Well, it was only a matter of time before it was my turn to have COVID. I brought it home from General Convention as a souvenir, as it turned out. The first few days were pretty rough, but with rest and antivirals, I was back on my feet earlier this week and back in the office yesterday. My only lingering symptom is fatigue, but that, too, will pass. Thank you for the prayers and kind words as I took my turn with this lovely virus.
I had intended to reflect on General Convention last week, but my illness did not allow for that. I returned from Baltimore, Maryland late Tuesday night at the conclusion of a shortened and delayed General Convention. Originally scheduled for 2021, the pandemic caused a year’s delay in the hopes things would improve. They did, only to become more problematic again. In response, the planning team shortened the convention from its original nine days down to four. They also eliminated everyone who was not critical for the Church to do business, meaning only Bishops, Deputies, and first alternates could attend. The Triennial ECW conference was cancelled, and there were no vendors or visitors allowed.
Even so, the Episcopal Church’s General Convention remains one of the largest deliberative bodies in the country. With more than 800 voting deputies in the House of Deputies, and approximately 200 voting bishops in the House of Bishops, it was quite a crowd! Our founders were many of the same people who founded the United States, so we share a bicameral system of government that requires two houses to concur on any legislation. The House of Deputies is akin to the US House of Representatives, with four clergy and four lay deputies from every diocese in the Church. The House of Bishops, which has more stability is often likened to the US Senate.
This shortened format meant that we heavily used our daily consent calendars. On the first legislative day there must have been over 100 resolutions. In order to ensure a quick work flow the only way to pull a resolution off the consent calendar required 1/3 of the House to vote in favor. That is a high bar, so we only pulled one or two resolutions off consent calendar. Much of what we voted for via consent calendar was benign and straightforward, but I suspect we will all discover items we weren’t aware we were in favor of between now and the next General Convention. Nothing nefarious, just items that might have required more deliberation and massaging of language. Instead, the committees that receive resolutions and draft final versions were trusted to do good and deliberative work, which is usually the case.
There was not a great deal of controversy at this General Convention, nor was there any ground shaking new developments in the life of the Church. There was some energy in the House of Deputies around women’s health following the recent Supreme Court ruling that affects Roe V. Wade. For example, there were a few resolutions that sought to factor in a state’s abortion laws when choosing future sites for the Convention. Sometimes the language was a step further than the Episcopal Church has previously gone, but the Church’s stance has not changed. We remain “prayerfully pro-choice”.
We also didn’t see a monumental change to liturgical and prayer book revision, however, we did take a step that preserves the importance of the Book of Common Prayer and the process required to change it. Liturgical revision affects both canons and the Constitution of the Church. The latter requires two votes of the General Convention, while a convention can approve certain liturgies as a canonical change at one convention. We preserved the model that would require full approval over two conventions, while also allowing for a robust process to produce and affirm new texts and liturgies for trial use. We are quickly becoming aware that the Church’s Book of Common Prayer is no longer a single book, but rather has elements that are in electronic form or other resources. In time, we will have to decide how we refer to all of our liturgical texts and get them “under one banner”. As was noted, “The Website of Common Prayer” just doesn’t have the same ring to it. Nonetheless, there is a great love for our Book, and it is not going anywhere. The full book is not up for revision quite yet.
Racial justice was a recurring theme at this Convention. The Episcopal Church has been addressing race consistently for decades, and this Convention got specific about a few things. We will be studying our own history to see where enslaved persons were owned by the Church. We know the Church owned slaves, and that members certainly owned slaves, but there has never been any research done to figure out just how much the church benefited from slave labor as an institution. The Church has also established a source of funding to continue work around racial healing and equity by tapping a portion of the Episcopal Church’s endowment fund.
We also addressed the Church’s role in facilitating “Indian Schools” in the 19th and early 20th Century, and heard from a number of native persons about their own experiences or the experiences of family members. These schools were often boarding schools where indigenous children were sent after being taken away from their families. Their purpose was to strip away their native heritage and make them western whites in behavior and thinking. In many such schools there were forms of abuse, and many children died. Corporal punishment was a part of the process as well. The Episcopal Church was not a major player in this movement, but we were a part of it. Again, the Church is doing a formal study to understand what we did do and identify ways to make amends for the damage done. I will say that I recently learned about these Indian Schools and how terrible they were, and it is a reality check on our history to study such things. I am glad we’re acknowledging this history as a Church.
One of the most historic things to come out of this Convention was the elections of the new President and Vice President of the House of Deputies. Those positions may not mean much to the average Episcopalian. We’re more familiar with the Presiding Bishop, however, the persons who lead the House of Deputies have a great impact on the Episcopal Church as well! The Rev. Gay Jennings has served as President for the last nine (ten with the delayed convention) years. In her place we continued the tradition of electing a lay person, and have elected the first lay woman of color to that office, Julia Ayala Harris, a Latina deputy from the Diocese of Oklahoma. We also elected the first indigenous person to serve as Vice President, a woman by the name of Rachael Taber-Hamilton, who is also an ordained priest. This is the first pair of women to serve in these roles together, and the first time two BIPOC (black, indigenous, and people of color) persons have served in these rolls together. With our Presiding Bishop it is the first time in Church history that both presiding officers are people of color as well.
The last item I’ll single out was the Convention’s vote to allow the Diocese of Texas and the Episcopal Church in North Texas (formerly known as the Diocese of Fort Worth, prior to a large exodus within that diocese) to combine under the leadership of the Bishop of Texas. It was an emotional moment for everyone involved, and they were so grateful to have a pastoral home for the Episcopalians who remain in that part of Texas. It was a unanimous vote, and the House stayed on its feet in applause for a long time afterward.
It was a good and faithful, if strange, convention. It was a lot of work. We started at 8:30 am each day and ended at 9:30 pm each day, with breaks for lunch and dinner. We also tended to have Deputation meetings over meals or after we closed for the day to make sure we knew what was coming up on the next agenda. I enjoyed seeing folks from other parts of the country that I know from seminary or the other dioceses I’ve served in,
and it was an honor to represent the Diocese of Georgia. For many, General Convention doesn’t matter much. Sometimes, however, what happens at General Convention very much affects life in the pews. I am grateful to have had a front row seat to a little bit of history making, no matter how minor. This was my first time serving as a full Deputy. I’ve attended four previous conventions as an alternate deputy, and several more as a guest in various roles (for Sewanee, for example). This one will always be unique. I remain proud to be an Episcopalian!
Tom+
Gracious Father, we pray for thy holy Catholic Church. Fill it with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in any thing it is amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake of Jesus Christ thy Son our Savior. Amen.