Apri 25 - A Seminarian

Over the years, I have known some seminaries had a class on General Conference. The professor conducted lectures during the semester General Conference occurs, accompanied the students to the site, held seminars and discussion sessions with various denominational leaders, and then reviewed the students’ experiences. They usually sat together in one of the grandstands.

This year, a seminarian contacted me before coming to Tampa and requested a little time to get acquainted and then to interview me for her class. She was very interested in one of my petitions and wanted to learn more about why I wrote it.

The petition in question called for the denomination to set up a review body that would allow independent examination of past personnel cases. The intent of the petition was to provide what the NTSA and other similar bodies do when there is a tragedy. Such evaluation would allow for rule changes and improvements so that similar tragedies would not occur again.

I have put in similar petitions for many quadrennia with no luck. But I was honored that she was interested.

So we let each other know what we looked like and where we might look to find each other.

We met late Wednesday morning, talked a bit, and arranged for an interview at the end of the week. She and her class would be leaving before the end of the conference.