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December 2022 Newsletter

Merry Christmas!

The General Convention Office will be closed from Friday, December 23 through Monday, January 2 for the Christmas and New Year's holidays. All offices of the DFSM will be closed between Christmas Eve and January 2.

Date of GC81 Announced

Mark your calendars. The Joint Standing Committee on Planning and Arrangements, chaired by Executive Officer Michael Barlowe, has met and established that our next General Convention will have six legislative days from Sunday, June 23 to Friday June 28 2024.  Details of the schedule, including additional dates in advance for meetings and orientation, are being worked out by a subcommittee of Planning and Arrangements. A full schedule will be publicized in early 2023.     We look forward to seeing you in Louisville! 

Constitutions and Canons Now Available

The "Constitution and Canons - 2022" (updated at the 80th General Convention in 2022) will not be in effect until January 1, 2023. However, the document is now available at the general convention website for viewing online and for purchase in English. An online version is also currently available in Spanish and a print version in Spanish will be available soon.   You can find links to all all available versions in English or Spanish at the publications page of the generalconvention.org website. Or click here:  https://www.generalconvention.org/publications#CandC  This is a record to have this completed before Christmas in both English and Spanish - - many thanks to Twila for her hard work!

Joint Interim Bodies Meeting, November 14-17

Photos courtesy of Devon Anderson

The work of the General Convention continues between meetings through the work of numerous Interim Bodies. Four standing committees, as well as several recently constituted committees, recently began their work with the first in-person meeting of the biennium at the Maritime Conference Center in Linthicum Heights, MD. Their work continues online. Other interim bodies are currently being constituted. Pictured here are members of the Joint Standing Committee on Nominations, as well as the Presiding Bishop's opening address to the assembled bodies.

Learning Opportunities

In mid-November, Deputy Executive Officer Molly James presented at the annual conference for the Society of the Scientific Study of Religion in Baltimore. Her presentation was entitled “Hope and Possibility: Insights from the FACT and EPIC studies for The Episcopal Church.” The presentation explored learnings from collaborative research projects studying congregations in America, especially the impact of the pandemic on congregations. Dr. James would like to offer this presentation, along with other information on the data tools and opportunities available for congregations, as a webinar to those who are interested on Wednesday, January 18 at 2pm ET. Registration is available here.

Photo courtesy of Molly James

At the conference there were also presentations from Dr. Matthew Price and The Rev. Dr. Alistair So-Schoos of The Church Pension Group on clergy demographics. Together with the congregational data from the Parochial and Diocesan Reports, we can provide a more comprehensive picture of the life and work of The Episcopal Church. We will be presenting together at the Episcopal Parish Conference in Jacksonville in March. More information on that is available here: https://episcopalparishes.org/jax/

Welcome to GCO Staff, Carrie Combs

Starting in late November the GCO welcomed a new member of staff, the Rev. Carrie Combs. Carrie joins us as the Legislative Data Specialist and will provide support for online and hybrid meetings of Interim Bodies and committees of General Convention, as well as compiling records of General Convention and support the legislative work of the GCO and Secretariat. In addition to working part time with the GCO, Carrie serves as Priest in Charge at Trinity Episcopal Church in Torrington, CT, where she lives with her husband Nik and their English Cocker Spaniel, Declan.

the Executive Office of the General Convention

The Rev. Canon Michael Barlowe, D.D., Secretary of the General Convention and Executive Officer Ms. Betsey Bell, Executive Assistant to the Executive Officer The Rev. Carrie Combs, Legislative Data Specialist Ms. Iris DiLeonardo, Data Specialist and Meetings Assistant Mr. Patrick Haizel, Deputy for Administration and Operations The Rev. Molly F. James, Ph.D., Deputy Executive Officer of General Convention Ms. Jennifer Mendez, Administrative Assistant Mr. Brian Murray, Governance Technology Specialist Ms. Fiona Nieman, CMP, Deputy for Convention and Meeting Planning Ms. Twila Rios, Manager of Digital Information Systems

Useful Links News for Bishops and Deputies Episcopal News Service Office of the General Convention Announcements House of Deputies News Public Affairs of The Episcopal Church Resources on The Archives of The Episcopal Church The Acts of Convention (Summary of Actions for 2022, click here) Journals of Convention Reports to the General Convention (also known as The Blue Book - for the current edition, click here) Constitution and Canons (use only for prior editions - to copy/quote the current edition, click here) 

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