80th General Convention volunteers welcome bishops, deputies to Baltimore
By Pat McCaughan
[Episcopal News Service – Baltimore, Maryland – July 7, 2022] Enthusiastic bishops, deputies and volunteers arrived July 7, presenting “green health passes” for admittance to the Baltimore Convention Center, picking up name tags, iPads, and COVID tests in preparation for the July 8-11 much-anticipated, streamlined 80th General Convention of The Episcopal Church.
“It’s going very well. Everybody gets it. People understand that we have to check their health passes, and they have them ready,” said Katherine Schnorrenberg, a member of St. Peter’s Church, Ellicott City, in the host Diocese of Maryland, adding she took a week’s vacation, including her birthday, to volunteer.
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Standing at the skywalk linking the Hilton Hotel and the convention center, she added: “I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love The Episcopal Church. This is so cool for Baltimore. We get to see how amazing The Episcopal Church is.”
Despite a one-year postponement and a reduced schedule because of the COVID-19 pandemic, operations were smooth and enthusiasm high, said Fiona Nieman, deputy for convention and meeting planning in the church’s General Convention Office.
“We had people waiting outside the door to the convention center as early as 8:45 a.m., eager to come in and get their registration materials,” Nieman said. “It’s been quite a big buildup in terms of the planning, and there’s also a sense of relief that we’re finally here and ready.”
Read more here.
— The Rev. Canon Pat McCaughan, vicar of St. George's Church, Laguna Hills, and correspondent for The Episcopal News, is a member of the Episcopal News Service reporting staff at General Convention.
Photos:
At top: The Baltimore Convention Center is hosting the 80th meeting of the Episcopal Church's General Convention.
Above left: Volunteer Janet Adam scans House of Deputies Vice President Byron Rushing’s credentials July 7 before issuing him his loaner iPad for tracking General Convention business. Volunteer Kaitlyn Lengyel looks on. Photo: Cynthia Black/ENS
Above right: The Rev. Kate Lewis (St. Columba's Church, Camarillo), volunteer floor coordinator for the House of Deputies, checks microphones as the beginning of General Convention draws near. Photo: Lester Mackenzie
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Presiding officers prepare to open pandemic-shortened 80th General Convention in Baltimore
By David Paulsen
[Episcopal News Service – Baltimore, MD – July 7, 2022] The Episcopal Church’s presiding officers and the secretary of General Convention on July 7 welcomed bishops and deputies to Baltimore, Maryland, for the 80th General Convention and expressed gratitude to the city and the Diocese of Maryland for hosting this scaled-down meeting of the church’s governing body.
“This is a wonderful city,” Presiding Bishop Michael Curry said in an afternoon media briefing, held the day before General Convention officially gets underway. He noted that he previously served for 12 years as rector of Baltimore’s St. James’ Episcopal Church. “I had some of the best years of my ministry and life” in the city, he said.
The Rev. Gay Clark Jennings, president of the House of Deputies, acknowledged the disappointment felt by many attendees that the church will have to wait until 2024 for a full-fledged General Convention because of continued COVID-19 concerns. The meeting in Baltimore was shortened from eight to four days, July 8-11, and committees working online in advance were asked to focus mainly on critical governance matters and other urgent legislative priorities. In Baltimore, bishops and deputies also will have fewer scheduled opportunities for socializing, a tradeoff to lessen the spread of the coronavirus.
Read more here.
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Different kind of convention still means doing important business, leaders say
By Dave Seifert
[House of Deputies News – July 7, 2022] The 80th General Convention of the Episcopal Church isn’t a normal one. But the unusual format won’t take away from the event’s importance, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and the Rev. Gay Clark Jennings, president of the House of Deputies, told reporters on the eve of the event.
“This is not the convention anyone hoped for or anticipated,” Jennings said. “We’re here to do essential business of the church, and we’ll do it in some time-honored ways and some different ways, in a convention of four days.”
“[T]wo or three will gather together in [God’s] name,” Curry told journalists, some of whom were gathered in the room while others watched on the church’s media hub. “Maybe not 10,000, but 1,200 or so. And he’ll show up, and something good will happen while we’re gathering here.”
Read more here.
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Gay Jennings to retire after a decade of leadership
By Kirk Petersen
[The Living Church – July 6, 2022] The Rev. Gay Clark Jennings is stepping down as president of the House of Deputies after serving three terms. TLC’s associate editor Kirk Petersen asked her to reflect on her tenure as the second-ranking officer of the Episcopal Church. She served without compensation for most of that time, until the 2018 General Convention voted to compensate the demanding position. The interview has been lightly edited.
How has the PHoD role evolved over your tenure?
I don’t think it’s actually evolved, it’s pretty clear in the governing documents. I think I’ve evolved, which you would hope any leader would do, over a tenure of 10 years.
The one thing about the role that has changed: now that it’s compensated, the door is open. Never in the history of the House of Deputies have we had a slate for president like the slate we have now. It’s an amazingly talented, diverse slate of people, and it speaks to the wisdom of compensating the position. Now it’s not just retired or people with independent means who can serve. The current slate, there’s deputies of color, it’s male-female, there’s a span of ages, it’s just terrific.
Read more here.
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Revisiting revision: A059 and the future of Common Prayer
By Jim Naughton
[House of Deputies News – July 5, 2022] The Episcopal Church is not considering a single resolution to revise the 1979 Book of Common Prayer at the 80th General Convention, which convenes on Friday in Baltimore. But it will take the first step in determining how the prayer book is revised, and, beyond that, how it is defined, if it passes Resolution A059, proposed by the Task Force on Liturgical and Prayer Book Revision (TFLPRB).
Read more here.
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The strange journey of C028
By Jim Naughton
[House of Deputies News – June 30, 2022] The resolution that stoked perhaps the most vigorous online debate in advance of the 80th General Convention died in committee on Monday when the legislative committees on Prayer Book, Liturgy and Music of the House of Bishops and House of Deputies voted to take no action on it.
Resolution C028, endorsed by the Diocese of Northern California, requested the repeal of Canon I.17.7, which states: “No unbaptized person shall be eligible to receive Holy Communion in this Church.”
Read more here.
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GC80 article archive
A list of links to articles about General Convention and the issues likely to be addressed in Baltimore is here.
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On the way to General Convention
By John Harvey Taylor
[The Bishop's Blog – July 7, 2022] It will be a blessing to join my House of Deputies colleagues in representing the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles at the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, which begins Friday morning at the Baltimore Convention Center and continues through Monday.
By planning to arrive tonight at midnight, nevertheless hopeful I’ll be ensconced at my table in the House of Bishops when the Rt. Rev. Diane Jardine Bruce, as secretary of the house, calls the roll first thing in the morning, I’m putting the fickle and flighty gods of Denver connections to the test. Place your bets, please. So far, so good. I’m writing this at LAX, where the travelers are few and the concessions plentiful, untroubled by long lines.
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The other photo, with the Rev. Canons Jamesetta Hammons and Ada Wong-Nagata, is from #GC79 at Austin. It was all so simple then. #GC80 will be a selfie desert. Where are Waldo and ++Michael? Present, but only to be photographed from a certain distance. Four days instead of eight, 1,200 instead of the usual 10,000 Episco-Pals, convention will be under strict COVID protocols designed to keep infection rates at 10% among the vaccinated and boosted, which should make the chances of serious illness extremely low. Planners are asking the houses of deputies and bishops not to mingle, even for photos.
In the spring, they considered putting the whole thing on line but decided the church's canons ruled it out. One also sensed a bias in favor of finding a way for at least some of us to travel (the source of greatest risk) and be together while modeling best practices and taking care of one another and our hosts. As the pandemic matures, this has been and will be our shared challenge, at home, church, and work and in the world.
Read more here.
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The Rev. Lester Mackenzie prepares to begin his third General Convention as chaplain to the House of Deputies, appointed by its president, Gay Jennings. When he's not rocking the house, energizing the deputies with chants and drumming influenced by his childhood and young adulthood in South Africa, Mackenzie is rector of St. Mary's Church, Laguna Beach. He was a deputy from the Diocese of Los Angeles at the 2012, 2015 and 2018 meetings of General Convention. He chose not to run for deputy for this meeting, but continues as chaplain, a role he calls "a privilege and gift." | |
The Rev. Pat Hendrickson and the Rev. Kate Lewis, deacon and priest at St. Columba's, Camarillo, and volunteers at many meetings of General Convention, encounter the Rt. Rev. Diane Jardine Bruce, former bishop suffragan in the L.A. diocese, now serving as provisional bishop of the Diocese of West Missouri. As secretary of the House of Bishops, Bishop Bruce was in Baltimore early to make preparations for the bishops' deliberations. Photo is by the Rev. Keith Yamamoto, rector of St. Mark's Church, Upland, and GC's volunteer coordinator of public safety. | |
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