The Episcopal Church loves a good conversation. There are many "takes" on the Episcopal Church's triennial General Convention. Sometimes it's raucous, emotional, tumultuous and strident; at other times it's enlightened, informed, civil, calm, even placid.

Whatever the emotional tone of the convention, it is a gigantic conversation--debates, hearings, special programs and presentations, caucuses, after hours formal and informal meetings, daily in-house papers, publications and fliers, lobbyists, exhibitors, visitors--involving several thousand people.

Sorting out the conversation--what Convention did and didn't do--is a major undertaking. The church's good fortune is that the conversation doesn't take place in a vacuum. It's is not abstract and detached. The conversation we call General Convention is both formed and informed by back home, grassroots concerns and commitments. It's a conversation of real people with real concerns- individuals, groups, dioceses, committees, commissions, coalitions and movements. And it's a conversation that continues between conventions.

For nine General Conventions, over twenty-five years, the conversation has been about human sexuality--read homosexuality. At the Philadelphia General Convention the conversation took on a new dimension.

First of all, the Convention adopted a resolution of apology to gay men and lesbians for "years of rejection and maltreatment by the church." More significantly because it will really change the way we do business, the House of Deputies came within a hairs breath of requesting the Standing Liturgical Commission to prepare a rite or rites for the blessing of same-sex unions for official use in the Episcopal Church.

A second very empowering development in the conversation was the emergence of new voices.

Four years ago, in anticipation of the 1994 Indianapolis General Convention, a consultation on the blessing of same-sex unions was gathered in Cambridge, Massachusetts at the Episcopal Divinity School. A rite and a rationale were developed; however the participants in the consultation did not feel the time was right to push too hard. In preparation for this years convention the conversation was very different. Diocesan support was enlisted to take the blessing of same-sex unions into the legislative process of General Convention. This was prologue to what strikes me as an even more important developments. All Saints', Pasadena, organized a national conference and movement in support of same-sex unions: Beyond Inclusion. At the same time, Oasis/California came into being, and joining with the Oasis of the Diocese of Newark, is committed to fostering a national network of Oasis Welcoming Congregations. Both Beyond Inclusion and Oasis were at General Convention. Together with Integrity--the national advocacy organization of gay, lesbian, transgendered, and bisexual people in the Episcopal Church who through all the debates, studies, and legislation has been at the center of the human sexuality conversation--we informed, and with congregations like St. John's will continue to inform, the Episcopal Church's conversation about human sexuality.

What is the moral of this little piece? In the long run, the seemingly endless conversations about human sexuality--read homosexuality--make all the difference. The Episcopal Church loves a good conversation.