Sunday Business
Ann asked about the issue of doing business on Sunday - I think it’s an important issue. I was somewhat ambivilent about it originally but now that it’s been tried, I am more and more certain that it’s a bad move.
1) Obviously there are the biblical and theological questions about work on Sunday. Part of me recognizes that Synod’s business is slightly different than other kinds of businesses, however, even if (and that’s a big “if”) that’s true, there is the reality that synod ought to provide an example to the rest of the church…this is not a good one.
2) Relationally Sunday business is also a problem. Normally Sundays offer time and space for delegates to worship, relax and fellowship with one another. This prevents that.
3) Practicaly, it creates a problem that I hadn’t thought of until I noticed it this morning: by cutting a day off of the business the delegates loose a LARGE chunk of time and observation that would (previously) allow them to make an informed decision regarding whom to nominate for the vice-presidency. Now, delegates don’t get to observe each other that much AND interested individuals don’t have the opportunity to (quietly, but surely) make their willingness known by getting to the mike and speaking on the issues at hand.
All in all, I don’t think it’s w0rth the money that the MIGHT have saved.
On a different note: I’m typing this post on a public computer (without my spell-checker) - please excuse any mistakes!
Grace and Peace,
`tim
2 Responses to “Sunday Business”
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June 14th, 2006 at 12:25 pm
[…] - My opinion is in, the Shortened Schedule for synod this year wasn’t worth the sacrifice. This year’s synod had a remarkably small amount of business to attend which allowed it to manage with such a short schedule. I doubt a “normal” synod would have been able to do so. I mentioned part of the problem in my post entitled “Sunday Business,” what concerns me even more is that, in order to accommodate the shortened schedule, some of the commissions were disallowed from presenting their reports — not good! […]
June 16th, 2006 at 11:18 am
Amen and amen! What you skirt around, Tim, but didn’t quite say is this: while we can “data dump” the info at the rate we did this year, human beings need time to process the information, to make connections between the various items we hear and our larger experience of the Church and life. That’s what makes a deliberative body valuable, that’s what helps us provide room for the Holy Spirit (who cannot be scheduled as efficiently as PowerPoint), and that’s what the new schedule lacks.