General Convention:
What Happened, Who Was There, What It Means For Us
The following is an abbreviated summary of concurred actions of the
75th General Convention, meeting in Columbus, Ohio, June 13-21. It
includes most of those resolutions posted by the General Convention
Office at http://gc2006.org/legislation/. At that location, you can
read the full texts of the resolutions summarized below and search
resolutions by source, number, topic title, proposer, committee or
house of initial action.
Anglican Communion
Encouraged dioceses to urge their congregations and institutions to
pray for our sisters and brothers in the Diocese of Jerusalem and the
Middle East; visit the Christian congregations in the Holy Land; receive
visitors from the Holy Land; work for justice, peace, and reconciliation
in the Holy Land with renewed commitment;
and urge elected officials and policy makers to seek solutions that
will realize these goals (A015).
Affirmed that no resolution of the General Convention is intended to
affect either the historic separate and independent status of the churches
of the Anglican Communion or the legal identity
of The Episcopal Church (B032).
Budget
Adopted Pastoral Leadership Search Effort (PLSE) as an ongoing initiative
and requested the Joint Standing Committee on Program, Budget & Finance
(PB&F) to consider a budget allocation of $385,906 (A089).Amended
Joint Rules of Order IV.15 to provide that resolutions calling for expenditure
of any monies will be unfunded if coming to the floor after the adoption
of the triennial budget (D015).
Endorsed statement of mission priorities (in rank order: justice and
peace, including support of the Millennium Development Goals; youth,
young adults and children; reconciliation and evangelism; congregational
transformation and partnerships) for the 2007-09 triennium and directed
the Joint Standing Committee on Program, Budget & Finance to use
these priorities in forming the Budget for the Episcopal Church (D031).
Adopted a unified budget including canonical,corporate, and program (mission)
portions for the 2007-2009 triennium of $152,002,295 (D079).
Children
Urged Episcopalians and the Episcopal Church to work to ensure that governments
provide adequate funding for programs that combat social and economic
conditions which place children at risk or diminish children’s
ability to achieve their full potential in the world, and endorsed the
National Council of Churches (NCC) comprehensive policy statement, entitled “
The Church and Children: Vision and Goals for the 21st Century Policy” (B018).
Civil/Human Rights of LGBT people
Reaffirmed the Episcopal Church’s support of gay and lesbian persons
as children of God and entitled to full civil rights; reaffirmed 71st
General Convention’s action calling upon all levels of government
to give gay and lesbian couples the same protections afforded non-gay
married couples; and opposed any state or federal constitutional amendment
that prohibits same-sex civil marriage or civil unions (A095).
Reaffirmed that gay and lesbian persons are, by Baptism, full members
of the Body of Christ and of the Episcopal Church; reiterated its apology
to its members who are gay or lesbian, and to lesbians and gay men outside
the Church, “for years of rejection and maltreatment
by the Church;” pledged to include openly gay and lesbian persons
on every committee, commission or task force developed for the specific
purpose of discussing issues about sexuality and request the same of
our sister churches in the Anglican Communion (A167).
Declared efforts to criminalize homosexual behavior incompatible with
the Gospel of Jesus Christ (D005).
Clergy/Clergy Wellness
Approved a study of the optimum mandatory resignation age for clergy
in collaboration with Church Pension Group, including details on the
implications for pension benefits (A083).
Requested that Church Pension Fund investigate formula for awarding
credited years of service for the pension fund participants receiving
part-time compensation (D048).
Communications/Technology
Endorsed a position of provincial communication specialist for each
of the nine provinces to assist in the implementation of the communication
strategy of the church, and work directly with congregations and dioceses
in
the province to build connections for regional communication (A052).
Directed the Standing Commission on Episcopal Church Communication
to organize an information technology cooperative network for dioceses
and congregations
of the Episcopal Church (D082).
Constitution / Canons
Amended Article I, Section 2, of the Constitution to give all bishops
seat and voice in the House of Bishops and to give a vote to all bishops
with jurisdiction, Bishop Coadjutor, Bishop Suffragan,
Assistant Bishop, and every bishop holding an office created by General
Convention (A020, second reading).
Amended Article VIII of the Constitution to so that a bishop may permit
ordained ministersof certain denominations to officiate on a temporary
basis as an ordained minister of this church (A021, first reading).
Referred work on Title IV revisions to interim body for report to 76th
General Convention
(A153).
Amended Canon 1.2.2 to conform to Title III canons on resignation age
of the Presiding Bishop to be 72 if that occurs before a term of nine
years has been completed (D010).
Amended Article 1, Section 3, of the Constitution so that the Presiding
Bishop would be elected during a joint session of the House of Bishops
and the House of Deputies by concurrent vote of bishops, clerical and
lay deputies (first passage, constitutional changes require approval
of two consecutive Conventions)
(D013).
Ecumenism
Welcomed the substantial progress of The United Methodist-Episcopal
Dialogue and authorized interim Eucharistic sharing as a step towards
possible full communion (A055).
Elections/Appointments
Elected the Rev. Dr. Gregory Straub as Secretary of the House of Deputies
(E003) and Secretary of General Convention (E005).
Elected N. Kurt Barnes of the Episcopal Diocese of New York as Treasurer
of General Convention (E006).
Elected Bonnie Anderson as President of the House of Deputies (E007).
Elected bishops David A. Alvarez of Puerto Rico and J. Jon Bruno of
Los Angeles as members of Executive Council (E008).
Elected Diane Pollard of the Episcopal Diocese of New York to Church
Confirmed the Rev. Dr. Robert Wright of the Episcopal Diocese of New
York to the office of Historiographer (E012).
Elected the Rev. Brian N. Prior as Vice President of the House of Deputies
(E015).
Elected Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as the 26th Presiding Bishop
(E017).
Elected Bishop Richard S.O. Chang, Hawaii, vice president of House
of Bishops; Bishop Kenneth L Price Jr., Ohio, secretary; the Rev. Canon
Carlson Gerdau, registrar (E025).
Environment
Affirmed that Global Warming threatens the future of God’s good
creation, that the effects disproportionately hurt the lives of the
poorest and most vulnerable, and resolved that the church and all its
members should seek to reduce global warming including advocating for
legislation and through various efforts addressed to corporations (B002).
Evangelism and 20/20
Reaffirmed commitments to improve the health of congregations and the
church by faithfully living out the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20)
and working toward the goals of 20/20 (A037).
Directed development of a strategy for a model missionary initiative,
including both evangelism and service, for the Lake Pontchatrain Basin
Area (New Orleans, North and East Shore), to support overall church
evangelism and the 20/20 goals, while providing a model and
a test-bed for organization in areas of natural disaster or economic
impoverishment (B011).
Acknowledged the report of the Joint Commission on Domestic Mission
and Evangelism
which states the Episcopal Church “may be in systemic decline” (Blue
Book, Page 103), asked for the Office of Mission and the Standing Commission
on Domestic Mission and Evangelism to initiate a national consultation
on methods and strategies to identify best practices to reverse the
decline in mainline denominations and recommend strategies to the 76th
General Convention (B023).