The Diocesan Bishop's Perspective on General Convention
Dear Friends in Christ:
The 75th General Convention was filled with some surprises and some very difficult decisions. Overall, I believe our time together clearly defined the nature and future of the Episcopal Church.
For one thing, when we met in Columbus, we had lived for almost three years with the reality that Gene Robinson is Bishop of New Hampshire. Since his ordination, Bishop Robinson has participated fully in the meetings of the House of Bishops, and at this Convention he chaired and reported for the Standing Committee on the Structure of the Church. Gene is a bishop who gay, and partnered, and he is a brother and companion to us in the mission and life of the Episcopal Church.
In the midst of Convention, on Sunday, June 18, the bishops elected, and the deputies then ratified, Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of Nevada to be our next Presiding Bishop. A surprise to many, her election was no symbolic or defiant act; for many of us, she was simply the right candidate. I am delighted with the election. Her faith, her poise, her ability to articulate the Gospel and the leadership she has shown in the House of Bishops will be significant gifts for the Church.
On Tuesday, June 20, Convention adopted a $152,000,000 budget for 2007 – 2009 with priorities which will shift funding from the internal workings of the Episcopal Church in order to devote significantly more of our shared resources for others. Our budget emphasis will be reaching out in Christ’s name to the world through mission to address such domestic and global realities as poverty, health, economic development and injustice.
As I look back on Convention, Bishop Robinson’s presence, the election of Bishop Jefferts Schori, and the budget for the next triennium show that the Episcopal Church is generous, broad-minded, and eager to sacrifice to serve the world in mission.
Yet we also are sharply divided. On Monday morning, the day after the election of Bishop Jefferts Schori, the Bishop of Fort Worth (Texas) announced that he and the Standing Committee of Fort Worth had met Sunday night and agreed that the diocese would immediately appeal to the Archbishop of Canterbury for alternative primatial oversight – for another bishop to be primate or presiding bishop for their diocese. Deputies from Fort Worth made the same announcement in their house.
The statement of the Bishop and Standing Committee of Fort Worth pointed to the fact that they and others in the Anglican Communion do not accept women as priests or as bishops. Their Monday morning statement was a moment when I realized more fully than ever how much members of the Episcopal Church differ in our understandings and applications of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
There were other signs of division from the beginning of Convention. Every morning Convention gathered for Eucharist and Bible study, yet some bishops and deputies chose to sponsor and attend an alternative Eucharist held elsewhere. And several dioceses who choose to contribute nothing to the budget of The Episcopal Church, were attending and participating in the Convention at the expense of the rest of us.
The days and nights of Convention proceeded for many of us at a frantic pace. This Convention was one day shorter than previous conventions by design, and most of another day (Sunday) was devoted to the election of the 26th Presiding Bishop. I served as vice-chair of the joint committee responsible for presenting a budget responsive to the work of the Church and the resolutions of Convention. Our committee, as well as many others, worked long hours each day and night to meet deadlines imposed by the shortened time
As we approached the final two days, we had not addressed the important issues of the Windsor Report, and concern began to mount that we would not. Then on Tuesday the most specific resolution concerning the Windsor Report (Resolution A161) was defeated in the House of Deputies – reportedly by the votes of “conservatives” and “liberals,” neither of whom could support its terms. That meant, according to legislative procedure, that the bishops would not address the resolution at all, and Convention would not speak.
In an unprecedented move, the Presiding Bishop called for a joint meeting of both houses, Deputies and Bishops, for Wednesday morning, the last day, after the Eucharist. Bishop Griswold was clear that Convention must address the Windsor Report, and he introduced a two-sentence resolution which he had authored (Resolution B033).
The bishops in their house, after debate, passed the resolution without amendment, and it went to the deputies. Bishop Jefferts Schori, again in an unprecedented move, asked the deputies to pass the resolution, in order to keep conversation and mission alive among us in the Anglican Communion. The deputies passed it also All this happened in the closing hours of Convention.
The resolution does not address some specific suggestions of the Windsor Report, but does seek “healing and reconciliation” in the Anglican Communion and calls on “Standing Committees and bishops with jurisdiction to exercise restraint by not consenting to 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.” (For more detail, read the Episcopal News Service Report at www.ecusa.anglican.org/gc2006news/html)
On Wednesday afternoon, during our last session, several bishops who wanted nothing less than “full compliance with the Windsor Report” stood to say that they had decided to disassociate themselves from the decision of our House and Convention, and one by one most of them left the House meeting before it concluded. Then a spokesman for several bishops who believe the resolution is too restrictive announced their dissent, but they stayed in the House.
Many of us who supported B033 wanted something better. I wish we could have formed a resolution saying that we are a Church divided on these questions, that we can’t craft “a perfect response,” asking the rest of the Anglican Communion for their understanding, mercy and prayers. With the perspective of several days’ rest and distance after Convention, I believe that it was the best we could do, especially given the time constraint. Our Church wants to be “at the table” with all the Anglican Communion, for the good of the Gospel, and we said that over and over. I hope, and pray, that all our brothers and sisters will be there too.
General Convention is a remarkable body. Some say it is the largest legislative organization in the world. Huge thanks to our Deputies and Alternates, to visitors and others from Connecticut who served as volunteers and helped staff exhibition booths – all of whom gave so much of themselves to support and participate in Convention. More bishops than usual from other provinces of the Communion visited Convention – the Archbishop of York participated with the House of Bishops for the entire time – and they saw first-hand that, in contrast to most of the Communion, we are a Church that includes equally the voices of laity and other clergy in addition to bishops.
It will take some time to see the future that will grow from our days in Columbus. I turn the events over and over in my mind. It is very good to be “home” in Connecticut. Together we have a lot of work to do, as we digest the results of the 75th Convention, and look ahead to the mission and life we see Christ calling us to in this diocese. We are blessed to be part of a Church that reads Scripture, prays and always seeks reconciliation in Christ even as we grapple with real-time issues that God and the world place before us. Thank you so much for your prayers during Convention. Please keep them strong for Christ’s grace upon our mission and life as The Episcopal Church.
Yours in Christ,
The Rt. Rev. Andrew D. Smith
The Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut
The 75th General Convention was filled with some surprises and some very difficult decisions. Overall, I believe our time together clearly defined the nature and future of the Episcopal Church.
For one thing, when we met in Columbus, we had lived for almost three years with the reality that Gene Robinson is Bishop of New Hampshire. Since his ordination, Bishop Robinson has participated fully in the meetings of the House of Bishops, and at this Convention he chaired and reported for the Standing Committee on the Structure of the Church. Gene is a bishop who gay, and partnered, and he is a brother and companion to us in the mission and life of the Episcopal Church.
In the midst of Convention, on Sunday, June 18, the bishops elected, and the deputies then ratified, Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of Nevada to be our next Presiding Bishop. A surprise to many, her election was no symbolic or defiant act; for many of us, she was simply the right candidate. I am delighted with the election. Her faith, her poise, her ability to articulate the Gospel and the leadership she has shown in the House of Bishops will be significant gifts for the Church.
On Tuesday, June 20, Convention adopted a $152,000,000 budget for 2007 – 2009 with priorities which will shift funding from the internal workings of the Episcopal Church in order to devote significantly more of our shared resources for others. Our budget emphasis will be reaching out in Christ’s name to the world through mission to address such domestic and global realities as poverty, health, economic development and injustice.
As I look back on Convention, Bishop Robinson’s presence, the election of Bishop Jefferts Schori, and the budget for the next triennium show that the Episcopal Church is generous, broad-minded, and eager to sacrifice to serve the world in mission.
Yet we also are sharply divided. On Monday morning, the day after the election of Bishop Jefferts Schori, the Bishop of Fort Worth (Texas) announced that he and the Standing Committee of Fort Worth had met Sunday night and agreed that the diocese would immediately appeal to the Archbishop of Canterbury for alternative primatial oversight – for another bishop to be primate or presiding bishop for their diocese. Deputies from Fort Worth made the same announcement in their house.
The statement of the Bishop and Standing Committee of Fort Worth pointed to the fact that they and others in the Anglican Communion do not accept women as priests or as bishops. Their Monday morning statement was a moment when I realized more fully than ever how much members of the Episcopal Church differ in our understandings and applications of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
There were other signs of division from the beginning of Convention. Every morning Convention gathered for Eucharist and Bible study, yet some bishops and deputies chose to sponsor and attend an alternative Eucharist held elsewhere. And several dioceses who choose to contribute nothing to the budget of The Episcopal Church, were attending and participating in the Convention at the expense of the rest of us.
The days and nights of Convention proceeded for many of us at a frantic pace. This Convention was one day shorter than previous conventions by design, and most of another day (Sunday) was devoted to the election of the 26th Presiding Bishop. I served as vice-chair of the joint committee responsible for presenting a budget responsive to the work of the Church and the resolutions of Convention. Our committee, as well as many others, worked long hours each day and night to meet deadlines imposed by the shortened time
As we approached the final two days, we had not addressed the important issues of the Windsor Report, and concern began to mount that we would not. Then on Tuesday the most specific resolution concerning the Windsor Report (Resolution A161) was defeated in the House of Deputies – reportedly by the votes of “conservatives” and “liberals,” neither of whom could support its terms. That meant, according to legislative procedure, that the bishops would not address the resolution at all, and Convention would not speak.
In an unprecedented move, the Presiding Bishop called for a joint meeting of both houses, Deputies and Bishops, for Wednesday morning, the last day, after the Eucharist. Bishop Griswold was clear that Convention must address the Windsor Report, and he introduced a two-sentence resolution which he had authored (Resolution B033).
The bishops in their house, after debate, passed the resolution without amendment, and it went to the deputies. Bishop Jefferts Schori, again in an unprecedented move, asked the deputies to pass the resolution, in order to keep conversation and mission alive among us in the Anglican Communion. The deputies passed it also All this happened in the closing hours of Convention.
The resolution does not address some specific suggestions of the Windsor Report, but does seek “healing and reconciliation” in the Anglican Communion and calls on “Standing Committees and bishops with jurisdiction to exercise restraint by not consenting to 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.” (For more detail, read the Episcopal News Service Report at www.ecusa.anglican.org/gc2006news/html)
On Wednesday afternoon, during our last session, several bishops who wanted nothing less than “full compliance with the Windsor Report” stood to say that they had decided to disassociate themselves from the decision of our House and Convention, and one by one most of them left the House meeting before it concluded. Then a spokesman for several bishops who believe the resolution is too restrictive announced their dissent, but they stayed in the House.
Many of us who supported B033 wanted something better. I wish we could have formed a resolution saying that we are a Church divided on these questions, that we can’t craft “a perfect response,” asking the rest of the Anglican Communion for their understanding, mercy and prayers. With the perspective of several days’ rest and distance after Convention, I believe that it was the best we could do, especially given the time constraint. Our Church wants to be “at the table” with all the Anglican Communion, for the good of the Gospel, and we said that over and over. I hope, and pray, that all our brothers and sisters will be there too.
General Convention is a remarkable body. Some say it is the largest legislative organization in the world. Huge thanks to our Deputies and Alternates, to visitors and others from Connecticut who served as volunteers and helped staff exhibition booths – all of whom gave so much of themselves to support and participate in Convention. More bishops than usual from other provinces of the Communion visited Convention – the Archbishop of York participated with the House of Bishops for the entire time – and they saw first-hand that, in contrast to most of the Communion, we are a Church that includes equally the voices of laity and other clergy in addition to bishops.
It will take some time to see the future that will grow from our days in Columbus. I turn the events over and over in my mind. It is very good to be “home” in Connecticut. Together we have a lot of work to do, as we digest the results of the 75th Convention, and look ahead to the mission and life we see Christ calling us to in this diocese. We are blessed to be part of a Church that reads Scripture, prays and always seeks reconciliation in Christ even as we grapple with real-time issues that God and the world place before us. Thank you so much for your prayers during Convention. Please keep them strong for Christ’s grace upon our mission and life as The Episcopal Church.
Yours in Christ,
The Rt. Rev. Andrew D. Smith
The Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut
posted by Vicar at 4:48 AM
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