In 1978, the Medical Missions that ministered to the Navajo people were organized by General Convention into the Navajoland Area Mission. For the past 46 years the faithful Episcopalians of this region have worked to build communities of faith, including raising up several of their own to be ordained priests and deacons. As a mission area their congregations have been under the care of the Presiding Bishop’s office who has appointed Bishops to oversee the area. Today, the House of Deputies voted unanimously to welcome Navajoland Mission Diocese into communion with General Convention, while the resolution still needs to pass the House of Bishops, that is clearly a formality at this point. What this change in designation means is that they are now free to hold a diocesan convention, adopt a diocesan constitution and canons, elect their own bishop, and call their own clergy to serve in their parishes. During debate over the resolution the President of the House of Deputies suspended the rules of debate, specifically so every member of the Navajoland deputation could speak. Their words moved me a great deal, almost to the point of tears and I will not try to repeat what they said because I will never be able to capture the sense of joy and jubilation they expressed at knowing that they will now be able to shape the future of their spiritual lives on their own terms. They likened it to The Long Walk, which is the name given to the forced removal and eventual return of the Navajo from and to their ancestral lands. Experiencing the creation of a new diocese is not something that occurs every day and I felt privileged to be able to participate in the process.
While you might think that nothing could top the great news about Navajoland Mission Diocese, you would actually be correct, but there were several other very important resolutions that passed the House of Deputies today. Resolution D039, which condemns censorship across the United States was passed. The resolution focusses on the growing trend of states and municipalities banning books about the LGBTQ+ community and many other things. The official youth presence to General Convention spoke to the fear they have by the wave of book banning across the nation.
Resolution D011 which called on the US congress to ban military style weapons, bump-stocks, and high capacity magazines was met with great debate. One deputy very passionary opposed the resolution believing that it is pointless to pass such resolutions instead of doing something that might actually have an effect. While I applaud her desire for action, I also recognize that she missed a very important component of the resolution, which was the authorization for the Office of Government Relations to lobby congress on behalf of the entire church. I draw this to your attention, not to shame the deputy who spoke, I would never do that, but to try to demonstrate that sometimes governing bodies have to take steps that seem hollow in order to allow the people that know how to take action to do so.
Resolution D031 addresses the ongoing harm of coercive and abusive Christian ministries – and several people spoke against this resolution. They felt that the inclusion of crisis pregnancy centers a.k.a. pregnancy resource centers, are in a different category than Indigenous boarding schools, that these organizations do their best to provide care for the people that come to them, which is likely true. We also heard that while they may do their best, in many cases their best involves telling patients that God will not love them if they terminate their pregnancy or that they will likely have a miscarriage anyway so it doesn’t matter what they decide to do (these examples came from a deputy, who happens to be a sociologist and specifically studies crisis pregnancy centers). The resolution passed and I am glad that it did because the only way we will be able to atone for the harm done in the name of God is if we acknowledge that the harm occurred. It is also important that we not split hairs, what was done at Indigenous boarding schools well into the 1930s and what is done at pregnancy resource centers is the same, in both cases people who claim to have the best interests of the people in their care at heart are using their position to manipulate and indoctrinate people against their will.
The last thing I will discuss is the latest on resolution A023. A023 originally asked GC to allocate $450,000 to the Association for Episcopal Deacons. Yes, that is a ton of money. Yesterday we got word that the House of Bishops removed all funding from the resolution, for various reasons I will not go into. In response to this Joint Committee #19 began to work behind the scenes as the resolution had come through their deliberations with a recommendation to adopt. As the chair of the committee is a deputy from my diocese she let me know what they were up to and I was able to get the word out to the other deacons who are in attendance at the convention. At 7:30 this morning the committee met and the gallery was filled with deacons. While the meeting was for deliberation only the bishop co-chair took some time to speak to us about why we were there so he could get a sense of our concerns. We made it clear that for the bishops to cut all funding from the resolution, without even discussing the resolution, its intent, or with any thought to how it might make their deacons feel, hurt a great deal. We reinforced our feelings of being the unseen and unsupported order within the church, reiterating that we just want recognition and support for formation, continuing education, and other areas. For his part Bishop Barker clearly heard us and apologized to us during the committee meeting. The entire committee then worked to craft a replacement resolution and develop a strategy to get it passed in both houses.
It was a busy and emotional day and I suspect that much of what I have written does not live up to my literary standards, but as the French say c’est la vie! Until tomorrow, be quick to love and make haste to be kind.
Learning by Fire! 