So, the Task force on Reimagining the Episcopal Church (TREC, to insiders) has invited Episcopalians to a one day conference on October 7.
Wonderful!
It will be held at the Washington National Cathedral.
Holding such an event at the very heart of the power and privilege of American culture and civil religion speaks volumes. It’s incredibly difficult for people to imagine an alternative vision of the church in such a setting.
Perhaps the restructuring process will be successful but if conference organizers and members of the task force are blind to the symbolic power of choices like where to hold such events, I fear they are also going to be blind to possible directions the Holy Spirit might be leading us.
Having the event in Detroit, for example, would send a very different message.
Preaching Grace on the Square 
Yes, come to Michigan to re-imagine the Episcopal Church! I am all for it.
If location were so important, it would be better to put this where the church is growing – somewhere in the Sun Belt – like Nashville, Atlanta, or Houston. TREC has really listened and done hard work. Putting this meeting on the internet is far more important than where it’s happening live.
Symbols are important; so is location. An east coast conference is difficult, time-consuming, and expensive for people west of the Mississippi to attend. And it’s all well and good to provide a webcast. It would much more effective, and not out of reach technologically, to allow conversation from the periphery to the center (isn’t that one of the aims of re-structuring in the first place?).