Today, the committee chairs were invited to lunch together to visit a bit about how the flow of legislation is going. It is going pretty well, except… It seems that some bishops have prevailed in omitting the funding for a number of basic functions — things like what happened to the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music, having their program funding cut to zero by the House of Bishops. It seems like immature and passive aggressive behavior to me. Part of what that means that we have to send three members of our committee, who will miss our major hearing tonight, to testify before the Program, Budget and Finance Committee so that we will be able include the funding for the SCLM in the budget. There is something very strange afoot. It’s okay with me to talk about wanting to restructure the church and to set up some deliberative ways to discuss that, but it’s almost childish to de-fund major Commissions without notice. That seems dysfunctional at best; like sabotage at worst.
