The legislative day began with a joint budget hearing. The budget was presented by the hard working Executive Council’s Joint Committee on Finance (ECJCF)and Deputies and Bishops were given the opportunity to ask questions. While the budget makes sense to me, there were several things that I find interesting. The budget makes room for new initiatives, typically known as Task Forces, created by General Convention. The amount set aside is $2 million dollars. Which might sound like a decent amount of money, but that is $2 million spread over 3 years. What this means is that not every task force and commission crested by General Convention will receive funding or the amount of funding recommend by the resolutions creating them. Ultimately the Executive Council will make the decision about the distribution of these funds, and I have faith in their ability to make these difficult decisions, but I am also concerned that the budgeting process does not fully allow the will of General Convention to be truly enacted.

The second concern I had about the budget is that there is zero recognition of the Order of Deacons in the budget. There is money for the College of Bishops; for the support of planting new churches; for the support of youth ministry gatherings; for congregational leadership development; and many many other things, but what there is no financial support for is deacons. The order of deacons is the only Order within the Episcopal church that is not represented in the budget of the Episcopal church. I am not pointing this out because I am seeking a paycheck, I simply want it known that despite the applause deacons receive for the work that we do, the work that is the church’s presence outside the walls, there is not any funding or even a website designed to support the order’s ministry, which saddens me. With the encouragement of some deacon colleagues I decided to make the following statement:

Thank you Presiding Bishop, Madame President. I am a deacon and deputy from the Diocese of Western Massachusetts. I see line items for programming for the support of bishops, and the work of parish leadership and seminaries, which typically applies to the orders of priests and the laity, but I am not seeing anything that specifically applies to the order of deacons. The diaconate is the only order of the church who has no office or resources allocated to it in the church budget, yet we, who are unpaid, lead in service to the world. My question is what plans are in place to begin supporting the work and formation of deacons across the church?

In our afternoon session there was a great deal of debate around several resolutions, but more specifically A002 and A079. A002 was a resolution about the location of the 83rd General Convention, which will take place six years from now. The reason this caused a great deal of debate is because several of the locations are in places considered unsafe for members of the LGBTQ+ community, as well as Communities of Color, or even for women who are pregnant and because of this 3 amendments were proposed to include language asking that these realities be considered. Many arguments were made both for and against, but ultimately the amended resolution passed the House of Deputies and has been sent to the House of Bishops. For more information on the specific language please click the link above.

Resolution A079 is the one resolution I have been most excited about, I have be so excited that I have been working on my statement to the house to encourage it’s passage for two days. A079 would designate Oct. 10 or the closest Sunday as Mental Health Sunday. It was on our legislative calendar yesterday, but we did not get to it. I was afraid we wouldn’t get to it today, but we did. the second it came up for debate I submitted my name to testify and was second in line. Here is what I said:

Thank you Madam President. Deputy Jason Burns, Diocese of Western Massachusetts. I rise in support of this resolution. Mental illness carries a great stigma, a stigma that is so pervasive it causes countless people to hide the fact that they live with a treatable illness; neither seeking treatment, nor sharing their struggles with even their loved ones. As a deacon of the church my ministry focus is on ending this stigma because it has created an unknown and unseen group of people who feel forced to live their lives on the fringes of society, for fear of being ostracized and believing that no one sees them or their pain. I know this because I have been one of these people. The creation of a Mental Health Sunday would be one tiny step towards truly welcoming all people and making The Episcopal Church a safe space for those who seek comfort and healing. Like Jesus, we need to not only say that we are welcoming, we need to show that we are welcoming and the primary way of doing so should be through our liturgy because the work of the people needs to reflect all of the people who participate. My diocese has compiled liturgical resources for Mental Health Awareness and are happy to share them. To my fellow strugglers, God sees you, this deacon sees you, and it is my sincere hope that with the adoption of this resolution the church will begin to see us all. Thank you.

Following my statement many people said many things both for and against. Most of the statements in favor mirrored my own and to be honest the statements against were weak at best. Some people seem to think that Sunday should be reserved as the Lord’s day, but if we can’t highlight one of the primary epidemics affecting the Lord’s people during a Sunday service, why do we gather as the body of Christ? Some also apparently think that setting aside one day is tokenism and that we should pray for healing every week. To this I say, get bent! If that was something that the church actually did then we wouldn’t need to be having this discussion. That argument was nothing more than an attempt to continue the status quo. The resolution passed overwhelmingly and has been sent to the House of Bishops.