It was, in many ways, typically Anglican. The 71st General Convention of the Episcopal Church, which met in Indianapolis during late August and into September, was the church's top news story of 1994 even though it did not produce a significant amount of news. It was a time of compromising, listening, praying, studying of scripture, worshiping, greeting old friends, bantering, making new acquaintances and reaffirming.

Many persons felt the 10-day convention was characterized by a greater willingness to listen to conflicting views, and by a sense that there were no winners and no losers.

"Never have I been as grateful for this curious, confusing and sometimes exasperating church of ours as I was in Indianapolis," said the Rt. Rev. Frank Griswold, Bishop of Chicago. "Never have I had as clear a sense of God's grace at work in the life of a community."

The Rev. Don Johnson, a fourth-time deputy from East Tennessee, was not as enthusiastic.

"Overall, I found the convention to be disappointing, unfocused and vague," he said.

The Bishop of Montana, the Rt. Rev. C.I. Jones, called it "a different feeling or spirit than I have felt at the past two conventions. It was more a spirit of cooperation and recognition of our diversity. People were not hostile the way they have been in the past, but they were more accepting of each other."

Lay deputy Vaughn Owen Grant of Southeast Florida, attending her third convention, said, "The attitude was more positive than Phoenix; there was less polarity. There was more kindness in dealing with each other."

Kindness was needed in dealing with the major issues which came before convention. One of the most controversial was a pastoral teaching on sexuality produced by the House of Bishops, which underwent four revisions before it even reached convention. After long debate, the teaching eventually became a "study" which was overshadowed by two other documents. One, titled "An Affirmation," was produced by bishops from Province 7 and which upheld traditional teaching on marriage. The other, called "Koinonia," was presented by Bishop John Spong of Newark and said, in effect, that bishops who signed the document may ordain practicing homosexuals. Before leaving Indianapolis, 106 bishops had signed Affirmation and 54 had signed Koinonia.

Debate on the ordination of women as priests and bishops, 18 years after it was approved by General Convention, occupied considerable time. As a result, persons who oppose ordination of women on theological grounds were said to hold a valid position, but a committee was formed by the House of Bishops to promote further dialogue, especially in dioceses where women are not being ordained.

The budget adopted for the next triennium includes a new method of assessing dioceses, a smaller staff at the Episcopal Church Center and some restored funds for missionary work.

While the convention was difficult to summarize, Bishop A.C. Marble of Mississippi stated the views of many when he said: "I came away from General Convention feeling very positive and thankful for this wonderful Episcopal Church, and its willingness to deal with issues which are very controversial."

During convention, a presentment charge was made against the Bishop of Michigan, the Rt. Rev. R. Stewart Wood, by 29 lay persons and six members of the clergy who charged Bishop Wood's ordination of the Rev. Jennifer Walters, a practicing lesbian, was a violation of a 1979 resolution asking bishops not to ordain anyone who engages in homosexual sex. A committee of five bishops appointed by Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning said Bishop Wood was not guilty of violating church canons. Bishop Wood told the Detroit News he "appreciated the integrity with which this had been addressed."

Despite the hope many found in the Episcopal Church, there were defectors. The most prominent was the Rt. Rev. Clarence C. Pope, Bishop of Fort Worth, who announced in November he would join the Roman Catholic Church. Bishop Pope, who was to retire at the end of 1994, said he would seek the pastoral provision for ordination.

The Very Rev. Richard M. Hatfield, dean of Christ Cathedral, Salina, Kan., resigned after a disagreement with his bishop and eventually joined the Antiochian Orthodox Church. The rector and about 120 members of Church of the Advent, Cincinnati, left to establish an independent congregation, and many of the members of the St. John's, Quincy, Ill., the former cathedral of the Diocese of Quincy, and its rector, departed for the Anglican Church in America.

A reversal occurred in the Diocese of the Rio Grande when Trinity Church, an inter-denominational congregation in Albuquerque, N.M., affiliated with the Episcopal Church.

A similar event took place in the Diocese of Mississippi, where a "continuing Anglican" parish, St. George's, was received into the Episcopal Church by the Rt. Rev. A.C. Marble, Bishop of Mississippi, at St. Andrew's Cathedral, Jackson.

Theological seminaries were in the news in 1994. General Seminary in New York City revised its housing policy to make apartments available to committed same-sex couples. Nashotah House had four former seminarians charged with sexual offenses against minors while the four were students at the Wisconsin campus in the 1980s. And Virginia Theological Seminary became the first to have a woman dean when the Very Rev. Martha Horne was elected.

The Anglican-Roman Catholic/USA dialogue issued five affirmations on the Eucharist as sacrifice, including one which states: "We affirm that Christ in the Eucharist makes himself present sacramentally and truly when under the species of bread and wine these earthly realities are changed into the reality of his body and blood."

In April, an unusual announcement came from the Church Pension Fund, which said it will "return" more than $200 million to the church. The announcement said the action was made possible "by excellent stewardship and a period of extraordinary financial market returns." The pension fund listed five initiatives: the funding of a $50,000 life insurance benefit for active clergy and a $25,000 benefit for retired clergy; the waiver of more than $40 million in clergy pension assessments over the next four quarters; a clergy wellness initiative to study retirement, development and clerical formation; a pension rule change allowing clergy to retire at any month of the year without penalty; and expansion of benefit increases to recently retired clergy.

The pastoral study on sexuality was not the only document issued by the House of Bishops. In May, the bishops released a pastoral letter on racism, which stated, "The essence of racism is prejudice coupled with power. It is rooted in the sin of pride and exclusivity which assumes 'that I and my kind are superior to others and therefore deserve special privileges'." Bishops requested that the letter be read in all parishes.

Two dioceses involved in providing housing for the elderly encountered financial problems. The Rt. Rev. Donald P. Hart, Bishop of Hawaii, wound up resigning after the diocese signed a guaranty for a $4 million bank loan to Episcopal Homes of Hawaii and did not repay the loan. The housing corporation had planned to build a retirement project that ran into serious financial difficulties, owing more than $13 million.

In the Diocese of Milwaukee, a bank took over ownership of the historic DeKoven Center property in a sheriff's sale. The bank was trustee for about 1,700 people who purchased more than $12 million in bonds to finance Lake Oaks, a retirement community of 85 units developed by Episcopal Homes Management. The bank bid $3 million for the 142-year-old property, which includes a conference and retreat center, after the financial institution had won a foreclosure judgment against Episcopal Homes Management.

A new Episcopalian, theologian Matthew Fox, created a stir when he arranged for a British group to stage a "Planetary Mass" in the basement of Grace Cathedral, San Francisco. The two services in October featured gyrating dancers, flashing lights, sound equipment and video screens.

An organization which accomplished much in a short amount of time voted itself out of existence. Shaping Our Future, Inc., known best for organizing a symposium in St. Louis in 1993, cited debts and the unwillingness of General Convention to consider resolutions on restructure more seriously in deciding to end its ministry. Some of Shaping Our Future's ideas will be pursued by a new organization called the North American Missionary Society.

Among Episcopalians moving into prominent positions were the Very Rev. John Peterson as secretary general of the Anglican Consultative Council, the Rt. Rev. James Ottley as Anglican observer at the United Nations, and the Rev. Frederick Schmidt as dean of St. George's College, Jerusalem.