As the host congregation for this week’s 2024 General Church Assembly, you will start seeing new, friendly faces turning up from all around the world. There are 952 registered attendees, 181 of which are children with 83 of the total registrants coming from one of 12 different countries outside the US. We will have New Church families attending from 28 different US states. In the span of two short days, 57 workshops will be offered with other fun, recreational activities being offered on four different campuses during the day and in the evening (BA College, ANC, Cathedral, BACS). The Assembly will conclude on Sunday with a Community Worship Service, which is open to all. Some other fun facts I’m not going to be able to get out of my head anytime soon are these – 1,200 hotdogs, 2,160 hard-boiled eggs, 3,000 cups of coffee, 240 pounds of short ribs, and 1,040 pounds of chicken will be consumed over this three-day weekend. It’s obviously no small thing to organize an event of this magnitude and hopefully at some point after the Assembly all the folks who have worked behind the scenes and given a tremendous amount of their time, energy and enthusiasm to this event will be appropriately acknowledged and thanked. Lastly, thank you to Bishop Buss and his GC team for the herculean task of organizing another GC Assembly, the last one being 13 years ago in 2011.