General Convention Report
For the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles
| |
Kentucky priest elected vice president of House of Deputies
By Melodie Woerman
[Episcopal News Service – Louisville, Kentucky – June 27, 2024] The Rev. Steve Pankey, a deputy from the Diocese of Kentucky, on June 27 was elected vice president of the House of Deputies.
Pankey, who is rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Bowling Green, Kentucky, was elected on the second ballot after receiving 442 votes out of 821 votes cast; 406 votes were needed to win.
He was an Executive Council member from 2020 to 2022 and currently serves on the Standing Commission on Structure, Governance, Constitution and Canons. He is a four-time deputy to General Convention, and this year he chairs the deputies’ Rules of Order Committee.
Read more
| |
Bishops, youth working to end gun violence unite in Louisville rally
By Shireen Korkzan
[ENS – Louisville, Kentucky – June 27, 2024] After three students were killed and five others were injured in 2023 at Michigan State University in East Lansing, T.J. Rapson, a high school student in the Diocese of Michigan, feared for his friends’ lives. He kept checking the news to make sure they were safe.
But that wasn’t Rapson’s only traumatic experience with gun violence.
“When I first saw that there was an opportunity to advocate for gun violence at General Convention, I immediately flashed back to sitting in the back corner of my biology classroom during a six-hour lockdown, thinking there was a very real possibility that I or some of my friends could die,” Rapson told Episcopal News Service, following an gun-safety rally.
Read more
| |
House of Deputies repudiates pro-slavery views of 19th century house president in somber vote
By David Paulsen
[ENS – Louisville, Kentucky – June 27, 2024] The House of Deputies repudiated the pro-slavery theology of one of its Civil War-era presidents on June 27 at the request of the host Bishop Terry White and deputation from the Diocese of Kentucky, where the deputies’ former president was as a priest.
The Rev. James Craik served in Louisville for nearly 40 years, as rector of the downtown congregation that later would become Christ Church Cathedral. In 1862, the same year the House of Deputies first elected him president, Craik, a slaveholder, published a racist tract defending slavery on the grounds of white supremacy. That history had long been overlooked, until recent years, when the diocese and cathedral began researching and reckoning with its role in slavery and other racist systems.
“Our 11th president published a pamphlet containing a reprehensible theology of slavery,” the Very Rev. Becca Kello, an alternate Kentucky deputy, told the house in urging passage of Resolution D074. “I would now ask this same body meeting in this same city where he served to renounced that theology.”
Read more
| |
Bishops defeat prison reform measure
At right: Bishop John Harvey Taylor appears on the video screen in the House of Bishops as he speaks in favor of resolution D034: "Support and Advocacy for Restorative Justice and a Moral Commitment to Abolition of Prisons and Policing." The House of Deputies had already passed the resolution; a "yes" vote by the House of Bishops was necessary for it to take effect. The bishops, however, voted not to concur.
"I favored it because it was the only thing before us for the whole convention that addressed prison and jail reform, though I didn’t like the elements about policing," Taylor told The Episcopal News. "The [Social Justice & United States Policy] committee did a wonderful job turning it into a reformist resolution, though its abolitionist antecedents were showing in the police stuff. But I felt it was 95% of the way there and otherwise we wouldn’t have anything at all to say about prison reform."
The over-incarceration of people of color is one of the issues informing Taylor's prison reform advocacy.
"It’s hard to read the raw statistics without cringing," Taylor wrote in a June 19 (Juneteenth) blog post. "Sixty percent of the U.S. population is white but just 30% of those in federal prison. Just over 12% of us are people of African descent compared to nearly 35% of prisoners.
"People don’t vary according to race in their moral and ethical capacity, although I fear some are still tempted to think otherwise," Taylor continued in his blog entry, which he also published on his Facebook page. "The only explanation for the disparity is the hard truth that we haven’t reckoned fully with the sins of slavery, Jim Crow, and continuing racism."
Photo: Norma Guerra
| |
In yesterday's report, this photo caption had a couple of errors, so here it is again, corrected:
June 25 was Camp Tee Shirt Day at General Convention, and the Los Angeles deputation proudly wore their Camp Stevens shirts. Back row, from left; Alan Herendich, Dominique Piper, Guy Leemhuis, Cameron Johnson, Rachel Nyback (deputation chair), Andy Tomat and Kelli-Grace Kurtz. In front: Fennie Chang, Thomas Diaz, and Kathryn Nishibayashi.
| |
GC81 Daily Digest, June 27: George Werner remembered, Philadelphia 11 honored, Gay Jennings welcomed
[ENS – Louisville, Kentucky – June 27, 2024] The 81st General Convention continues to meet at the Kentucky International Convention Center. You can find full, regularly updated ENS coverage here. The ENS primer, or everything you need to follow the 81st General Convention, is here. A lot can happen on any given day at General Convention. News that doesn’t make it into a full story gets filed into our daily digest.
Convention’s Official Youth Presence delegates represent future of the church
[ENS – Louisville, Kentucky – June 27, 2024] The 18 high school students making up the Official Youth Presence of the 81st General Convention have brought energy and fresh insight to the week’s proceedings. Representing every province of The Episcopal Church, they exhibit passionate opinions and say they’re ready for the church to listen to their voices.
Deputies’ new deadlines for resolutions, committees give a nod to General Convention’s future
[ENS – Louisville, Kentucky – June 27, 2024] The Episcopal Church experienced a pandemic-shortened General Convention in 2022, and this week, it is wrapping up a post-pandemic 81st General Convention that, at six legislative days, is still shorter than the historical norm.
81st General Convention adopts constitutional change defining Book of Common Prayer
[ENS – Louisville, Kentucky – June 27, 2024] The Book of Common Prayer has a new constitutional definition: “Those liturgical forms and other texts authorized by the General Convention in accordance with this article and the canons of this Church.”
Deputies send apartheid resolution back to bishops, adopt bishops’ version of ceasefire resolution
[ENS – Louisville, Kentucky – June 27, 2024] The House of Deputies passed three resolutions concerning violence in Israel and Palestine in their legislative sessions June 26. Two of them, D007 and D056, went on to become official acts of convention while the third, D013, will be sent back to the House of Bishops.
| |
Keeping up with General Convention | |
Click the blue headings to find a wide range of information about General Convention.
General Convention Office
This is communication central for the convention, with links to information about schedules, legislative actions, resolutions and more.
Media Hub
On this page you'll find live video coverage of the House of Bishops, House of Deputies, and worship services, along with a photo gallery and short videos.
The General Convention schedule
How resolutions move through General Convention
The General Convention Virtual Binder
For true church nerds: this is the information used by bishops and deputies as they go about their work at the convention, including texts and progress of all resolutions. It is updated regularly.
House of Bishops
House of Deputies
Social Media
Follow social media updates from General Convention with the hashtag #GC81
| |
Except as noted, reporting and photos by Janet Kawamoto, editor, The Episcopal News | | | | |