Lots of Updates! 6/24/24

Sue Bolen helps Tammy Jones check in as a deputy.

Dear friends,

Monday at General Convention began with our last deputation member, the Rev. Tammy Jones, arriving in town! As you may know, Tammy is not just a deacon in the Church but also the mayor of Rupert, and there are times when both duties overlap. We’re grateful to have Tammy here with us now!

Some of our deputies had responsibilities in the morning (7am!) with committee sessions and checking in deputies. General Convention is a long week, and there are some early mornings and late nights! But like any day, we began officially and joyfully in worship with a lovely service of Morning Prayer observing the feast day of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. The GC choir instructed the congregation in our singing, describing the multi-layered chanting of the final hymn as our “incense” to fill the air – it was the perfect complement to the themes of the feast, that our actions affect the spaces we inhabit, the lives we live, and the witness we offer into the world. And, as we prayed in the Collect of the Day, we are indeed called to “constantly speak the truth, boldly rebuke vice, and patiently suffer for the truth’s sake.” As we prepared for a day of lengthy considerations about the Church’s budget and other considerations for our common life, John the Baptist’s continual pointing to Christ as our Truth and Love – the One who has indeed come to this temple of his own Body here gathered – was a beautiful image with which to start our day and to inform our decisions.

In the morning session, we met jointly with our bishops to hear a thorough presentation on the 2025-2027 budget. Imagine your parish’s annual meeting and multiply it by, well, a big number – that’s the scope of a three year budget cycle with income and expenses north of $140 million. This is always a challenging topic and task, and I commend the good people who have done great work preparing such a complex budget. There are a myriad of things to consider, including concerns about the overall structure of the Episcopal Church remaining top-heavy, a growing frustration that there may not be enough in the budget for climate care initiatives and international mission and support, and the expense of having our denominational headquarters on 2^nd Avenue in New York City. The budget does do a lot of good, though, and as Bishop Fisher, who introduced the budget, remarked, “Budgets tell a story – and the Episcopal Church has a great story to tell, that everyone is loved equally by God through Jesus Christ.” The draft budget was described as “lean” for this triennium, active in ministry while still preserving resources for the future. My biggest takeaway is the reality of all the money we’re trying to pass at this General Convention within approved resolutions. The next budget has $2 million allocated for priorities of the next Presiding Bishop and resolutions passed by General Convention. Unfortunately, if every dollar requested was passed in resolutions, it would add up to $13 million. “Some of us are going to be disappointed,” a member of the budget committee remarked. Difficult choices lie ahead for our denominational leaders. Please remember them in your prayers.

After lunch, we took up Resolution A101, Revise DHP Pricing Structures for Equitable Access. The previous General Convention requested a report on the feasibility of the Denominational Health Plan (DHP) regarding rising costs as well as the equitable realities of a system in which smaller dioceses and congregations not only struggle to afford large health care costs but also end up subsidizing costs spread across the rest of the Church. Because of our current setup of healthcare costs across our denominational plan, and given the large variety of costs depending on geographical location, “Money is flowing out of regions of low cost to regions of high cost…which also tend to be areas of high resources,” said the Rev. David Sibley, chair of the task force assigned to this topic. The resolution as written was designed to increase equity in areas like West Virginia or Maine in which healthcare costs are high but financial resources are lower than elsewhere in the Church. Idaho tends to be a lower cost, lower resourced area; family healthcare in Idaho’s plan for clergy costs above $37,000. It’s even higher in places like the Dakotas and Alaska, and it is a very, very difficult proposition for congregations in lower resourced dioceses to pay these kinds of costs especially when part of their cost is to subsidize other members of the Church. Though it’s not so simple to project exactly how costs would change, General Convention heard this resolution as a call to justice and equity for lower-resourced friends across the Church regarding our mandated health care costs – the resolution passed heartily.

Next, the House of Deputies considered Resolution C008, Review Diocesan Assessments. As part of the canons of our Church, all dioceses are assessed by The Episcopal Church at a rate of 15% of their income which goes to the overall budget of the broader Church. Similarly, each diocese assesses congregations at variable rates – the Diocese of Idaho assesses its congregations at a rate of 21%. Several dioceses wrote similar resolutions that would lower the assessment to the Church to 10% by 2033 in hopes that financial burdens, especially those felt by smaller congregations and congregations which are historically non-white and/or non-endowed, might be lessened over time. For both parishes and dioceses, the assessment is a large percentage of a yearly budget, and it can be a hindrance to funding new and local ministry. It’s a difficult conversation – we are dedicated to one another in a broader sense, and assessment costs do help fund wider Episcopal ministries, staff, and much of our denominational budget. The same is true at the diocesan level. Our own Al Borg-Borm spoke passionately on the floor of the House in opposition to the resolution, saying “the Episcopal Church does more with our 15% together in the world than any one diocese could with the extra %5,” and also lamented that the Official Youth Presence did not have a vote on this (or any) resolution seeing that GC81 would be setting them up with a “significantly lighter offering plate.” Elsewhere, deputies also spoke in favor of the resolution, urging convention to recognize that many congregations of all sizes are struggling and passing deficit budgets, and that the overall structure of the Episcopal Church’s financial realities have become a burden that prevents us from fully living into our mission to make disciples. After a long and balanced series of deputy testimony, and after a vote by orders in which a simple majority of both lay and clergy orders was required for the resolution to pass, the resolution failed 70% to 19% in the clergy order, 74% to 14% in the lay order, with the small remainder being divided votes.

Following a brief recess, in which we gave thanks for one of the blessings of our lives – that is, coffee! – we heard a moving presentation from Mr. Rob Radtke, President of Episcopal Relief and Development, about the millions of dollars raised to benefit communities and individuals in need and in crisis. Their mission is to help the most vulnerable across the world – they do incredible work in the midst of disaster and disease while seeking actively the dignity of every human being. If you’re so moved, you can donate to their work here.

Additionally, the House considered a few more resolutions near the end of the day. We approved a shortlist of sites for the 83^rd General Convention in 2030: Kansas City, MO, Pittsburgh, PA, Portland, OR, Minneapolis, MN, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. There was a clause added to this resolution asking the Joint Standing Committee on Planning and Arrangements to consider the safety of the LGBTQ+ community when selecting a site. Lastly, we approved the creation of culturally appropriate anti-racism formational materials in Spanish as well as voted to designate the Sunday closest to October 10^th “Mental Health Sunday.”

Our deputation finished up the day around 7:30pm after discussing Tuesday’s legislative agenda. As a first time deputy, I’m both thrilled to be part of the great team that we have here with Idaho’s deputation while concerned at the overall pace of this General Convention. Parliamentary procedure is not for the faint of heart, and while it is important to get through our business in an orderly fashion with opportunities for many voices to be heard, we are on pace for several additional night legislative sessions if we are expecting to get through all the business ahead of us. Amendments to amendments are being considered, resolutions are being split into multiple new ones for reasons hard to understand, and dozens of speakers are joining the queue to speak with what are often very similar statements to offer. Tammy and I had a little sidebar on all of this: "Episcopalians think too much," she reflected. I'm beginning to agree.

Since arriving, I’ve been fortunate to meet up with old friends from seminary and across the Church, and we are all asking the same difficult questions: what is the purpose of General Convention? Is it to govern the Church? Is it to address as many societal questions as possible? Or, and as was mentioned on the floor of the House and our own deputation meetings as well, is part of this process simply to make ourselves feel better as a denomination about addressing an issue without much action to follow? Like many Anglican realities, the truth is probably found somewhere in the middle, but either way, it’s a hard pill to swallow if we’re being honest with ourselves. Sometimes, the reality of General Convention is a lot of debate and back and forth on a topic that leads to little impact on a parochial level. The biblical equivalent might be as if Jesus had passionately but emptily said “The roads to Jericho are terrible and violent!” without actually having the Good Samaritan help the nearly dead man. It’s hard to imagine General Convention being all things to all people – it can’t do everything. And, as was also mentioned on the floor yesterday, there are plenty of things that individual dioceses, congregations, and people can already accomplish without the permission or recognition of our largest governing body. I believe the Spirit is here; we are trying to do good work. And I also believe the Spirit is stirring us in moments of parliamentary frustration to inspire us to action in a variety of ways when we all return to our local contexts.

Lots more to come!

Grace to you and peace,

Dennis