GC81's Last Day! 6/28/24

Dear friends,

Good morning on our last full day in Louisville! It’s been a remarkable week here; God’s people are energized for ministry, and we’re going to do our best to finish strong in our final moments of business. We’re back to timestamps and highlights from Friday at GC81.

8:30am

We begin our day in worship and prayer with the last service of Holy Eucharist together. We’re treated to the voices of our current and future Presiding Bishops, as Michael Curry celebrates and Sean Rowe preaches.

I often have a hard time remembering the details of sermons – even my own. But I do remember what I felt, if I was inspired, if I leave worship with a greater fullness and awareness of God’s Spirit in the midst of God’s people. Sean Rowe’s sermon today was one I will remember, or at least I will remember the clarity of the truth he offered us, a stirring and faithful Word to the Church. I can’t do it justice by recapping it – I’d encourage you to watch it here.

Scenes from Holy Eucharist

11:02am

We rise in prayer to start our session – “Alleluia,” we sing!

President Julia Ayala Harris offered us a considerate word on the difficult nature of our conversations and gathering. She also offered an apology to the House for the transition the other night between a hard series of conversations on Israel and Palestine and a lighter moment of levity with dance and music. Without a script, she displayed a gracious vulnerability in admitting that that moment may not have been how all of us had hoped. We’re doing heavy things here. We’re having holy disagreements. And we’re trying our best. I’m reminded that as baptized people, we do not vow to be perfect but to do all that we do with God’s help, turning back to God when we come up short. I admired the grace Julia demonstrated for all of us in her speech.

We then recognized our chaplain, the Rev. Lester Mackenzie for his continual work and inspiration as the House of Deputies Chaplain. The man is practically joy incarnate, and his delight in prayer and giving thanks is ever present in his abundant personality. We are a better House because of his efforts and leadership!

We recognized Russ Randall of Virginia for his integrity of leadership. He’s an eight-time deputy and was commended for his unwavering commitment to serving the Church here and with ministry with South Sudan with honesty, fairness, and a deep sense of responsibility.

We also recognized Scott Gunn of Southern Ohio. Scott is the Executive Director of Forward Movement and has been “instrumental” in forming disciples in this Church. He has served over many years at General Convention, and his blog and considerations of our resolutions are an invaluable service to our Church and people. Not many speak of the resurrection better than Scott, and his exceptional service to this Church was recognized with joy by the House.

11:31am

The Consent Calendar passes with lots of resolutions. It’s certainly worth our time after this General Convention to take a good look at the many things we’ve passed through this kind of action. Our deputation is committed to bringing presentations back to Idaho to keep everyone updated.

11:34am

We’re now hearing a presentation from the Episcopal Coalition for Racial Equity and Justice. This coalition is now its own 501C3 registered in New York. Its bylaws stipulate that 70% of its board shall be from historically underrepresented communities in the Episcopal Church. We look forward to the fruits of their labors and how our whole Church might be empowered by them to tell the truth about the history of white supremacy, our Church’s complicity in it, and how to bring deep healing that can only occur as a result of building community and justice. Learn more at episcopalcoalition.org.

11:40am

We have a celebratory special of order of business to attend to before lunch. These “happy” resolutions help honor the wishes of dioceses which have expressed the desire to merge and/or reunite, and General Convention has the responsibility of approving such junctures. These dioceses are the latest in the Episcopal Church to reimagine how to be the Church – quoting Presiding Bishop-Elect Rowe, deputies from the now-Diocese of the Great Lakes (formerly Eastern and Western Michigan) offered hope for other dioceses in the Church, saying that they learned how “to put certain things down” while coming to see more commonalities than differences between their now-united people.

These newly formed dioceses are a vision of hope for this Church – the future of God’s people is most certainly collaborative, perhaps more so than it has ever been. GC81 rejoiced with our friends from across the Church at their new reality.

12:06pm

We’re in recess – back at 2pm!

Lunch with some of the deputation from the Navajoland Missionary Diocese

2:00pm

As Frodo once said to Sam, “I am glad you are here with me. Here at the end of all things, Sam.”

A little dramatic for our purposes, maybe, but I’ll never miss a chance to give my beloved Lord of the Rings a slight nod. Moving on!

We’re in the final stretch now! We’ll see how much we get to – we do run the risk of making no comment on certain resolutions purely because of the time restraints.

We recognized the Committee on Credentials, including our own Sue Bolen! They’ve registered deputies all week. Well done all week, Sue! We also recognized the hard work of committees that we haven’t yet seen on the floor: World Mission, Evangelism and Future Church, Stewardship and Socially Responsible Investing (with Nancy Koonce!), Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations, Environmental Stewardship and Care of Creation, and Title III Ministry (yay Tammy Jones!).

2:22pm

Lunch got in the way of our special order of business from the morning, which included another diocesan union. Joining our friends from the Great Lakes in forming a new diocese were three in Wisconsin: the dioceses previously known as Milwaukee, Fond du Lac, and Eau Claire will be reunited as the Diocese of Wisconsin. Congrats, friends!

2:51pm

We now turn to B008 around the clarification of how liturgies are authorized for our prayer book. The key terms are “supplemental,” “alternative,” and “trial” use for liturgies. Trial use must be specifically defined in regard to time, and it must precede the first reading for any alteration or addition to The Book of Common Prayer. It appears that six years and two concurrent General Conventions would still be necessary to add liturgy officially to The Book of Common Prayer. Supplemental Liturgical Resources will not require the permission of one’s bishop; Alternative Liturgical Resources will not. This resolution is “about good order,” one deputy remarked, and helps clarify the changes we made a couple days ago with Article X of our Constitution. The resolution passed easily. 

3:11pm

We’re now adding more clarification to this whole prayer book process – or at least trying to. In updating some of the sections of Article X, which were approved already at this General Convention, we’re realizing that the idea of “memorializing” a version of The Book of Common Prayer continues to be confusing – but, in B008, which also passed, we have outlined it to mean “authorized for regular use at any service in all dioceses of this Church. The content of any memorialized Book is understood to be the version in use at the time of memorialization.” The concern on the floor is that we as a body are still unsure as to what any of this all means. An argument is that it might be creating two different definitions of The Book of Common Prayer if it is both something to do with the memorialized text of the 1979 and the compilation of texts as authorized by General Convention. I’m not sure I share their concern, and it might be worth our time to live into what we have passed thus far to see what it looks like on the ground level of our local contexts of ministry over the next three years. The House voted against an opportunity to refer this matter to an interim committee; in the end, we concurred with the House of Bishops on the text amended. It’ll be very interesting see how we live into this new reality of how to create and use what we now know as The Book of Common Prayer.

3:42pm

We’re doing our best to move faster! Debate ends on a resolution if three deputies speak in favor and no one is in the queue to speak against. Three deputies spoke for far less than their allotted two minutes – some for as short as five seconds – to move our procedure along. In this case, it was to approve an amendment to the Constitution that allows us to change the date of future General Conventions in case of extraordinary circumstances (like a pandemic, for example). This is a no-brainer vote that passed unanimously.

3:50pm

Quick recess! Back in 15 minutes.

4:10pm

Let’s go!

We’re once more considering D013 Affirm the Imperative of a Palestinian State. For all that our two houses have said regarding this conflict, we still have differing opinions on the word apartheid to describe the conflict. The House of Bishops has sent the House of Deputies a substitute resolution that writes “General Convention acknowledges that the language it uses to name and describe this horrific conflict divides the Church and many of God’s people even where we have strived otherwise, for all of which we pray for forgiveness and guidance to find language that unites us in the effort to bring peace and justice to Palestine.” 

The chair of the responsible committee described the changes in this substitute – moved to the top was this phrase: “That the 81^st General Convention of The Episcopal Church affirm our hope for all the people of Israel and Palestine to enjoy freedom, peace, justice, and national self-determination, and affirm our hope for the creation of a Palestinian State, coexisting with the Jewish State of Israel.”

In taking out the word apartheid, the following phrase is included: “that the current government of Israel continues to commit acts and pass laws that result in fragmentation, segregation, and dispossession against the Palestinian people and the Occupied Territories.”

The chair called our vote “a decision of conscience” and that we must do what we each believe to be right. Led by our own Al Borg-Borm, the dioceses of Idaho, Bethlehem, and South Dakota requested a vote by orders on this resolution.

Though this resolution passed easily, I must say there is a sense of sadness in the House. After a week of work in which many decisive and conclusive resolutions have been passed, there is little satisfaction to be found at the moment. For many who have visited the Holy Land, no resolution is strong enough to witness to the horrors they have seen. For many who would like to say something as a response to this great and ongoing tragedy, our words may be too weak.

And I am reminded of the best Good Friday sermon I have ever heard (thank you, Fr. Bill Wood from St. David’s, Radnor) and an image I to which I have returned many times in my own life – that when we do not know what to do with the great cares of this world, the great weights upon our hearts, and the great unknown that we try to face even with hope, we are called to follow Jesus’ way to the foot of the cross and place all of these things before his glorious, broken, scourged, and crucified body given for the life of the world. Satisfaction may still not be found there – death has done its worst.

And yet somehow, our hope reigns and endures in that we believe and trust that Easter will come.

We know that the way of the cross is indeed the way of life.

Christ is risen.

O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.

4:39pm

Resolution A116, authorizing our rite for same-sex marriage as part of our new definition of The Book of Common Prayer, passed happily and expediently. We’ve come a long way in the last decade.

And, in similar fashion, we have amended for trial use in The Book of Common Prayer the language of the prayer book’s Catechism to now read “Holy Matrimony is Christian marriage, in which two people enter into a life-long union, make their vows before God and the Church, and receive grace and blessing of God to help them fulfill their vows.” Once again, this too passed easily and with joy.

 5:03pm

The end is near, and we’re trying to go quickly!

We’re fixing some dates in Lesser Feasts and Fasts, some of which help us observe feasts when the rest of the wider Church in other denominations observe them. Additionally, we gave our final authorization to add Harriet Tubman to the Calendar of the Church Year on March 10^th, the final authorization of Barbara Clementine Harris on February 11^th, the final authorization of Simeon Bachos, the Ethiopian Eunuch, on August 26^th, and the final authorization of Frederick Howden, Jr. on December 11^th. Fun fact: a deputy currently in the House was the body model for statues of Harriet Tubman!

5:26pm

Last piece of legislation that isn’t courtesy! And it’s a good one. We concurred with the House of Bishops to add a trial use commemoration of the Ordination of the Philadelphia Eleven for July 29^th. Also included in the resolution for trial use were lesser feasts for Elie Naud on September 7^th, George of Lydda on May 6^th, Lili’uokalani of Hawaii on January 29^th, and Adeline Blanchard Tyler and her Companions on November 4^th.

Cool moment: all ordained women in the House of Deputies stood to great applause as this resolution was passed. We’re ever so grateful for them!

5:35pm

Another cool moment – a “secret” resolution commending The Rev. Canon Michael Barlowe for his good work as the Secretary of General Convention and, among other things, for helping create the Virtual Binder as we know it today. Longtime deputies have appreciated Michael’s ministry for years and years, and we congratulate him upon his retirement!

5:42pm

We’re so close, so let’s get courteous! A whole batch of courtesy resolutions offered our thanks and joy for the following:

The Rt. Rev. Terry Allen White and the Diocese of Kentucky

Amy Spicer and all the Volunteers at GC81

The Very Rev. Matthew Bradley, his staff, and all parishioners at Christ Church Cathedral, Louisville

The children’s Waves of Gratitude Day Camp at GC81 and Sarah Petersen, its leader

All of the executive staff who “ran” GC81

The Rev. Lester Mackenzie as our chaplain!

The Hon. Bryan Krislock, our parliamentarian

The offices of the Secretariat and those who staffed our voting process and legislative work

The Rev. Rachel Taber-Hamilton for her service as the Vice President of the House of Deputies

The Rev. Steve Pankey at his election as the next Vice President of the House of Deputies

The Most Rev. Michael Bruce Curry for his faithful service as the 27^th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church

The Rt. Rev. Sean Rowe at his election as the next Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church

Julia Ayala Harris for her service to the Episcopal Church and this House of Deputies

5:54pm

President Ayala Harris offered her closing remarks, we sang the doxology, and the deputation from Kentucky handed over the baton to the deputation from Arizona as a nod to GC82 in Phoenix. And just like that, the 81^st General Convention of the Episcopal Church is finished. I’m grateful for the good and holy work we’ve accomplished this week – and I’m glad we get to go home. Thanks for reading, everyone. Our whole deputation looks forward to seeing you on our return and bringing this good ministry back home to the Diocese of Idaho.

Grace to you and peace,

Dennis