May 1 - The Demonstration?

Late in the afternoon on Tuesday, as the plenary was winding down, suddenly the central aisle in the back of the floor was filled with people wearing rainbow stoles, carrying signs about rights for homosexuals.

A friend leaned over to me and said, “That’s awful timing!”

As the demonstrators surrounded the communion table in the middle of the floor, the bishop offered a prayer with conciliatory elements about the demonstrators in it and adjourned the meeting. There would be nothing occurring in the room for three or four more hours.

Earlier in the day, members of that group had processed quietly between the stands and the bar of the conference wearing their rainbow stoles and carrying their signs. I recognized and counted as friends a number of the demonstrators. The procession drew quiet attention from the visitors. While I noticed many in the visitor stands stood in silent solidarity as the procession went by (I was already standing mainly because I had not found a seat at that point). The plenary was not disturbed in any way. I did not notice if any of the delegates, even the ones wearing a rainbow stole, stood.

It seemed to me that there were rainbow stoles everywhere.

There were also light blue stoles worn mostly by delegates. Those had been distributed at the opening ceremony’s Communion Service, if I remember correctly. I saw no conflict between wearing of the two. Some folks actually did.

I had my red jacket but I didn’t have either kind of stole.