I wanted to share a few final thoughts about GC81.
GC81 by the numbers
- 825-ish (it varied) deputies in the House of Deputies, half clergy and half lay
- 158 Bishops in the House of Bishops (based on the vote for the Presiding Bishop)
- 6 Legislative days (as opposed to 8 in 2018 and 4 in 2022 due to COVID)
- 396 Resolutions
- 396 Resolution/6 days = 66 Resolutions per day
The Consent Calendar
One of my concerns with the super-abbreviated agenda in Baltimore in 2022 was the overuse of the consent agenda. A consent agenda is used to pass routine and non-controversial matters. We had MASSIVE consent agendas, some over 100 items, just to get the work of Convention completed. I was rarely enthusiastic about 100 items at once. This year I felt very differently about the consent agenda. Resolutions that went to the floor usually took quite a while. Even things we all agreed on had to be talked about as people wanted to share their experiences and feelings. We could never address 66 resolutions a day if each took 45 minutes. The consent agendas were much more modest and it was pretty easy to remove an item from the consent agenda and open it up for discussion. In Baltimore that was nearly impossible and I think only happened once.
Highlights
I think our best work was when we did the unique work of the Church. We merged two sets of dioceses and made Navajoland into a missionary diocese. We approved reforms to the Title IV process (discipline of clergy), though I’m not clear on how they’ll mesh together as an overall process. The alternate services for the Book of Common Prayer are pretty exciting – the expansive language of Eucharistic Prayer C and the new Good Friday service will, I think, see a lot of use.
I’m optimistic about what our new Presiding Bishop, The Rt. Rev. Sean Rowe, will mean for us in the next nine years. I’m incredibly proud to have been able to vote to confirm Michael Curry in 2015 and now believe that we’ve selected the right person to lead this corner of the Jesus Movement into its next chapter.
I also have to say that my legislative committee,14: Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations, got all of its resolutions passed, all through the consent agenda process. We are now in full communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria, something with far-reaching implications for the Convocation in Europe. We’re making progress with the United Methodist Church and with the Presbyterian Church – USA. And we issued guidance documents for Jewish-Christian and Islamic-Christian relations along with statements against antisemitism and anti-Muslim bias.
It is truly an honor to be permitted to serve as a deputy to General Convention by the Diocese of Missouri.