GCN Conference, Anaheim
I flew out last Tuesday night to LAX, rented a car, stayed in Anaheim for the night and then drove down to San Diego Wednesday. I had coffee in Encinitas with a cultural anthropologist from UCSD. She interviewed me for some research that she's doing in attitudes towards same-sex marriage. It was a lovely interview and she bought the coffee so a cheap date to boot.
I drove to all the places we used to live on my way to Rancho San Diego where I planned to go out to dinner with old friends, Dave and Erlette. I arrived around 15.30 ... just in time to take Erlette to their daughter's middle school to pick her up.
We ate at Casa de Pico's which has moved from Old Town to Grossmont in LaMesa. I felt sick after the meal having eaten so much. Dave and I stayed up late playing guitars and just singing some old songs. It was a great time. I've known Dave and Erlette for 30 years and it was lovely to spend time with them.
I left the next morning to get to the Sheraton in Anaheim in time for the service project GCN was doing ... packing food boxes at the Orange County Food Bank. We packed 724 boxes and I did lots of lifting and socializing. It was a genuine joy to do something like that as a conference opener.
I attended the evening session starting out but then had to run to the airport to pick up A. We got back just as the session was ending.
Friday I was presenting a breakout session on Dietrich Bonhoeffer's "Life Together" and realized I needed to print off materials so ended up taking the lunch hour to run around madly looking for a Kinkos which I ultimately found at a Marriott in the convention center. It cost $11 for parking for 30 minutes plus all the repro charges. I was extremely stressed and A managed to help me keep my cool. the breakout session went reasonably and I ended by reading Gal 3:26-29 with my own twist.
For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek,
there is neither slave nor free man,
there is neither male nor female,
neither rich nor poor,
neither citizen nor foreigner,
no S, L, G, B or T,
neither bear nor twink,
neither butch nor femme,
neither chicken nor old troll,
neither dyke nor queen;
for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise.
Ray Boltz performed Friday night and though I more or less liked his song "Thank you for giving to the Lord", his newer stuff is more powerful because it seems more authentic and closer to my own experience and trials.
Peter Gomes spoke to us Saturday morning and surpassed even the high expectations I had. I was privileged to join him for lunch with some of the other board members and he was a brilliant lunch companion, witty and joyful and lovely to spend time with.
Saturday evening we had the premiere of the film, "Through My Eyes". I thought that it thoughtfully and gently spoke to the issues of being gay and Christian from the mouths and life experiences of number of amazing young people, many who were present for the premiere. It was a profound experience. I look forward to more of this from Justin, the executive director at GCN.
Sunday we had an evangelist/pastor from an affirming pentecostal church located in Houston (!) preach a message. There is a wide diversity of faith traditions represented within GCN so I'm sure the style was challenging for some but I thought she was recieved well.
After the conference closed, I had a couple of hours before we went into a 3 hour board meeting and we simply shut down because we'd all run out of juice before the agenda got completed. A and I went out for supper at El Torito in Fullerton.
Monday, we checked out of the hotel and did a "Foothills to the Sea" tour of Los Angeles. We started out in Montclair and worked our way west to Glendora and Azusa where A lived when he was in High School. We had lunch at the Norm's in Azusa before heading east on I10 to downtown LA and then up the 101 to Hollywood. We found the place on Hollywood Blvd where he did one of his significant early acting jobs (with a full frontal nude scene, no less!). We worked our way west by the Kodak and Grauman theatres and jumped down to Sunset Blvd for the long, lazy drive through Beverly Hills, Bellaire, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades and the sea.
We stopped at Santa Monica pier and played in the water before shopping for souveniers. We then drove further down the coast to Venice Beach where we played in the water more and took the opportunity to lay out on the sand in the sun. The temps were in the mid 80's due to the Santa Ana's that had been going all weekend. The city was cleared of smog and visibility was fantastic.
We drove on down to the airport and turned the rental car in and checked in for our flights. The plane was nearly empty so I got bumped to first class. A had an empty seat next to him in coach so he was content. We got home and collected our bags. A had misplaced the slip that told him where he'd parked the car at the long-term lot but after traipsing about a bit we located it and drove home.
I loved the conference (as per usual) and every year it improves in terms of speakers, performances and break-out sessions. We had over 300 registrants this year, breaking our streak of nearly doubling attendance every year. But it's good. We have a number of decisions to make about next year. The location is already fixed: Nasville. Now we have to sort out everything else: who will lead the effort, speakers, performers, topics, and so forth.
In retrospect, the highlights for me were hearing Peter Gomes and being able to spend some time with him (my copy of "The Good Book" is now autographed!) and hearing Ray Boltz perform. His newer stuff really speaks to me. One of the highlights always is being able to reconnect people I've shared my journey with these past 6 years. Imagine Emma Thompson in "Love, Actually" speaking about Joni Mitchell when I say, "I love them!"
I drove to all the places we used to live on my way to Rancho San Diego where I planned to go out to dinner with old friends, Dave and Erlette. I arrived around 15.30 ... just in time to take Erlette to their daughter's middle school to pick her up.
We ate at Casa de Pico's which has moved from Old Town to Grossmont in LaMesa. I felt sick after the meal having eaten so much. Dave and I stayed up late playing guitars and just singing some old songs. It was a great time. I've known Dave and Erlette for 30 years and it was lovely to spend time with them.
I left the next morning to get to the Sheraton in Anaheim in time for the service project GCN was doing ... packing food boxes at the Orange County Food Bank. We packed 724 boxes and I did lots of lifting and socializing. It was a genuine joy to do something like that as a conference opener.
I attended the evening session starting out but then had to run to the airport to pick up A. We got back just as the session was ending.
Friday I was presenting a breakout session on Dietrich Bonhoeffer's "Life Together" and realized I needed to print off materials so ended up taking the lunch hour to run around madly looking for a Kinkos which I ultimately found at a Marriott in the convention center. It cost $11 for parking for 30 minutes plus all the repro charges. I was extremely stressed and A managed to help me keep my cool. the breakout session went reasonably and I ended by reading Gal 3:26-29 with my own twist.
For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek,
there is neither slave nor free man,
there is neither male nor female,
neither rich nor poor,
neither citizen nor foreigner,
no S, L, G, B or T,
neither bear nor twink,
neither butch nor femme,
neither chicken nor old troll,
neither dyke nor queen;
for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise.
Ray Boltz performed Friday night and though I more or less liked his song "Thank you for giving to the Lord", his newer stuff is more powerful because it seems more authentic and closer to my own experience and trials.
Peter Gomes spoke to us Saturday morning and surpassed even the high expectations I had. I was privileged to join him for lunch with some of the other board members and he was a brilliant lunch companion, witty and joyful and lovely to spend time with.
Saturday evening we had the premiere of the film, "Through My Eyes". I thought that it thoughtfully and gently spoke to the issues of being gay and Christian from the mouths and life experiences of number of amazing young people, many who were present for the premiere. It was a profound experience. I look forward to more of this from Justin, the executive director at GCN.
Sunday we had an evangelist/pastor from an affirming pentecostal church located in Houston (!) preach a message. There is a wide diversity of faith traditions represented within GCN so I'm sure the style was challenging for some but I thought she was recieved well.
After the conference closed, I had a couple of hours before we went into a 3 hour board meeting and we simply shut down because we'd all run out of juice before the agenda got completed. A and I went out for supper at El Torito in Fullerton.
Monday, we checked out of the hotel and did a "Foothills to the Sea" tour of Los Angeles. We started out in Montclair and worked our way west to Glendora and Azusa where A lived when he was in High School. We had lunch at the Norm's in Azusa before heading east on I10 to downtown LA and then up the 101 to Hollywood. We found the place on Hollywood Blvd where he did one of his significant early acting jobs (with a full frontal nude scene, no less!). We worked our way west by the Kodak and Grauman theatres and jumped down to Sunset Blvd for the long, lazy drive through Beverly Hills, Bellaire, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades and the sea.
We stopped at Santa Monica pier and played in the water before shopping for souveniers. We then drove further down the coast to Venice Beach where we played in the water more and took the opportunity to lay out on the sand in the sun. The temps were in the mid 80's due to the Santa Ana's that had been going all weekend. The city was cleared of smog and visibility was fantastic.
We drove on down to the airport and turned the rental car in and checked in for our flights. The plane was nearly empty so I got bumped to first class. A had an empty seat next to him in coach so he was content. We got home and collected our bags. A had misplaced the slip that told him where he'd parked the car at the long-term lot but after traipsing about a bit we located it and drove home.
I loved the conference (as per usual) and every year it improves in terms of speakers, performances and break-out sessions. We had over 300 registrants this year, breaking our streak of nearly doubling attendance every year. But it's good. We have a number of decisions to make about next year. The location is already fixed: Nasville. Now we have to sort out everything else: who will lead the effort, speakers, performers, topics, and so forth.
In retrospect, the highlights for me were hearing Peter Gomes and being able to spend some time with him (my copy of "The Good Book" is now autographed!) and hearing Ray Boltz perform. His newer stuff really speaks to me. One of the highlights always is being able to reconnect people I've shared my journey with these past 6 years. Imagine Emma Thompson in "Love, Actually" speaking about Joni Mitchell when I say, "I love them!"