Steady hands at the wheel for the 80th General Convention, July 8-11, in Baltimore: The Rev. Gay Clark Jennings, who ended her term as president of the House of Deputies at this convention, and Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry, pictured during the convention's budget presentation. Photo: Scott Gunn via Episcopal News Service.

Find the full deputation listed below,

and video dispatches here.

Among those essential actions, the bishops and deputies passed a $100.5-million budget for the next biennium (the 81st General Convention is scheduled for the summer of 2024), approved the first reading of a constitutional change to clearly define The Book of Common Prayer, continued the church’s commitment to reckoning with it history of racism, elected Julia Ayala Harris to succeed the Rev. Gay Clark Jennings as House of Deputies president and the Rev. Rachel Taber-Hamilton as vice president, and agreed to the reunification of two dioceses in Texas.

COVID-19 precautions at this General Convention meant that bishops and deputies gathered for daily worship separately in their respective houses, with a pre-recorded sermon streamed to each. Here they are for on-demand viewing.

Watch the sermon.

Watch the sermon.

Watch the sermon.

Watch the sermon.

Barbara C. Harris commemoration does a two-step: General Convention voted to proceed with a process toward adding Bishop Barbara C. Harris to the church’s calendar, “not in the way we expected,” in the words of Southern Ohio deputy Deborah Stokes-Wayne, “but still positive.”

Read about the back and forth between legislative committee, bishops and deputies here and here; the short version is this:

Sixteen dioceses, including Massachusetts, submitted resolutions asking that Harris be commemorated on March 13, the date of her death in 2020. The compromise that finally got approved in resolution C023 involves two steps: including Harris’s Feb. 11 consecration date in Lesser Feasts and Fasts now while also preparing historical, biographical and liturgical materials necessary for General Convention’s future consideration of a Harris commemoration on the church calendar. This do-si-do allows the process to move forward without being at odds with the precedent of observing a 50-year interval between a person’s death and commemoration, and without short circuiting a potential future commemoration of Harris in the church calendar for her full life and witness.

The General Convention took action on some 414 resolutions during its four days of business in Baltimore. Just several of its notable actions:

The bishops adopted a “Mind of the House” statement on climate emergency that notes: “All areas of justice are either worsened or made better depending on the health of the planet.” Read more here. Episcopal News Service’s summary of other creation care actions is here.

Among several racial equity resolutions adopted was one establishing a voluntary Episcopal Coalition for Racial Equity and Justice. Read more here and here.

The convention took action toward defining The Book of Common Prayer to provide for authorized liturgies that are not proposed revisions to the physical book, and

designated www.episcopalcommonprayer.org as the church's official liturgical website.

Read more here.

The $100.5-million budget for 2023-2034 was approved, along with a new standing budget committee to consolidate and streamline the budget process. Read more here.

Resolutions from the Committee on the State of the Church call for task forces and evaluation on technology and tools for church governance work, indicators of 21st-century congregational vitality, revision of the Parochial Report's financial page and re-evaluation of membership counting methods to better reflect a range of contexts and ways of gathering. Read more here.

Newly elected House of Deputies President Julia Ayala Harris

Youngest, most diverse slate to date: The House of Deputies on July 9 elected Diocese of Oklahoma deputy Julia Ayala Harris as its new president. She succeeds the Rev. Gay Clark Jennings, who completed her third and final term at this convention. Ayala Harris was elected on the third ballot from the youngest, most diverse slate of presidential candidates ever to come before the House of Deputies, which included Diocese of Massachusetts deputy the Rev. Edwin Johnson of St. Mary's Church in Dorchester. Read more from Episcopal News Service here and watch a video clip here.

On July 10 the House of Deputies went on to elect the Rev. Rachel Taber-Hamilton as its new vice president. Taber-Hamilton, who is Shackan First Nation, joins Harris, who is Latina, to become the first people of color serving together as president and vice president, and the first time two women will lead the house. Read more on Taber-Hamilton's election from Episcopal News Service here.

Longest-serving deputy in the House: Byron Rushing, pictured here at General Convention in 2012 in Indianapolis following his election to a first term as House of Deputies vice president.

Well done, Byron Rushing: On July 10, the House of Deputies acknowledged Diocese of Massachusetts deputy Byron Rushing, the house’s longest serving deputy—16 General Conventions—as he concluded his three terms as House of Deputies vice president. The Rev. Gay Clark Jennings announced that he had been presented with a House of Deputies medal at the previous Executive Council meeting "for his steadfast counsel, his love of this church, his uncanny political sensibilities, his never-failing promotion and appreciation of the ministry of all the baptized and his prophetic call to beloved community.”

Also elected: General Convention elects new members to serve on numerous churchwide governance bodies and groups.

Congratulations to the Rev. T. James Kodera (recently retired from St. Luke’s Church in Hudson), elected as a trustee of General Theological Seminary, and the Rev. Christopher Wendell (St. Paul’s Church in Bedford), elected to the Court of Review for Clergy Discipline and the Disciplinary Board for Bishops.

The Rev. T. James Kodera and The Rev. Christopher Wendell Courtesy photos

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