happy to have us there and really wanted us to know about the work they are doing. I really appreciated the fact that they took time out of their day to meet with us so close to General Convention.

Afterwards, Amanda and Toby debriefed us and we went down to the book signing. We all kind of came home in small groups and Little Beth and I walked to Riverside Park and Grant's Tomb. We took a bunch of silly pictures all over the place. When we got back Tiffany and Bill joined us for dinner and then I lead Compline before I started blogging so that we could catch up. Hopefully we will slow down enough for the next few days so that I can blog every night.