Today was the day that had been written about, theorized about, wondered about, and worried about.

These are my memories of it:

*Sitting in a row of very hard metal folding chairs for about three hours, precipitating the killer backache I currently have.

* In that row was a dear friend, his spouse, a new friend, a seminary colleague of mine, and about 10 other brothers and sisters in Christ to whom I am connected but do not know personally.

*At the beginning of the proceedings, our Moderator led us through a very meaningful guided prayer in which each of us was asked to imagine walking in through the front doors of our churches, walking up to the Table, touching the Table, cherishing the Table, and laying the deep concerns and longings of our hearts on that Table, therefor rendering them to Christ. I was crying such tears of longing and hope for our Church during this time.

*About halfway through the discussion, while some technical glitches were being dealt with, the Moderator led us through a verse and chorus of Revive Us Again:
We thank thee, O God,
for the the Son of Thy Love,
For Jesus who died
and is now gone above,
Hallelujah, thine the glory
Hallelujah, Amen.
Hallelujah, thine the glory
Revive us again.

*The Yad from my Presbytery, with whom I had had dinner with the night before and lunch with today before the proceedings, got to speak during the discussion time. She was poised, concise, clear, and very intelligent. (And she never said "like".) I was very proud of her, and made a point to find her after she spoke and offered her a hug and words of encouragement. We've got to encourage the next generation, after all.

* After the vote, we broke rather spontaneously into small groups, circles of Presbyterians all over that huge exhibit hall. We held hands with our sisters and brothers, we prayed silently, and after about ten minutes, a soft chorus of Kum Ba Ya could be heard.

* The woman, unknown to me, who held my left hand sobbed all through the prayer time. When we finished, I put my hand on her shoulder, to try to comfort her. She did not respond to my touch. She just cried harder. I felt really badly for her.