General Convention

Today is the first day of the national church's gathering in Anaheim, CA, of the General Convention-representatives from all over the church will gather to talk about legislation, policy, and politics from all corners of the church. The Diocese of Massachusetts sends a deputation-eight elected deputies (four priests and four lay persons, plus alternates) and three bishops. When we gather as a national church, each diocese has the opportunity to bring resolutions for consideration to the wider church. I'll re-distribute here some pieces from Tracy Sukraw, the director of communications for our diocese. For links to other news sources, see below.

Tracy writes,
The more than 300 resolutions filed to date span worship and liturgy, economic justice issues, global concerns, Anglican Communion matters, ecumenical and inter-religious relations and church governance. They include requests for rites of blessing for same-gender unions; poverty relief proposals; increased church antiracism efforts, human rights advocacy and environmental policies; continued support for the Millennium Development Goals; peacemaking efforts in world conflict areas; and requests to overturn, nullify or supersede the controversial 2006 resolution B033, which called for "restraint" in electing openly gay bishops.

What it all adds up to, according to the Rev. Jane Gould, a Massachusetts deputy and the rector of St. Stephen's Church in Lynn, is "a chance to offer a vision of who we are and how God invites us into God's mission of love and justice in the world. At our best the particularity of our experience as individual Episcopalians and Episcopal parishes feeds our communal commitments as a church, and then our broad vision inspires and sustains us to stay with the work of the kingdom at the local level." "The advantage of being both democratic and hierarchical is that we can gather the people of the church in public assembly and speak for the church," she said by e-mail.

[Ian Douglas] submitted two resolutions, one which not only restores the 0.7 percent line item in support of the Millennium Development Goals (established as a church priority in 2006 but eliminated in the current draft budget) but also ups it to 1 percent. His other resolution, in part, invites the Episcopal Church to devote Lent 2010 to penitential reflection on the brokenness of the global economic order and its reformation in the light of the Gospel.

Other Massachusetts resolutions coming before the General Convention are a request from Bishop Bud Cederholm that parishes be required to report on annual energy consumption in church properties; diocesan resolutions asking for a trial feast day for saints Andronicus and Junia; gender-neutral terminology in the church's marriage canon; and an amendment to include the category of gender identity and expression in the canon on access to the ministry discernment process. A resolution submitted by Byron Rushing [whose name you may recognize as he serves as a state representative] calls the church to support the enactment of laws prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity and expression and treating as hate crimes any physical violence inflicted on that basis.

Many will be paying close attention to what the church does on matters of sexuality, but as you can see from the list above, there is a lot more going on than just that. One positive sign of the wider communion "getting on with it" is a recent letter to the American Church written by Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul of the Sudan, underscoring the importance of partnership between the two churches. Archbishop Bul made headlines during last year's Lambeth conference for declaring in a press conference that Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire should resign. Despite his disagreement with American attitudes toward sexuality (which, incidentally, were not mentioned in the text), he concluded the letter with prayers of blessing for the Episcopal Church and the Church of the Sudan, and hopes for continued help in surviving the conflict there. In her opening address, Bonnie Anderson, the head of the House of Deputies (that's the house that is half lay people and half priests/deacons) quotes our own Byron Rushing as saying, "The church does not have a mission, God's mission has a Church." Thanks be to God that we are each part of that mission!

Blessings,
Sara+

General Convention Links
The official General Convention Hub from the National Episcopal Church, which has lots of articles and video, and the site from the Massachusetts Deputation both offer regular updates on goings-on, as well as Episcopal Life, which offers more traditional articles than blog entries.

For the full text of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori's opening address, click here, and for for the article on Bishop Bul, click here. Finally, if you only read one thing, see the opening address from Bonnie Anderson, the President of the House of Deputies, here.