More than 1,000 deputies and bishops are working their way through the more the 400 resolutions to come before the once every three years General Convention of the Episcopal Church. The Diocese of Georgia’s Deputation is fully engaged with the work of this convention from the first committee meeting at 7:30 am until the deputation meeting ends at 10 pm. Following the convention on social media and in news reports can lead to misunderstanding due to the nature of the Convention as reports filter out after each bit of news happens in a multi-step process by which a committee takes action and then either the House of Deputies or House of Bishops takes initial action and the other House then must affirm that resolution.
For example, you may have read that the House of Deputies approved Prayer Book revision. That is true, but with the caveat that the path to possible revision would be a nine year one in which the first three years would be a study, which could lead to no further work. Then you could read yesterday that the House of Bishops approved Prayer Book revision, but that version of the resolution mainly called on the church to fully revise its Spanish language liturgies, while also approving for trial use some alternate language. This has been reported as using gender-neutral language for God. This is true in the sense that the alternate for the opening acclamation “Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” could be given as “Blessed be God: most holy, glorious, and undivided Trinity.” But not true in the sense that no proposal would offer trial use language to substitute for every reference to God as Father, Son, and Lord, for example.
The legislative process is indeed a cumbersome one, but this is intentional. The checks and balances are in place to make room for prayerful discernment. When the General Convention ends, your bishop and deputies will make a report on the actions passed by both houses. In the meantime, we report below on what we are tracking now and where those actions are as of the noon on July 11.
The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Chair of the Deputation
This report appeared in the July 11 edition of From the Field. Additional articles on Deaconess Alexander, the Episcopal Church in Cuba, and Marriage Rites also appear in that electronic newsletter which is online here: July 11 2018 – From the Field.
