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I don’t know if the Episcopal Church, U.S.A, is good news to the working poor, but I plan to be in one small way while I’m here in Columbus.

And I invite you to join me.

Like many of you, I’m staying in a local hotel. I plan to leave $5 on my nightstand each morning for the housekeeping staff.

By the time General Convention is over next Thursday, I will have left $55. Not a big deal to me--much less than what I would have paid for airport parking.

No, not a big deal to me, and not a big deal if I’m the only one doing this.

But do the math: They say that General Convention will draw close to 12,000 people to Columbus over the next 10 days. Organizers of the Convention are preparing worship leaflets for 8,000. Not all stay the whole time, of course, and not all spend the night in hotels.

So let’s take a conservative number and say 5,000 people are spending the night here and let’s say they spend at least five nights.

If 5,000 people leave $5 a night, we inject $25,000 of cash directly into the hands of the working poor each morning; multiply that times five nights, and it adds up to $125,000 by the time we leave.

A less conservative (but completely possible) scenario: If those same 5,000 people leave $5 a night for 10 nights, we inject a quarter of a million dollars into the working poor’s economy.

And let’s look at it from the perspective of a housekeeper: Those at the hotel I’m staying in clean 15 rooms a day. If each hotel guest on his or her floor left $5, that housekeeper would take home $75 each day.

If the housekeeper is making $7.75 an hour ($2.60 an hour above the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour), he or she is bringing home more in our tips than in wages. If that worker is making minimum wage, we’re almost doubling his or her pay.

Actions speak louder than words, and I suggest that this simple action--leaving five bucks on the nightstand each night--is a lot more meaningful and powerful than any carefully worded resolution affirming the poor or claiming solidarity with them.

For extra credit, follow the recommendations of those posting to the HoB/D list serve to interact with the housekeepers--to say hello, to seek and serve Christ in the face of those who would otherwise be invisible to us.

But as nice as a smile and a warm hello are, they don’t buy diapers or milk. So I’m leaving the five bucks each morning, whether I see the recipient or not.

It’s a small price to pay to be good news to the working poor.