Updates from the 80th General Convention of The Episcopal Church, July 8-11, 2022.
Where are we going?
At the end of every General Convention, someone always asks the question: What will the legacy of this Convention be? It’s a way of asking where we’re going as a church, and how does the actions of this Convention get us a little further down that road? Everyone will have their own list, I suppose. But there are a handful of things that stand out to me and excite me for the future of The Episcopal Church.
Racial Reckoning
One of Presiding Bishop Curry’s main priorities is racial reconciliation. Reconciliation is not just about saying we’re sorry and moving on. It must be a deeper and more sincere process of uncovering the whole truth, repenting, and making amends. If we do this right (that is to say, God’s way), we are a witness to a world that is struggling with this very thing.
This Convention did many things to get us further down this road of reconciliation. First, Resolution A125 established and funded the Episcopal Coalition of Racial Equity and Justice, a voluntary association of provinces, dioceses, parishes, and individuals committed to doing this hard work of reconciliation and dismantling white supremacy. As a church, we have much work to do on this front.
We also committed ourselves to uncovering the truth about indigenous boarding schools. Resolution A127 commits us as a church to this work. Easily one of the most moving moments of the Convention was hearing testimony from victims and the families of victims.
New Leadership
Perhaps the most newsworthy item was the election of a new President and Vice President of the House of Deputies. It is the first time in history that the House is led by two women (until 1970, women were not allowed to serve as deputies). As we continue down the road of racial reckoning, it is significant that President Ayala Harris is the first Latina and youngest person ever in that post, and Vice President Taber-Hamilton is an indigenous woman. But beyond them, I saw firsthand that the leadership of the church overall is becoming more reflective of who we are. We are more diverse in every way, and that is a good thing, indeed. As one of the younger deputies there, I was grateful for the opportunity to participate in meaningful ways.
Another moving moment came after the vote to approve the consent calendar. Resolution D080 allows for the Diocese of Navajoland to call their own bishop–the first time ever they will be allowed to do so.
Finally, in a church that has been dealing with schism and its effects for several decades, it was such a moment of healing and joy to approve the reuniting of the Episcopal Diocese of North Texas to the Diocese of Texas. North Texas, formerly known as Ft. Worth, left The Episcopal Church over issues of sexuality, and those who stayed lost everything, even their name. As one deputy said, the cost of inclusion and justice is a high one. Resolution D050 reunites that diocese with Texas. This will further their process of healing, and I suspect we’re going to see some significant growth in that part of the diocese.
General Convention, itself
A final legacy of the 80th General Convention will be the reforms made to how we do business at General Convention. Significantly, we changed the budget process through Resolution A048. Our current budget process is unnecessarily complicated, so this resolution is naturally complicated, as well. This resolution simplifies the budget process from start to finish to make sure we are able to fund our priorities, and it gets rid of unnecessary elements in the process that only served to gum up the system.
Finally, Resolution A138 amends the House rules to allow Convention to start earlier through the use of online meetings. This may seem small, but it’s a huge legacy. It means we will have online meetings in advance of Convention (as we did this year). I see two consequences of this resolution. First, Convention can be shorter, maybe only one week. This means more lay folks will have the opportunity to participate. Second, more folks will be able to testify to resolutions. No longer does one have to go to General Convention in order to be heard on any given matter. One can sign up to testify online. More people are being brought into the governance of the Church, and that’s something to be excited about.
So where are we going? This legacy suggests we are seeking to become more honest about our past and to make a more just church for the future. We are being more deliberate about trying to represent all Episcopalians in our leadership. And we’re trying to make common sense reforms to make our governance more responsive, accountable, and transparent. Thanks be to God.
Overall, I trust we’re going exactly where the Holy Spirit is leading us. May God grant us the courage to follow and the grace to accomplish what we’re being called to do.
Gavel Down
Today was the final day of General Convention. Normally it takes 10 days to do our business. We did our business this time in 3.5 days. Historic, indeed. We leave this convention wondering what future conventions will look like. Will they be 3.5 days? Certainly not. We need a little more time than that. But we have proven, definitively, that we do not need the customary 10 days.
Given our short calendar today, I was not surprised when a deputy moved to reconsider A138. I wrote about this resolution yesterday. It allows us to hold hearings online ahead of General Convention. It’s a good idea, but not all the deputies thought so. We reconsidered in order to amend the resolution. First, we clarified that only virtual meetings (or what the resolution clumsily calls ‘electronic’ meetings) need to be recorded and live streamed. Second, we clarified that anyone can sign up to testify up to the day of the hearing. I was against that amendment, because it does not give our committees enough time to plan well for guests. As sometimes happens, I was outvoted.
Regardless, A138 is a good and important resolution. In the past, committee meetings have only been held at General Convention. Not only does that mean we require more time (the customary 10 days), but it also means that in order to testify one must have the ability and means to travel to the Convention. Now, anyone can testify. This is bringing more folks into the governance of the Church, and that is a good thing, indeed.
From there, we considered a series of courtesy resolutions. These resolutions thank certain persons and groups for their contributions to the Convention and Church. Among those thanked were the Presiding Bishop, the outgoing President of the House of Deputies, and the (new) President of the House of Deputies.
We closed our time, as is customary, with remarks from the President. President Jennings has served this Church faithfully for 10 years. Because of her intentional inclusion of young deputies, I was given the privilege of serving as an assistant secretary on the Agencies & Boards Committee. I learned a lot, and I’m grateful I was able to serve in that way. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, however. Her contributions cannot be listed here. (One significant contribution I learned about yesterday was her leadership in ensuring the Church did away with the statute of limitations for clergy abuse.) I will say this: I am grateful for her, and confident her good work will continue.
Significantly, after President Jennings adjourned, she handed the gavel to our new President Ayala Harris. She is the first Latina woman to lead our house. She is a faithful Christian and a lauded leader; I look forward to seeing her at work.
In a couple of days, I’ll try to write some closing thoughts. But for now, I will say I am filled with much gratitude for the opportunity to be here. Arkansas had a wonderful deputation, and I hope we did the folks back home proud.
Prayer Book and Budgets and Saints, oh my!
It is on days like today that I know I love this work. We considered a whole host of resolutions, from the tedious to the attention-grabbing. As an example, the first resolution for today was A048, a complicated resolution that gives us some much needed changes to our budget process. That was immediately followed by C023, which calls on the Church to commemorate the episcopal ordination of the late Rt. Rev. Barbara C. Harris. Unlike the previous budget resolution, this resolution has garnered much attention and excitement. To me they were both exciting. This is fun work!
Today was repeatedly like that–the tedious and “boring” followed by the attention-grabbing and exciting. Some of those less exciting resolutions were about needed constitutional changes, sometimes simply to correct a word. But those are important, because it’s important our constitution and canons are right. Others were attention-grabbing, including A059, which amends Article X and will be an important step in our prayer book revision process.
There’s been a good bit of buzz about A059. The resolution will amend Article X of our constitution: Of the Book of Common Prayer. From my reading, the amendment makes it clear that General Convention has the authority to authorize revisions and additional rites, and defines the Book of Common Prayer as “those liturgical forms and other texts authorized by the General Convention in accordance with this article and the Canons of this Church.” In other words, the BCP is more than just what’s between the covers of the prayer book. It also includes other authorized rites, many of which I use with great regularity in my own ministry (the Book of Occasional Services, for example).
Opponents of A059 believe that the resolution will allow us to piecemeal revise the Prayer Book, and that in that process, we will lose something important that comes with wholesale revision. They worry the Prayer Book as we know it will cease to exist. I disagree with them. The Prayer Book is not going anywhere, and indeed, we have already been engaged in piecemeal revision for decades. If anything, this resolution clarifies the authority of General Convention to do what it’s been doing: provide revisions along the way as they are needed. It keeps the Prayer Book responsive to our needs as a Church, and keeps it from becoming an historical artifact a la England’s 1662 Book. The truth is, I love the Prayer Book. This resolution helps ensure we keep it responsive to what we need.
We also passed a budget, Resolution A228. It’s a good budget–but as mentioned above, we desperately need our budget process revised and we’re working on doing just that. During the course of debate, an amendment was proposed that would decrease the 15% diocesan assessment (what dioceses pay to the larger Church) to 14.75%, and direct the Executive Council to figure out how to get the assessment to 10% by 2030. I voted against the amendment because it would be irresponsible to change the assessment immediately and make up the difference by drawing from reserve funds. That’s not what reserve funds are for. But we do need to get the assessment to 10% (maybe by 2040 or so). Passing that resolution in dioceses this year should be the next step.
A couple other notes. As I mentioned yesterday, we’re a changing church. And it’s a good thing. Today we elected the next Vice President of the House of Deputies: the Rev. Rachel Taber-Hamilton of the Diocese of Olympia. She will be the first ordained woman to serve in that role. She’s also an indigenous woman of the Shackan First Nation. With her election, the House of Deputies will be led for the first time by two women, both of whom are People of Color. That would not have been possible not that long ago. Consider that today we remembered in prayer women who have died who were duly elected but refused a seat in the House of Deputies as late as the 60s because of their gender.
Another resolution of consequence: A138. This resolution will mean we can have online hearings for legislation before General Convention. That means we’re going to hear from a lot more folks. This year, General Convention has 802 deputies. But over 2,500 people from across the Church testified in a committee hearing online. We’re hearing from more people, and that’s a good thing, indeed.
We also passed several resolutions relating to the Calendar of saints, in addition to the resolution about Bishop Harris. My fellow deputy from Arkansas Thomas Alexander worked hard on those resolutions, and he deserves some credit. Well done.
Tomorrow is the final day of this General Convention. I’m enjoying myself. I’ll conclude by asking for your prayers, not only for the end of our session, but also for the health of deputies. More are testing positive for Covid, but we have good systems in place to take care of them.
What Does the Church Look Like?
At the close of today’s long meeting, I’m left considering this question. What does the Church look like? I suppose there are three ways to consider this.
First, what is the perception of who makes up our Church? I mean this both among members of our own Church and among members of the public at-large. Generally, we are seen as old, white, rich, and established. There are reasons for this perception, many of which are rooted in the reality of our demographic profile. But we can also engage in some erasure of folks who have long been part of our wonderful Church. This leads to the second consideration.
Who actually makes up the Church? You can look up the demographic data. But the nature of demographic data in the aggregate is that we cover up details. For example, we cover up the fact that there are long standing dioceses full of indigenous peoples, or historic congregations made up primarily of racial and ethnic minorities, or droves of young people who have found shelter in our church because other churches told them who God made them to be was unacceptable and unholy, or thriving new ministries reaching out to Spanish-speaking folks. I am happy to report that General Convention is becoming steadily more reflective of this truer reality.
Third, who makes up the leadership of the Church? Our leadership is our face to the world. Our leaders matter. It matters whether our leadership as a whole is reflective of who we are as a whole. Does our leadership show this bigger picture of who we are, or the more simplistic picture of our makeup?
Today, General Convention had the opportunity to reflect on what we look like through our worship, elections, and a series of resolutions.
Our day began with worship, as it always does. Morning Prayer was led by a deputy from the Diocese of Puerto Rico. He led the prayers in his native language Spanish, and the readings and sermon were in English. The service bulletin was printed in both Spanish and English. It’s a reminder that our beloved prayers are not only prayed in English, because we are an international Church.
Elections for church-wide leadership took the morning (and more elections are coming tomorrow morning). We elected a diverse slate of people for several boards–diverse in terms of race, age, sex, gender expression, rural/urban, and province/diocese. Perhaps the most important election was the election of a new President of the House of Deputies, or the person who leads our house and the vice president of the Executive Council. We had the youngest and most racially/ethnically diverse slate ever. We elected an accomplished laywoman from Oklahoma, Julia Ayala Harris. I am very excited to see where her inspired and faithful leadership takes us. (For more on President-elect Ayala Harris, visit https://juliaayalaharris.com/).
A brief aside: This kind of broad diversity in our leadership is important for a simple reason. The Holy Spirit pours out gifts on all kinds and sorts of people. By making sure everyone has the chance for leadership regardless of those things that have long divided us, we are making sure we are hearing what God is telling us and honoring those gifts that the Spirit has abundantly poured out on the people of our Church “for such a time as this.”
Finally, we heard the report on the State of the Church, and passed a series of resolutions in response to their work. These resolutions are about where the Church is headed–learning lessons we have garnered from our time in pandemic, reassessing our parochial reports to ensure we’re getting the information we need, and relearning how we can determine a congregation’s vitality instead of just relying on average Sunday attendance. These resolutions are going to allow us to see the fullness of who we are as The Episcopal Church in all our diversity.
We often hear the narrative that our Church is dying. We’re not. Perhaps some old ways of doing Church are in our rearview mirror (or should be), but our future is an exciting one. I hope you won’t misunderstand me; we still have a ways to go. We need to continue to welcome folks into our churches and into our leadership. But there are signs of progress. With God’s help, let’s march on.
Holy Listening
Yesterday was a long day. We’re probably going to have some of those during this shortened convention.
The start of something big like this always has its challenges. Yesterday was no exception. The morning session was fraught with issues with the wi-fi. For context, the deputies have to have wi-fi to conduct business–to see the matter before the house and in some cases to vote. But flexibility is the name of the game and we got through with help from some unnamed tech experts.
We considered a whole host of resolutions yesterday. Many of them were on the consent calendar–a parliamentary tool that allows the convention to handle a whole bunch of (mostly uncontroversial) resolutions in a single vote. One difference in this convention is how resolutions are taken off the consent calendar for more robust and individual consideration. In the past, three deputies from the floor could ask for something to be removed. Finding three deputies in a body of 800+ is really easy to do. This time, due to the shortened schedule, taking something off the calendar requires a ⅓ vote of the house. That’s much harder to do. The increased threshold has upset some folks. Increasing the threshold for removing things makes us a more efficient body, however, and ensures we’ll get to that essential business we need to get to. My hope is that this experience might push the house to reconsider its rules of order for future (more normal) conventions.
Then there are moments when the parliamentary procedure and jockeying come to a halt, and deputies find themselves moved to tears. Holy listening happens. Yesterday brought us two such moments.
Resolution A226 remembered the recent shooting at St. Stephen’s Church in Vestavia Hills, Alabama. We honored the victims and their families. The deputation from the Diocese of Alabama addressed the house. Theirs is a diocese still grieving, reeling from this recent horror. Slowing down the legislative process to hear from them and to honor their Diocese was an important moment.
Another moving moment of holy listening happened with Resolution A127: a Resolution for Telling the Truth about The Episcopal Church’s History with Indigenous Boarding Schools. You’ve probably seen this issue in the news. For generations, indigenous children were stripped from their homes and families, and forced to live at boarding schools, many of which were operated by the Church. Abuse was rampant; cultural genocide was the name of the game; children were buried in unmarked graves. This resolution means The Episcopal Church will investigate its particular history with boarding schools.
Deputies from several deputations spoke: deputies from Navajoland, Idaho, South Dakota, Olympia, and others. These indigenous persons recounted the trauma endured by their families. One deputy recounted what happened to her as a child. Many of us found ourselves moved to tears by their testimonies.
And we paused to listen. Instead of using parliamentary procedure to dispense with the resolution and move on, the house continued to listen. We heard their stories. After all, the resolution is calling for truth-telling and listening. It is asking us to pause, to look, to listen for those ways in which the Church has engaged in, justified, and perpetrated horrors on indigenous peoples in the Name of God. Their stories were difficult to hear. But those 30 or so minutes were holy, indeed. We heard the Spirit speaking through our colleagues, calling us to repentance and amendment of life.
Repentance is not about just saying I’m sorry and moving on. True repentance takes time. It means being confronted by what we’ve done, coming to terms with it, and then making amends. Our collective hope is that this resolution starts that process for our indigenous brothers and sisters.
Come, Holy Spirit
And we’re off. I left my house in Stuttgart this morning at 2:30 am. I beat the TSA to the airport. Despite all the news of flight delays and cancellations, my early flights went off without a hitch. Thank God for that. Once in Baltimore, it was off to the convention center to complete registration. Again, nothing but smooth. Then lunch at the closest place I could find before checking into my hotel, taking a Covid test, and grabbing a nap. The rest of today consisted of a walk around the inner harbor to get to know Baltimore a little bit, a review of elections and legislation scheduled for tomorrow, and dinner with some of the Arkansas folks.
First, a little bit about General Convention. General Convention meets every three years; this is our 80th convention. We have two houses: a house of bishops and a house of deputies. The house of bishops is made up of bishops (obviously). The house of deputies is made up of lay persons, deacons, and priests from each diocese. In order for something to become an act of general convention, it has to pass both houses. Maybe this is reminding you of civics class? We consider a wide array of legislation dealing with a host of issues, and we pass a budget for the Church.
General Convention is set up this way deliberately. As an introduction to General Convention notes, “The legislative process of General Convention is an expression of The Episcopal Church’s belief that, under God, the Church is ordered and governed by its people: laity, deacons, priests, and bishops.” (For more, visit https://www.generalconvention.org/about.) Under God, we are ordered by all the people, representatives from each order of ministry.
But more than that, we believe that the Holy Spirit is at work when we all gather in this way to do the business of the church. If God is present when two or three are gathered, God is certainly present when hundreds of us gather: laity, deacons, priests, and bishops.
We often associate the Holy Spirit with spontaneity, the unexpected, surprise. And indeed, the Holy Spirit can be like that. Look at Acts on Pentecost when the Holy Spirit is poured out, like a violent wind with tongues of fire. Maybe we associate the Spirit with liturgies, like baptisms, confirmations, ordinations, the invocation of the Spirit at the Eucharist. We certainly should. But the Holy Spirit is also present in order, in good governance, in parliamentary procedure, and in business sessions. The Holy Spirit is at work bringing about good things for this Church, working through the legislative process, the calendar, voting procedures, and even Robert’s Rules. Our primary job as bishops and deputies is to discern prayerfully where the Holy Spirit is leading us as The Episcopal Church, and then to have the courage and grace to follow.
So pray for us. Pray that as we come together, we will be open to the movement of the Spirit in our midst. For we know the Spirit is at work, moving our motley crew of sinners–laity, deacons, priests, and bishops–down the path of grace and deeper into the way of love.
Why Am I Going to Baltimore?
On Thursday morning, I will head out bright and early for Baltimore in order to be a deputy from Arkansas to the 80th General Convention of The Episcopal Church. It is an opportunity for the entire Church to come together to pray, to worship, and to discern where the Spirit is leading us. We elect church-wide leadership, pass a budget, and consider a host of resolutions on a host of topics.
I was one of four clergy deputies from our diocese elected way back in February 2020. Since then, General Convention has been delayed one year and stripped down its bare bones due to Covid-19. Instead of nearly two weeks of legislative sessions, we have four days for essential business. Instead of only having committee hearings in-person, the committees have already completed their business online. Even with all of these delays, precautions, and innovations, I am very excited to go.
So, why am I going? Some folks would rather be tortured than sit through 10-hour legislative sessions days on end! A short answer is, I consider one of my gifts to be in administration and governance. This gives me the opportunity to exercise that gift for the good of you all, the Diocese, and the whole Church.
We are used to the local church we see–and what a gift our local parish is! But General Convention, diocesan conventions, and other gatherings remind us that we are part of a much bigger body. This is not a uniform body of like-minded people. There will be people and positions with whom I disagree, and that’s okay. This is the body that God has given us, and we are called to accept one another and to strive toward unity while respecting our diversity. This is why schism, or breaking ourselves apart, is such a deadly sin.
I ask your prayers for wisdom, grace, and traveling mercies for me, the whole deputation from Arkansas, and indeed for the whole Convention.
Storied Grace 