St. Thomas’ Parish at Dupont Circle
Archive for July, 2009
A General Convention Report
Jul 13th
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Prepared by Eric Scharf
As you should know by now the Triennial General Convention is meeting this week in Anaheim, CA. This is the primary legislative body of the church setting forth the policy and program on a national level for the next three years.
Of particular interest to St. Thomas’ members are two issues; consecration of GLBT priests living opening in committed relationships and same gender unions/marriage.
The first issue addressed the consequences of a resolution adopted at the previous General Convention (titled B033) that called for a moratorium on “the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion.” This issue has been the cause of wide ranging debate and discussion throughout the worldwide communion over the past three years.
A number of resolutions were proposed to further address the issue, which were considered by the General Convention World Mission Committee. They developed one combined resolution D025 to bring to the convention floor for consideration. The key clause reads “That the 76th General Convention affirm that God has called and may call such individuals, to any ordained ministry in The Episcopal Church, which call is tested through our discernment processes acting in accordance with the Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church.” Other sections of the resolution address our continuing commitment to the Anglican Communion. The full text as finally completed will be available later this week.
Sunday evening the House of Deputies passed D025 by a vote of 77-31 in the lay order and 74-35 in the clerical order. The resolution now goes to the House of Bishops for their concurrence.
Jim Naughton, Communications Director for the Diocese offered this assessment of the D025:
“My sense is that the resolution doesn’t repeal or rescind B033, which in any event urged but did not compel. Rather it expresses the fact that we live now in a new reality. It does not so much pave the way for the election of another bishop in a same-sex partnership as it does remove an artificial impediment to our ongoing discernment on this issue that may, resume diocese by diocese and case by case. I think the resolution will face a much tougher climb in the House of Bishops.”
While for many this resolution will not represent a strong enough action, however it probably represents the best compromise that is possible at this time. It has not been announced when the House of Bishops will consider D025.
As for the second issue, again a number of resolutions to both amend the Canons to allow the performance of same-gender blessings or marriage rites and others to develop rites for these.
The collective resolutions were the subject of a legislative hearing on July 9th which heard from more than 50 speakers. On July 13 a major resolution (c056) on same sex blessings cleared the Prayer Book Committee by a huge margin (6-0 among bishops, 26-1 in deputies.) The key clause states: That all bishops, noting particularly those in dioceses within civil jurisdictions where same-gender marriage, civil unions, or domestic partnerships’ are legal, may provide generous pastoral response to meet the needs of members of this Church. Bishop Henry Parsley supported the resolution, but in a minority report will argue that the “generosity” in the resolve noted above be limited to states where same sex marriage is legal. Further action in the House of Bishops has not yet been scheduled.
For more information on these issues and following further developments the following resources are suggested: Integrity General Convention Presence — http://sites.google.com/site/allthesacraments/Home
Hellooooooooooooo Epis-pickle-palians!
Jul 13th
VirtuallyFaithful here! Are you following General Convention? You should. But not too closely.
It’s like watching a waterfall — powerful and inspiring, but get too close and it’ll knock you over. You also don’t want to pay too much attention to all the droplets slashing out on the rocks. Go downstream a bit. Watch the water flow. Sometimes the stream itself will shift a little. Most times it doesn’t, because the total force of the stream is far bigger and more important than any few hundred or even thousand gallons that get dumped in all at once.
When light shines on all those exquisite drops, rainbows appear, as is right. But the rainbows aren’t to be confused with the waterfall, or the stream that drives it. No stream, no waterfall. No waterfall, no rainbows. So don’t just look at the rainbows alone. But do notice them. They are, after all, one of God’s favorite signs of unbreakable covenant with us all.
Listen to the water. God speaks through the mystery of that sound. It’s a different voice than you hear in Washington Weekly or on talk-radio, or even online in blog posts like this. It’s more subtle. Less in your face and pugnacious (there’s a word for you!). God’s like that. Really faithful to us. While we’re virtually faithful, at best, in return. That’s what it is to be the church. So watch and listen, but more to God than to General Convention. But since we’re the Episcopal Church, watch and listen to what’s going on there, too. God may even choose to speak from the maelstrom, again.
