Though the ECW tends to its Constitution and bylaws, minds rules and holds hearings to address matters related to the business end of our ministry, we are not a legislative body. Instead, we are a from-the-pews-up organization all about mission and service, spiritual enrichment, study and fellowship. We represent the Church, and it's been said on more than one occasion that the ECW meeting hall at Triennial -- "House of ECW" -- can feel like sanctuary.
And so on Wednesday, July 8, there was joy as hundreds of women from places as diverse as Navajoland and the U.S. Virgin Islands, Delaware and the Dominican Republic, gathered for opening day festivities. Led by a kilted bagpiper, provincial presidents followed by diocesan ECW presidents, representatives of Episcopal women's organizations (Church Periodical Club, Episcopal Women's History Project, United Thank Offering), and the National ECW board, filed into the plenary hall.
There, a choir ready to burst into song and the Triennial Meeting chaplain, the Rev. Dr. Ellen Sloan, Chaplain and Dean of Community Life at General Theological Seminary, were waiting along with other certified delegates, alternate delegates and visitors.
Shortly after Kay Meyer, president of the National ECW, declared the 46th Triennial Meeting open, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori arrived to greet the gathering and participate in the "surprise" that had been promised. She blessed gold crosses embossed with the ECW symbol and then proceeded to hand a cross to each woman present. She did not rush the process. Nor could she stop smiling. There was singing and even dancing in the aisles.
Solemnity must be given its space, yes. But on this day, at this time, we were about the celebration of the gift of faith. We have been called to "grow in grace."