Day 3 – June 23
My first General Convention was in 2012. It was in Indianapolis, so I figured I could drive there easily enough and maybe help out. When I arrived they were pretty much taken care of by their volunteers, so I had plenty of time to observe the proceedings. A lot of my time was spent in the House of Bishops, where everything was polite and professional and I could easily track what was going on.
The House of Deputies was another matter. For one thing, all of the deputies had huge physical binders full of legislation – genuine Blue Books (virtual documents available online these days). And the chaos! We were still in the midst of fiery debates about human sexuality and everyone had something to say. Resolutions had amendments stacked on them, and the amendments had amendments stacked on them. Several times I saw the President of the House of Deputies shut everything down in order to try to unravel just what was going on.
Somehow that didn’t discourage me. The Diocese graciously elected me to go in 2015 as a deputy to Salt Lake City. What a difference a triennium made! The new President of the House of Deputies, the Rev. Gay Jennings, wrestled the chaos to the ground and made it cry “Uncle!” She put rules in place that allowed for orderly and respectful debate of vexing topics, and I’ve come to regard her as one of the most amazingly competent persons I’ve ever met.
Today was the first legislative day of General Convention 81, and we have a new President, Ms. Julia Ayala Harris. The initial resolutions we reviewed were breathtakingly un-sexy. They were setting the rules for how the House of Deputies would conduct its business; things like how long debate could last, and how you’d offer amendments, and how you’d amend those amendments. While it’s not something to write home about (…), it’s all exceedingly important. For our first session today we had 823 deputies present. There’s nothing simple about having a conversation between 823 people, let alone conversations over contentious issues.
With the rules now in place, we’ll be digging into 300 or so resolutions. That’s actually smaller than the usual 400-500 resolutions, but it’s only been two years since the last General Convention (moved from 2021 to 2022 due to a certain virus). Lots of issues will be hotly contested; most will pass easily. My legislative committee will have its share, and I hope to see them all pass.
Tomorrow will start with a presentation on the budget. Here’s a game you can play at home: How big do you think the budget of The Episcopal Church is? I’ll let you know tomorrow.