Varied Issues Loom At Episcopal Convention
Episcopal News Service. August 15, 1979 [79256x]
New York -- The Church's response in the secular world will be a major focus for the Episcopal Church's General Convention next month as it grapples with issues of human sexuality, racial and sexual discrimination, peace, hunger and the needs of special communities.
The Convention will meet Sept. 8-20 in Denver, Colo., to lay the direction, set the budget and elect the people who will carry out the Church's work for the years 1980-82. More than 900 lay and clerical deputies, representing every jurisdiction in the Church, and more than 150 bishops will gather for the bicameral legislative session, which meets every three years.
The work of Convention -- the highest governing authority of the Episcopal Church -- is based on reports and recommendations from a number of Standing Commissions, and on memorials and petitions that have been submitted by dioceses, bishops, deputies and Church groups. More than 300 resolutions, memorials and petitions have been submitted to the Convention.
One issue that is certain to command attention early in the Convention is that of homosexuals in the ordained ministry of the Church. The last meeting of Convention, in Minneapolis in September 1976, ordered its Standing Commission on Human Affairs and Health to conduct an in-depth study on the issue and report its findings and recommendations "to the Church at large for study... to the next General Convention."
That panel, chaired by the Rt. Rev. Robert Rae Spears, Bishop of Rochester, has asked the Church not to enact legislation that would make homosexuality "an absolute barrier to ordination. "
The proposed statement further says that "The question, with regard to any ordinand, is whether he or she can and will lead a life which is a wholesome example to Christ's flock. "
The Commission's proposed resolution recognizes that expressions of both homosexuality and heterosexuality may involve "behavior which most Christians regard as abnormal, immoral, and/or anti-social. "
"There should be no barrier to the ordination of those homosexual persons who are able and willing to conform their behavior to that which the Church affirms as wholesome," the resolution says.
The Commission's statement points out that if the Convention should make a specific human condition, such as homosexuality, a universal barrier to ordination, diocesan bishops and ministry commissions would be deprived of their responsibilities for approving postulants and candidates.
The Commission chose to recommend a "mind of the General Convention" approval of its statements rather than a change in the Constitution or Canons of the Church.
Reaction to the report -- which appeared in early June -- has been swift, but varied. At this writing, at least 13 memorials and petitions have been submitted for Convention's consideration along with the Commission report.
Six oppose the recommendation of the Commission and seek actual canonical barrier against ordination of homosexuals and three attempt to set limits on approved sexual expression.
Although the ordination of women to the priesthood was resolved by the last Convention, a number of dioceses seem to feel that there is still widespread discrimination against both ordained and lay women in Church ministry. A number of resolutions have been submitted asking for investigation into employment practices and the establishment of Churchwide standards.
The Church will also be asked to give its support to the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment -- including moving the site of the 1982 General Convention from New Orleans to a state that has already ratified the amendment -- and to the national Abortion Rights Coalition.
Over the last three years, the Church has undertaken major studies of ministry with the aging, families and hunger and all of these have resulted in resolutions for Convention consideration. Legislation calling for family impact studies -- similar to those required for ecological plans -- is one example of these and a direct result of a conference held last November.
Hunger issues will claim Convention attention not only through the legislative process -- four petitions call for a wide range of Church action in this field -- but through regular non-meat meals, a John Denver benefit performance and a call for a day of prayer and fasting at Denver.
The Church is also asked -- through petitions from the Episcopal Peace Fellowship -- to renew its opposition to the death penalty and reinstatement of a military draft. The Fellowship is also seeking support for statements against nuclear arms proliferation and development and for establishing a Churchwide commission to work for peace.
In urban ministry, the Convention is asked -- by its Commission on the Church in Metropolitan Areas -- to declare urban ministry the "primary mission focus" of the Church and to establish goals and strategies and greater allocation from General Church Program funds for this work.
That General Church Program will be presented to Convention at a joint session Sept. 11. Drawn up by the Executive Council, the $15.2 million proposal represents only a 4 percent increase over current operating expenses but suggests some cuts that have already led to countering proposals.
One of these would restore $100,000 to the block grant given to the Church's three black colleges. This grant was cut to $700,000 by Council action which was to have begun a sliding scale of grants to the schools in the hope of encouraging increased financial development efforts.
Since the Convention is the chief legislative agency of the Church, a vast amount of its work has to do with changes in Church law and structure, but even here, a number of issues find wide interest among the public. Chief among these is the revision of the Church's Book of Common Prayer.
Convention will be asked to give final legislative approval to the proposed Book as the Standard Book succeeding the 1928 version. A number of resolutions simply call for this action to be taken.
Twenty-five, however, reflect a feeling among some churchpeople that the Episcopal Church should depart from Anglican tradition and give canonical status to continued use of the 1928 Book. In the past, toleration of use of all superceded books of Common Prayer has been only a matter of ecclesiastical discretion.
The way in which the Episcopal Church relates to other Churches and denominations is also a matter of widespread interest following a major three-year examination of ecumenical work.
The ecumenical issues are contained in the report of the Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations, which the 1976 Convention had asked to undertake the review of the Church's ecumenical work. This culminated in a National Ecumenical Conference in late 1978 which is largely responsible for the unity papers.
The highest priority emerging from the national conference was given to creating a working definition of the "Nature of the Unity We Seek," and the resulting paper -- which the Convention will be asked to endorse -- represents a shift away from the thinking of earlier decades.
The paper declares the goal to be "one eucharistic fellowship" to be expressed through recognition of the body as a "communion of communions based upon acknowledgement of catholicity and apostolicity. "
Within this framework, the drafters see full, mutual recognition of ministers and members, intercommunion, shared ministries and mission and a commitment to full, shared planning.
One of these is a Constitutional change being proposed for the first time (approval by two successive General Conventions is necessary) that would change the traditional vote by orders in the House of Deputies. Up to the present, a divided vote by either order of a deputation had the same effect as a negative vote. The change would list the divided vote simply as an abstention not to be counted in the total.
A change sought in the Canons would reduce each deputation in the House of Deputies from four clergy and four lay members to three in each order which, if passed, would have the effect of eliminating divided votes and of reducing the size of the 904member House by one-fourth.
Two Constitutional matters are up for their second and final approval. One would give seat and voice to assistant bishops in the House of bishops and the other would remove the vote from retired bishops. In recent years, dioceses have chosen more frequently to name men who have already been consecrated and served as bishops to provide episcopal assistance rather than go through the lengthy and costly process of electing, confirming and consecrating new bishops.