The convention met October 19-21 in Post Falls, Idaho.

Bonnie Anderson, president of the House of Deputies, was the guest speaker and preacher for the convention. She challenged delegates to consider their own call and gifts that form a response to the promises of the Baptismal Covenant.

In his address, Bishop James Waggoner described the process of making bread as one of mixing ingredients together. When the ingredients sit separately on the kitchen counter, he said, they do not make bread.

"The question is: How do we become bread? It is by being willing to get into the mix of things. To bring ourselves, our gifts, our souls and bodies -- what we have to offer -- to the mix."
 
He pointed to a focus on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Jubilee Centers, mission trips and an endowment campaign that raised money to help fund mission as ways the diocese is working to become bread.

"To get into the mix -- to become bread -- we will and can lose ourselves. To become bread is to be blessed, broken and distributed. It calls us to exchange our own agenda for God's. That can be scary and even painful. To become bread is to be kneaded, stretched, rolled, reshaped."

Anderson addressed delegates twice on the importance of mission. In one address, she led delegates through the implications of the promises Episcopalians make in the Baptismal Covenant. In the second she discussed the reconciling mission of the church, especially through the achievement of the MDGs, and how people might find their calling within that mission.

"Our common life as the church, our relationship to the whole of society, are significant parts of our life as a people called to mission by our baptism," she said. "The balance between proclamation and service is an important one for us to maintain and it is important that we, as a church and as individuals committed to our call to mission, not be divided between proclamation and service."

Anderson also led workshops with delegates, preached at the October 21 Eucharist, met with newly elected General Convention deputies and alternates, met with youth, and with Waggoner led a plenary conversation on issues in the wider Episcopal Church.

During her homily, Anderson said people are in for a surprise if they engage in the mission of the church only to be givers.

"If we think that mission work is one way we are wrong. If we think that we are the 'givers' and 'they' are the 'receivers,' we are wrong. If we think that 'they' have nothing to give us, we are wrong," she said. "Beside the fact that our very salvation depends upon this work, we will receive much more than we give. At the very core of our humanity we are connected.

"We are, as the African word describes so well, 'ubuntu' -- in relationship, connected -- I am because you are. Once our faith is sure in our hearts and we have answered the questions of why we are doing this anyway, we become a people of mission and our mission understanding is internalized. It is a part of us. It is part of who we are, of our identity as followers of Christ, our identity as Episcopalians. Once we take our baptismal promises seriously as if our life depends upon it (which it does), we cannot be anything else but a people of mission."

Convention delegates received a report from a task force formed in 2004 to study same-gender marriage. The task force recommended that the diocese "seek a format that will recognize the reality of committed same-sex relationships." The task force did not reach a consensus on whether that format should be called marriage.

The 30-page report was discussed at a hearing, but no formal action was taken by the convention. Task force chair Ron Large said he hoped the report would give members of the diocese opportunities for faithful and prayerful dialogue.

The report begins on page 31 of the pre-convention report available here.

Delegates adopted a resolution urging ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child by the United States Senate. Other resolutions addressed minor changes to the constitution of the diocese, updating language and terminology.

The Episcopal Diocese of Spokane comprises 6,000 Episcopalians worshipping in 42 congregations in Eastern Washington and North Idaho.