There were several measures that I didn’t talk about last night because I was tired, so I will fold them into todays update.
A135 Compensation for Non-stipendiary Clergy is an important step for the church. I think that most people don’t realize what this resolution actually does, but I see it clearly. What it does it is encouraging every diocese of The Episcopal Church (TEC) to ensure that all clergy remain active in the Church Pension Group so that we all have access to the benefits of the organization. While it is not a mandate, it is as close as it gets. The measure is clear that it apply to clergy in all orders under the age of 72 and implies that the diocese should pay the stipend if congregations cannot.
A092 Access to Ordination and deployment cannot be denied to any cleric or lay person because of their theological beliefs. Effectively this is an anti-discrimination resolution.
A091 was a resolution that would add a definition of doctrine to Title IV. The concern was that if clerics use authorized liturgies, such as the new marriage liturgy that they could be brought up on disciplinary charges for not upholding the doctrine of TEC. I voted against this resolution because I saw it as noting more than an attempt to insure that the liturgy and catechism in the 1979 prayer book would remain the doctrine of the Episcopal church, even if changes were made to it. While I understand that the point of the resolution was to create harmony between the various view points about marriage and other issues, I emphatically do not believe that we should be enshrining the 1979 prayerbook in such a way. The resolution failed the House of Deputies (HOD) by a narrow margin. While we did vote to amend Article X of the Constitution, which redefined the prayerbook, it clearly says “The Book of Common Prayer, as now established or hereafter amended by the General Convention, shall be in use in all the Dioceses of this Church.” Which means that when we vote to change it, it is changed and that is now the new doctrine of the church. So with the passage of A160 which passed today, marriage is now defined as a life-long union between two people, and an “unconditional, mutual, exclusive, faithful and lifelong commitment intended for the couple’s mutual joy.” If we had passed A091 clergy would be able to adhere to the catechism as printed in the BCP and be safe from disciplinary action. I feared that this would have led to the creation of two churches and slowed the progress of the church.
The bishops spent 45 minutes discussing the term apartheid and determined that they would not be able to agree with the HOD on calling the actions of the Israeli Government such a thing. While the HOD was very disappointed with this decision, we agreed to adopt the compromise resolution D013 which called for the condemnation of “the acts and laws of the Israeli Government that result in the fragmentation, segregation, and dispossession against the Palestinian people and the Occupied Territories.” which is apartheid, it just doesn’t use the language. One might think that such a resolution is meaningless, but I promise you that it isn’t. When a mainline Christian denomination condemn the acts of others it will be reported in the news and leaders will notice that. It also gives us something to point to as people of faith, so when we are discussing it with friends or when we decide to call our leaders we have something to point to in making our argument.
We applauded as we approved the juncture of Eastern and Western Michigan to create the Diocese of the Great Lakes and when we approved the merger of the Dioceses of Eau Claire, Fond du Lac, and Milwaukee, into the Diocese of Wisconsin.
By the end of the day many of us were queuing into the system to speak in favor of resolutions simply to keep debate moving, and when I say speak in favor I mean we would go to the microphone and say, “I rise to concur”. Many of the resolutions today we no brainers, such as should we approve Harriet Tubman to be in Lesser Feasts and Fasts, obviously we all agreed, but as the rules of debate require 6 minutes of debate or three people to speak in favor or against in order to end debate we were doing whatever we had to do to move on.
Ultimately we dealt with 396 resolutions. What that means is that we either Approved them, Rejected them, Referred them to an Interim Body for Study, or agreed to Take no Further Action, which is code for this needs more work. We spent an inordinate amount of time debating about debating, which I found quite frustrating at times because even though I agree that rules of order are important, the HOD often gets caught up in word smithing and losing sight of the bigger picture.
Ultimately I have greatly enjoyed my time at General Convention. I am told that I am apparently good at the legislative process, I can see through the fancy words and get to the heart of what is being attempted. I can say that in most cases my decision of whether to vote in favor or not was easy, but there were many times when discerning the right way to vote proved difficult. I was fully in favor of using the word apartheid, I was even in favor of using the word genocide but voted against it hoping the bishops would then go along with our wishes on apartheid. When it came to A091, the definition of doctrine, I kept flipping back and forth as people spoke to their reasoning both for and against, but ultimately I decided I was against, which was my original inclination. There were other resolutions I struggled with, but in all honesty I can’t remember which ones at the moment as I am quite tired.
I had a wonderful time getting to know my fellow deputies and I look forward to coming again in 3 years, assuming I am reelected.
Learning by Fire! 