L.A. deputies at work
The Los Angeles deputation to General Convention is pictured at work on July 9 in the House of Deputies. In front, from left are Deputies Jim White, Andy Tomat, Kelli Grace Kurtz and Rachel Nyback. In the second row are Deputies Ivan Gutiérrez, Fennie Chang, Dan Valdez and Antonio Gallardo.
Tomat was seated in the deputation after Deputy Julie Dean Larsen fell on Saturday morning while walking to the convention center and suffered an injury to her jaw. She is returning home for medical treatment. The deputation asks the diocesan community for its prayers for Larsen and for its work at the convention, which will continue through Monday, July 11.
Photo: Keith Yamamoto
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Saturday sessions marked by elections, continued debate and votes on resolutions
The House of Deputies began its day July 9 with elections. Lots of elections.
"It's kind of like being at voting camp," said President Gay Jennings of the lengthy list of offices to be filled: members of Executive Council, the Church Pension Fund board of trustees, disciplinary board members, lay trustees of the General Theological Seminary, and treasurer and secretary of General Convention.
The most anticipated election was for president of the House of Deputies, since Jennings is stepping down after her third term – the canonical limit. Julia Ayala Harris of the Diocese of Oklahoma was elected on the third ballot. She will begin her three-year term at the conclusion of this meeting of convention. More about the president-elect is here. The Rev. Albert Cutié interviews her on video here.
On Sunday the House of Deputies will elect its vice president, who must, by canon law, be a clergy person, since Ayala Harris is a lay member. Candidates are the Rev. Rachel Taber-Hamilton, deputy from the Diocese of Olympia (Washington) and the Rev. Edwin Johnson, deputy from the Diocese of Massachusetts.
The Rev. Canon Michael Bamberger, rector of Church of the Ascension, Sierra Madre, was reelected as a clergy member of the General Board of Examining Chaplains.
Deputy Julie Dean Larsen, vice chancellor of the Diocese of Los Angeles, is a candidate for election to the Disciplinary Board for Bishops. That election was held on Saturday, but was invalidated due to a procedural error. The vote will be redone on Sunday.
Accounts of the deputies' and bishops' legislative work on Saturday are below. They covered a range of issues, including additional work on racial reconciliation, unification of two dioceses in Texas, matters of budgeting and church governance, and the first report of the House of Deputies Committee on the State of the Church (HODCSC – pronounced "hot sauce"), the war in Ukraine, and a lively debate on the location of the next meeting. Spoiler: The 2024 General Convention still will be in Louisville, Kentucky. More about all these actions is in the stories linked below.
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Both houses heard good news Saturday: Covid-19 infections at the convention are on a "flat trajectory," according to Dr. Rodney Coldren, medical officer. As of Saturday morning, only eight deputies, plus a few accompanying family members and volunteers, had tested positive for Covid-19, amounting to one percent of convention attendees. "That is outstanding," Coldren said.
Speaking of flat, L.A. Deputy Kelli Grace Kurtz found that she's not the only one accompanied by a paper cutout at the convention. She photographed House of Deputies Parliamentarian Brian Krislock at the head table (at left) with President Gay Jennings and yes, Flat Jesus.
In photo above: Candidates Ryan Kusumoto of the Diocese of Hawaii and Julia Ayala Harris of the Diocese of Oklahoma pray with Chaplain Lester Mackenzie and the House of Deputies before the final vote for president. Photo: Randall Gornowich
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Deputies Andy Tomat, Kelli Grace Kurtz, Dan Valdez, Ivan Gutiérrez, and Fennie Chang enjoy a lighthearted discussion following a takeout lunch on July 9. Photo: Jim White | |
Self-proclaimed ‘church geek’ Julia Ayala Harris elected House of Deputies president
By Mary Frances Schjonberg and David Paulsen
[Episcopal News Service – Baltimore, Maryland – July 9, 2022] The House of Deputies elected Julia Ayala Harris, lay deputy from Oklahoma, as its new president during its morning session on July 9 at the 80th General Convention.
Ayala Harris, elected on the third ballot, will succeed the Rev. Gay Clark Jennings, who is finishing up her third and final term. After the vote, Jennings invited Ayala Harris to come to the front of the convention hall and address the House of Deputies. She was joined there by the rest of the Oklahoma delegation.
“I am unbelievably honored to be able to follow President Jennings,” Ayala Harris said. She thanked the deputies for electing her while describing herself as a “church geek.”
“You have sent the message to church geeks everywhere; that if you try hard and you read the canons and you read all the minutes, that you can actually make a huge difference on this church,” she said.
“And I want to give a shout out to the church geeks at home watching that I saw on Twitter this morning. I [too] been there watching General Convention, thinking someday I’ll be a deputy, someday I’ll be on a legislative committee. And I think this is speaking to you that you will someday be here doing this with us. Keep being the church geek that you are. Dolly Parton has the saying ‘figure out who you are and then do it on purpose.’ Be a church geek on purpose.”
Read more here.
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Above: Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, center, leads the House of Bishops in its deliberations, assisted by Diane Jardine Bruce, secretary of the house and bishop provisional of East Missouri; and Sean Rowe, parliamentarian, bishop of Northwestern Pennsylvania and bishop provisional of Western New York. (Photo: Randall Gornowich) Below right: Bishop John Harvey Taylor of Los Angeles speaks against an amendment to Resolution B008 "A Call for Cessation of Conflict in Ukraine." (Photo: Pat McCaughan) | |
Bishops call for end to Ukraine conflict, approve racial equity resolutions
By Pat McCaughan
[Episcopal News Service – Baltimore, Maryland – July 9, 2022] The House of Bishops, moving rapidly through their June 9 legislative calendar, called for an end to the conflict in Ukraine and concurred with deputies to approve racial equity resolutions, marking a new chapter for The Episcopal Church.
On the 80th General Convention’s second legislative day, bishops approved Resolution A129 which directs presiding officers and the Church Pension Fund to conduct historical research on the ways in which financial and other assets of The Episcopal Church are directly tied to the enslavement of humans, the slave trade, and historical and current racial injustices, allocating $150,000 for the work.
An amended Resolution B008, “A Call for Cessation of Conflict in Ukraine,” offered by the Committee on Social Justice and International Policy, elicited lively debate.
The Rt. Rev. Mark D. W. Eddington, bishop of the Convocation of Churches in Europe, said he supported the amendment but cautioned: “We will all agree that Russia is uniquely responsible for a war of aggression in Ukraine. However, atrocities in war have a funny habit of being equal opportunity employers.
“I’m concerned that as a church our role ought to be to call on all sides in this conflict to cease war immediately. That’s the call of the Gospel and, while I support this resolution as amended, I want to offer caution that, after this is over, we will have to continue to work with churches in Russia and Ukraine and this makes it a little more difficult for us to be an even-handed broker.”
Another amendment, to remove a paragraph calling upon “the leaders of the Russian Federation and its supporters” to cease aggression and to begin negotiations, was challenged by Los Angeles Bishop John Harvey Taylor and ultimately defeated. Taylor said: “I find it difficult to imagine we can’t find a way both to identify the cause of initial aggression as well as to call upon both sides to behave humanely.”
Read more here.
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States’ anti-abortion laws fuel impassioned debate by deputies over future General Convention sites
By David Paulsen
[Episcopal News Service – Baltimore, Maryland – July 9, 2022] The House of Deputies spent more than an hour on July 9 discussing how to plan future General Conventions now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, and much of the impassioned debate focused on whether The Episcopal Church should avoid meeting in states where abortion now is illegal.
Kentucky is one of those states, and planning is underway to hold the 81st General Convention in Louisville in 2024. That planning was thrown into question by Resolution D054, which proposed asking church leaders to consider relocating that and all future meetings of General Convention to venues where women have full access to reproductive health care.
“As a young woman in the church, I believe it is unfair to ask people who are pregnant or may become pregnant to come to a convention where they may not be able to access reproductive health care, care which is critical and which can be lifesaving,” said Maria Gonzalez, a lay deputy from the Diocese of Olympia.
Read more here.
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House of Deputies gives first approval of Texas, North Texas merger
By Melodie Woerman
[Episcopal News Service – Baltimore, Maryland – July 10, 2022] The Episcopal Church in North Texas now is on the path to having a new identity as part of the Diocese of Texas.
On July 9 the House of Deputies voted unanimously to approve Resolution D050, setting in motion the reunification of the Fort Worth-based North Texas with the Diocese of Texas.
The North Texas diocese, with 14 congregations and fewer than 4,000 members, was greatly diminished in membership by a 2008 schism, in which a majority of clergy and lay leaders in the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth voted to leave The Episcopal Church over disagreements about the ordination of women and LGBTQ+ people.
The merger is following a process known as reunion, since both dioceses have roots in the historic Diocese of Texas. The House of Deputies’ vote follows action in June by the diocesan conventions of each of the two dioceses to approve the merger.
Read more here.
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GC80 articles
A list of links to articles about General Convention, drawn from various sources, is here.
Episcopal News Service articles about General Convention are collected here.
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General Convention Day 2
By John Harvey Taylor
[The Bishop's Blog – July 9, 2022] (8:06 p.m.) "Walk tall, or baby don't walk at all." So sings Bruce Springsteen -- and so said the boss, Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry, quoting the boss today in the House of Bishops.
That's two favorite bosses in one package. So I was stepping lightly and feeling no pain (in a spiritual sense, of course) when I headed for lunch today, where I ran into the Rev. Canon Dr. Sandye A Wilson (just reelected as a trustee of the Church Pension Group) and past Union of Black Episcopalians president Canon Annette Buchanan (just elected to Executive Council).
Annette is a member of St. Augustine's Episcopal Church -- in Asbury Park, NJ, which is Springsteen central. Sandye, also a past UBE president, is its former rector. I naturally asked about Bruce, and they told me that his first piano player, Asbury Park native David Sancious (that's he on "Rosalita," not Roy Bittan), is a longtime friend of St. Augustine's, He gave the parish a piano.
I'm pretty sure that makes Bruce an Episcopalian. I knew it!
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(7:39 p.m.) We ran the gamut today in the House of Bishops. Owing to the careful work of a dozen episcopal drafters, we got past a bumpy moment when it seemed we couldn’t balance the principle of intentionality in prayer book revision with inclusion for all those left out of our liturgies. We talked about Ukraine, climate change, and Christian Zionism. We passed landmark legislation, sent by the House of Deputies, to fund our church’s work of racial reckoning, reparation, and reconciliation in perpetuity.
The rawest moments came this evening, when Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry confessed his gnawing fear that democracy is at risk. He invited us into conversation about how to put the church to work on behalf of a new vision of “e pluribus unum.” We’ll talk more about it sometime during the second two days of our four-day Episcothon.
Read more here.
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The Rt. Rev. John Harvey Taylor is seventh bishop diocesan of the Diocese of Los Angeles. His blog may be found here, or follow him on Facebook here. | |
Deputies wear Camp Stevens shirts for camp recognition day at General Convention
July 9 at General Convention was camp recognition day or, as Bishop John Harvey Taylor called it in his Facebook post, "brag-about-your-camp day," and deputies, bishops, staff and volunteers wore tee shirts representing their dioceses' facilities. The Los Angeles deputation proudly sported shirts or lapel pins commemorating the 70th anniversary of Camp Stevens, the campus in Julian that serves the dioceses of L.A. and San Diego. Pictured above from left: Dan Valdez, Jim White, Andy Tomat (who sports a Camp Stevens label pin) and Chaplain Lester Mackenzie. (Photos: Kelli Grace Kurtz) Below: Taylor (center left front) poses with some of his camp-loving fellow bishops. See his blog comments above or here. (Photo: Frank Logue)
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Below are a couple of anecdotes proving that a little levity woven into General Convention breaks up long days, eases tensions and offers deputies and bishops the chance to indulge their sense of humor even as they ponder the serious business of the church. | |
House of Deputies votes in favor of ice cream, kicks armadillos off the ark. Theoretically, that is.
It was a long morning of voting with the Rev. Nina Ranadive Pooley, voting secretary, leading the deputies through what she and the Rev. Gay Clark Jennings called “Voting Camp.”
Ranadive Pooley first led deputies in some experimental votes so that they could get used to the system. Among other trial votes, the deputies voted in favor of ice cream.
To practice electing a certain number of candidates out of a longer list, deputies also elected five animals to head into Noah’s ark, leaving eight others behind. Pandas, bears, elephants, buffalos and moose avoided the Great Flood. Alligators, armadillos, coyotes, crabs, huskies, puffins, lions and walruses did not. (What were they thinking?)
— From reporting by the Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg, ENS
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Keeping up with General Convention | |
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Except as noted, reporting by Janet Kawamoto, editor, The Episcopal News | | | | |
