Asilomar

I'm sitting in one of those big camp living room kinds of things, with a huge fireplace, and a bunch of peole sitting in chairs, and lots of activity around. I'm at Asilomar, the conference center in Pacific Grove, CA, on the ocean, near Monterey. I'm at the Annual meeting of the Northern California Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ. I'm skipping out on the business meeting, since I'm not a delegate, and I pretty much know how those sorts of things go, I don't feel like I need to experience it. It seems like this would be a great place to do conferences. I'm not so sure I would like this place as a general vacation sort of spot - although apparently, people do that.

It's been interesting, and mostly fun. It's interesting to meet a wide range of people, both people who are lay leaders of their congregations, as well as clergy and other students (I met a student from Yale Divinity - her home church is in Northern California.) The theme for the conference has been "Covenant." An incredibly pleasant surprise was an amazing presentation/liturgy/worship service from Marcia McFee, who is a worship leader Extraordinare. She is incredibly imaginative, and she makes being thoughtful and deep a lot of fun, and packs an incredible amount of wisdom in what she does. Why it was such a surprise was that she is a member of my church, and I had no idea that this was her work!

Tomorrow, I go to PSR graduation, to volunteer, and see some friends off. Plus I get to hear Ann Lamott speak, which I'm looking forward to.  

technorati tags: ucc, conference, worship, psr