New Directions Charted by Convention
Diocesan Press Service. October 5, 1967 [58-1]
The Episcopal Church will strike out in new directions with bold new programs during the next three years as the result of decisions of its 62nd General Convention, which concluded 11 days and nights of meetings and deliberations at the Seattle Center Sept. 27.
Among the major results of the Convention and the 32nd Triennial Meeting of the Women of the Church were the following:
1. Passage of legislation which, on second reading, will make women eligible for election as members of General Convention's House of Deputies.
2. Adoption of a budget of more than $45,600,000 for the coming triennium, including $9, 000, 000 requested by Presiding Bishop Hines, for an imaginative and forthright assault by the Church on the nation's urban crisis.
3. Approval of continued participation of the Episcopal Church in the program of the Consultation on Church Union, the on-going effort among 10 Christian denominations to achieve ultimate organic unity.
4. Adoption of a resolution on Vietnam which strongly supported efforts to achieve peace in Southeast Asia while stopping short of both a condemnation of the bombing of North Vietnam and an unqualified endorsement of the American government's policies there.
5. Adopted a resolution broadly upholding the right of conscientious objection to military service but voted down a similar document supporting the individual's prerogative to object to such service in particular wars or conflicts.
6. Adopted the Pusey Report on theological education, which sharply etched deficiencies in the recruitment and training of candidates for the ministry and outlined corrective recommendations, notably as they affect the Church's seminaries.
7. Accepted the so-called "Bayne Report" on theological freedom and urged the Presiding Bishop to name an ad hoc committee to develop canonical changes to implement its recommendations. The report and supporting canonical amendments to guarantee due process in presentments against clergy caused the Rt. Rev. James A. Pike, resigned fifth Bishop of the Diocese of California, to withdraw his demand for a trial of charges that had led to his censure by his fellow-bishops a year ago during their meeting at Wheeling, W. Va.
8. Gave approval to canonical changes that will permit lay leaders under certain restrictions to be licensed by their bishop to administer the chalice during Holy Eucharists.
9. Approved, on second reading, action of the 61st General Convention at St. Louis in authorizing the alternative use of the term "The Episcopal Church" in addition to the traditional "Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A." as the official name of the communion.
10. Approved trial use for a period of three years of the new Liturgy of the Lord's Supper and voted approval of a study by a special commission looking to revision of the Book of Common Prayer for use in the American church.
11. Enacted a resolution favoring removal of legal restrictions against therapeutic abortions under carefully-guarded conditions when not performed for the convenience of the mother. These would include cases of rape and incest.
12. Adopted resolutions calling for promotion of Christian attitudes about sexuality "focused more upon the development of human personality and relationship in the context of social responsibility" than on regulation of individual conduct of adults in private. They also urged educational programs on the subject within the Church.
13. Defeated the Partnership Plan. Action taken by the House of Bishops defeated the concept of no national quotas which had passed the House of Deputies. The bishops did pass a resolution endorsing the partnership "principle" as a goal, but this was defeated by the deputies in turn.
Perhaps the single most dramatic moment of the Convention came when Mrs. Seaton Bailey, of Griffii, Ga., Triennial Presiding Officer, announced that they had voted to give, "with no strings attached," more than $2,265,000 to the Presiding Bishop for his urban crisis program.
In his sermon during the opening service at the Coliseum on Sunday evening, September 17, Bishop Hines had delivered a stirring call for the Church to unite behind a dynamic program having for its purpose the deepest possible involvement by all Episcopalians in the battle for social justice among minority groups in the nation's residential and economic ghettos.
In their response, the women of the church threw the weight of their influence and participation in the total Church work behind his appeal, and contributed in large measure, in the opinion of many observers, to the inclusion of funds for the purpose in the general church budget for 1968 and the following two years.
The 1968 budget approved by Convention for the first year of the triennium was $14,654,053. The amount for the next two years will be set annually by Executive Council within the limits of the $45, 600,000 total.
As the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies ended their sessions Wednesday afternoon, both Bishop Hines and the retiring president of the deputies, Dr. Clifford Morehouse, appeared at a press conference at which they joined in assessing the 1967 meeting as the most successful in their personal recollection, both for accomplishment and attention to duty.
Bishop Hines characterized the Convention's action on the urban crisis program as likely the most vital single measure enacted by Convention.
On the VietNam issue, the Presiding Bishop said that he felt that the resolution adopted by Convention was "good and one the Church ought to adopt," expressing, as it did, the honest division of concern among Episcopalians for Americans fighting there as well as the moral issue involved in the United States' position in Southeast Asia.
Dr. Morehouse agreed with him, as well as with his estimate of the Convention as one of "reform and renewal."
Both of them had high praise for the Seattle Center as a convention site and for Seattle's hospitality. Both also pointed out that this Convention, while shortened from 11 to nine working days and nights, actually spent considerably more time in business sessions than the 1964 meeting in St. Louis.
The meetings themselves, split among the Center's many buildings were blessed with warm, sunny weather throughout, and the thousands of visitors who swelled attendance over and beyond the official participants were likewise warm in their approbation of the convention facilities.
In addition to the major items of business, both houses and the Triennial dealt with almost endless agenda of essential matters, some merely housekeeping in nature and others involving actions of consequence in the life of the Church.
A Highlight of Convention was the appearance of the Anglican Communion's spiritual head, the Most Rev. and Rt. Hon. Arthur Michael Ramsey, 100th Archbishop of Canterbury. With Mrs. Ramsey and his official party, he spent four days at the Convention, visiting both houses, the women's meeting, and preaching at a Holy Eucharist service at St. Mark's Cathedral Sunday morning and at a massive Ecumenical Service in the Coliseum on Sunday evening before leaving for Milwaukee.
As the deputies and bishops began packing to head for their far-flung homes, they face a special convention in 1969, the time and place to be chosen by Bishop Hines, at which many of the matters not finally disposed of in Seattle will be dealt with, plus new problems and activities.
When the House of Deputies meets then, it will be presided over by a new president, the Very Rev. John Coburn, dean of the Episcopal Theological School, Cambridge, Mass. He was elected to succeed Dr. Clifford Morehouse, New York publisher, who is retiring after three terms.
The Presiding Bishop in the future will exercise more responsibility under changes approved by Convention, including definition of his role as the Church's spokesman and chief pastor, as which he will undertake visits to dioceses.
The Church also gained three new bishops this week -- the Rev. William Frey of the new Missionary District of Guatemala; the Rev. E. Lani Hanchett as Suffragan Bishop of Honolulu, and the Very Rev. Edmond Browning, Missionary Bishop of Okinawa.
It also gained two new dioceses, the former Missionary Districts of Idaho and Wyoming attaining that status within the United States; and overseas, a new Missionary District of Okinawa, and five Missionary Districts created from the former Missionary District of Central America.
The House of Deputies elected Charles Crump, Memphis attorney, as its vice- president, succeeding the Very Rev. John C. Leffler of Seattle while the House of Bishops chose the Rt. Rev. F. Scott Bailey as its new secretary, and reelected the Rt. Rev. Nelson M. Burroughs as vice-chairman.
Among other matters passed at Seattle was the constitutional change permitting translation of diocesan bishops between dioceses after five years in place, cession of territory by one diocese to another, and provisions for election of a new Presiding Bishop in event of an incumbent's death or disability.
And, after considerable parliamentary and cloak-room maneuvering, the House of Bishops solved the knotty problem of seating resigned bishops by deciding to give them seat and voice but not vote. They include Bishop Pike and the Rt. Rev. Donald J. Campbell, former Suffragan Bishop of Los Angeles but now a member of the staff of Episcopal Theological School, and the Rt. Rev. A. Ervine Swift, former Bishop of Puerto Rico, now rector of a parish church in Florida.