From July 12: News from the 77th General Convention of the Episcopal Church

Dear People of Christ Church,

Prayers today for the wrap up of the 77th General Convention of the Episcopal Church. For the last week-plus, representatives from every diocese in the Episcopal Church (which includes Episcopalians both in the US and parts of the Caribbean, Latin America, and Europe) voted on a raft of resolutions and elections to keep the church moving into the twenty first century strong and focused. A few highlights:

+ the adoption of resolutions D019 and D002 that incorporate “gender identity and expression” into the non-discrimination canons for access to the ordination process and lay participation in The Episcopal Church—see some lovely work on the transepiscopal blog on that and check out the Out of the Box short documentary on youtube if you haven’t seen it

+Votes in favor of “positive investment” in Palestine (not divestment in Israel as some have called for) as well as a resolution asking bishops and dioceses to raise money for the Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza, whose United Nations funding was unexpectedly cut in May.

+ Formation of the nomination committee for the next Presiding Bishop, as Katharine Jefferts Schori’s term ends at the next GC, including our own Bishop Tom Shaw and Canon Mally Lloyd; Election of our own dioMA (and state representative from Roxbury) Byron Rushing to the vice president of the House of Deputies (the other side from the house of bishops in our bi-cameral electoral system; the HoD has priests, deacons, and lay people from across the church)

+Conversation and vote (but no timeline for action) to sell the Episcopal Church Center (815 Second Ave, New York City)

+Budgets, budgets, budgets!
+The adoption of the trial liturgy for The Witnessing and Blessing of a Lifelong Covenant (i.e., the blessing of same gender unions) which may be used as a liturgy for the celebration and blessing of a (legal) marriage in states like ours. The resolution has a provision that requires a bishop’s permission to perform the rite (so in dioceses where the bishop is against it, the clergy will not be allowed to do it). Our diocese has officially permitted same sex unions for many years (and since Advent of 2009 we’ve been allowed to officiate at same sex marriages), so it’s nice to have the rest of the church catching up, while more conservative places are still in dialogue. The liturgy was well-received amongst participants—an ENS article reported that The Rev. Jack Zamboni, New Jersey, recalled playing the part of the “groom” in a test run of the liturgy. “My reaction after having participated in that liturgy was that I wished [my wife] and I had had this liturgy when we were married six years ago. It’s a wonderful piece of liturgical work.” To see some of the excellent work the team did on the “theology of blessing” you can download the whole text of the resolution and supporting materials from the blue book at http://www.generalconvention.org/gc/prepare
So there’s the news from Indianapolis—and a lot more than that happened, too! I encourage you to check out the links listed to hear from the folks who were actually there.

Blessings,

Sara+