Day 2 – June 22nd
Legislation being voted on by General Convention can be labeled A, B, C, or (you guessed it) D. According to the General Convention website, those letters mean the following:
“A” Resolutions are submitted by Interim Bodies and Legislative Committees
“B” Resolutions are submitted by Bishops
“C” Resolutions are submitted by Provinces or Dioceses
“D” Resolutions are submitted by Deputies
Most “A” Resolutions have been carefully crafted by Interim Bodies – groups of volunteers who meet in the years between Conventions. They’re usually pretty well researched and written.
“D” Resolutions are submitted by deputies to convention, so they’re a mixed bag. One of the jobs of a Legislative Committee is to review Resolutions to determine if they need to be “perfected” – edited so they’ll have a better chance of passing muster when they come to a vote. My committee met today and one of the pieces of legislation we reviewed was a formal condemnation of antisemitism, D059.
(All legislation can be found in the Vbinder at vbinder.net .)
The committee agreed with the intent of the proposal, but it had mechanical problems. For one thing, it avoided defining antisemitism – the thing it was condemning. We had authors of the legislation at our hearing this morning and they said that there were several common definitions, but they’d deliberately avoided picking one of them. While we understood that logic, we wanted the Resolution to succeed and that meant sifting through a variety of definitions to find one we felt would be properly received. Later in the morning I met with a group of people and we went over the legislation line-by-line to improve its language. We’ll meet again tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. to present it to the entire Legislative Committee.
(I hear the clicking of hundreds of keyboards as people rush to find out how to become a deputy to General Convention.)
That was my morning. In the afternoon we gathered for opening greetings from the current President of the House of Deputies and the current Presiding Bishop. (A bit of advice: NEVER go on stage AFTER Michael Curry.) The deputies were then given an orientation to the mechanics of amending legislation and voting on it. The practice resolution resolved that, “…for all liturgical and canonical purposes, a hot dog is a sandwich.” That amendment to church Canons failed.
In the evening we gathered in the KFC YUM Center (honest, that’s its name!) for a revival. Lots of singing, lots of clapping, and a phenomenal message by the Presiding Bishop. (Let me say it again: NEVER go on stage AFTER Michael Curry.) As in Austin, Texas, six years ago, he had a translator on stage and the two of them were like a standup act. If you didn’t watch it live, there may be a recording of it here: https://media.episcopalchurch.org/video/revival-convention-worship/ (though I don’t see it available yet). It was AMAZING.
Tomorrow’s Sunday. I have a legislative meeting, Eucharist, and then the first day voting on Resolutions.