Slap Slap GeeWiz Whatta Mess this Is

So there I was minding my own business (kinda, for a vicar) when the following email pops up regarding Diocesan Council (leadership group of the Diocese of MN):

Members:

Several Council members have indicated a strong desire to meet in executive session this Thursday. Accordingly, after consultation with the Canon to the Ordinary and with the Bishop's express consent [through contact with him in London], we agree that the July meeting should occur without the presence of diocesan staff. Accordingly, tommorow's meeting will occur without staff support or input. We do need a member to volunteer to take the minutes of this meeting. Excluding staff will, of course, require postponement of a few matters which, according to staff, can easily be addressed at our September meeting.

We look forward to seeing you in Mankato.

doug


So now, I am not minding my own business anymore. I have a different kind of mission before me... One of futility and energy wasting but since I am only 1/2 time vicar, I have time and energy to waste/expend on battling windmills. I then penned the following to the Diocesan Council:

Dear Fellow Council Members,

I am at a loss as to how "several council members" can initiate and create an
executive session without the rest of the council being aware of this
action/maneuver and no vote taken. We just had an email vote over something more
important then an executive session which was considered valid and legal.

I thought we were operating in the first person as a council - "several members"
does not cut it. I know it wasn't me - were any others not part of the "several
members" group or was I the only one?

I did not vote on executive session - did anyone else?

Am I not a part of Diocesan Council and have a voice/vote in how we operate? As
a staff member (Vicar of a DIW mission) am I to stay home from the Diocesan
Council meeting? How is the fact of my being a staff member and Council member
being handled?

Maybe the legal beagles can dice the words either to keep me away or to allow my
presence. I am interested in the legal grounds for "several members" to call
executive session without the rest of Diocesan Council voting to consent or not.
If "several members" can call executive session without a vote what constitutes
"several members" so that I can maneuver Council actions with "several" other
members. Oh yeah, a retroactive vote to go into executive session when we get
(if as a staff member I can be there) to Mankato will be vigorously challenged
by myself and "several other members".

I await the determination on as a staff member being allowed to assume my seat
as the Region IV Clergy Representative at Diocesan Council, July 24, 2008 in
Mankato, MN at St. John's Episcopal Church.

--
Rev. John E. Robertson
Bishop Whipple Mission
PO Box 369, Morton, MN 56270
Native Ministry is a verb not a noun.

I have no idea if this little diatribe is good, bad or indifferent. I cannot be silent when 1+1=3.

All of this excitement points to the question of mission. What is it? Where is it? How is it?

What was is not

I had thought about doing a daily reflection on some aspect, some thought, some theology, of being ordained to the priesthood of the Episcopal Church in the United States. I had intended to tie it to the 15th year of the Right Reverend James Jelinek's episcopate as the 8th Bishop of the Diocese of Minnesota in some mystical manner. Instead, life happened, my own lack of consistency, my lack of commitment and the important stuff of being somebody and blogging slipped into the fog of these realities and myths.

Now what will emerge will be a blog of my inconsistent tirades regarding Native Mission Ministry. What does this mean? This is the churchy, pseudo-theological, mission defining, ministry refining blog. This is where I will try to stay broad, institutional church focused in the narrow and broad sense of the definition.

I do have second blog that talks about the actual Native Mission I serve as vicar called Bishop Whipple Vicar. This is a place based blog about the doings, the activities, the realities of a 21st century native Episcopal Church mission located in a small Dakota community in Southwestern Minnesota.

A third, inconsistently posted blog called dakotarez is where I rant, pontificate, and generally complain about Native academics, politics, and culture. This is a blog that I started before blogging exploded so it is a sad statement on opportunity missed and my own laziness to adopt and adept technology for my use.

Now that I have internet access at the coffeehouse where I hangout, I may try to develop into a blogger after all these years.

Thanks for the patience.