The Episcopal Church's national Executive Council recommended Denver as the site of the 73rd General Convention when the council met Nov. 8-13 in Toronto in a rare joint session with the council of the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada.

A resolution recommending Denver for the convention in 2000 will be sent to the 72nd General Convention next year in Philadelphia for adoption. Denver was selected by the council's Standing Committee on Administration and Finance after also considering Orlando, Anaheim and Cincinnati.

The two councils met in joint sessions and separately, worshiped, socialized and engaged in Bible study together at the meeting in a suburban hotel. Both primates addressed the joint sessions.

The Most Rev. Edmond L. Browning, Presiding Bishop, spoke of his close relationship with the Canadian primate, Archbishop Michael Peers.

"Hearing about his ministry is always an encouragement," Bishop Browning said. "We laugh and cry about many of the same things. We spend a lot of time on the telephone together ... His ministry is an incredible support to my ministry, and in the way that friendships are mutual, I pray he could say the same thing."

In his address from the chair, Bishop Browning talked on several topics, including the U.S. election.

"I don't think there was anyone who wasn't glad to see the campaign end," he said. "Political campaigns do not necessarily bring out the best in our human natures. Political campaigns are the incarnation not of partnership, but of us and them.

"The church exists not in a vacuum but in a culture, a culture that includes political campaigns ... Our church has the opportunity to bring the values of our faith, the insights that we're given, the wonderful via media of Anglicanism, to our culture. We have so much to give ... that it is to our great diminishment as a church when we adopt the worst aspects of the political model within our household of faith. Sometimes that does happen."

Pamela Chinnis, president of General Convention's House of Deputies, emphasized the partnership between the two churches and the Anglican Communion.

"From a motley collection of remnants of the Church of England in former British colonies, we have become an international commonwealth of believers more and more aware of our need for each other," she said.

She called upon North American Anglicans to live out their baptismal promises, particularly in resisting and renouncing evil.

"Anyone who doubts the reality of those evil powers and their ability to corrupt God's children hasn't been paying much attention to what is going on in the world or in the church," she said. "With sickening frequency we have witnessed spectacular sins involving money, sex and the abuse of privilege and power. The widow's mite has been stolen; priests and bishops have violated trust and desecrated sanctuaries. None of us is as innocent as we might believe, and none of us is as guilty as others might believe."

The joint session opened when Archbishop Peers presented his address. The archbishop said his tradition is "to account in detail for the use of his time," and he outlined how he had spent his time during the previous six months. It included 231/2 days of travel, some 1781/2 hours in flight and 67 takeoffs and landings.

In a later session, the American council members watched the Canadian council make its presentation of the proposed budget for 1997, and took part in an open forum in small groups on various aspects of the budget. Archbishop Peers fielded questions and comments in one of the groups.

Later that day, both councils traveled to downtown Toronto, where they visited Holy Trinity Church, a congregation with a strong program of feeding the homeless, for a celebration of the Eucharist and a dinner provided by several different ethnic groups from the Diocese of Toronto.

The following day, it was the Canadians' turn to observe as the Americans heard the report of visits by council members and Episcopal Church Center staff to dioceses [p. 2].

On Sunday, Archbishop Peers celebrated the Eucharist according to the Canadian Book of Alternative Services and the Very Rev. James Merritt of the Diocese of Quebec preached.

Later that day, meeting in a separate session, church center executives Diane Porter and Bishop Charlie McNutt spoke about church burnings in the South. Bishop McNutt called them "a tragic and evil situation," and Ms. Porter said the burnings are "a very real phenomenon which occurred and continues to occur..."

Nancy Marvel of the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief said the fund's request of $100,000 from the church to help rebuild burned churches raised more than $750,000, and added that she expects the total to surpass $1 million.

Ms. Porter also announced changes at the church center. She said the Rev. Hugh Magers, stewardship officer, had been appointed evangelism officer on an interim basis through 1997. She said Teresa Parsons of Lexington will become stewardship officer after having been a field officer for the national church. A pre-retirement sabbatical leave by the Rev. Allen Brown, executive for rural and small community ministries, also was reported. Ms. Porter said the Rev. Robert Willing, formerly archdeacon in the Diocese of New York, would serve as a consultant in that office. In another appointment, the Rev. Preston Kelsey was named assistant to the Presiding Bishop, succeeding the Rev. Richard S.O. Chang, who was elected Bishop of Hawaii [p. 7].

Bishop Don Wimberly of Lexington, reporting for the Committee on Administration and Finance, brought council members up to date on the Ellen Cooke situation. He said of the $2.2 million embezzled by the former treasurer, more than $2,102,000 has been recovered, making a loss of about $101,000.

"That ends it as far as we're concerned," Bishop Wimberly said.

Bishop Wimberly and executives from the financial office reviewed the 1996 budget, which is showing a small profit after the first nine months. They also presented a budget for 1997 which shows expenses of about $40.5 million and revenues of more than $37 million. Treasurer Stephen Duggan said the deficit could be made up in a number of ways, including using more than $1.2 million in "lapsed balance" funds [TLC, July 7]. He called it "a healthy approach to solving our budget dilemma."

The 1997 expenses are an increase of about $3 million from 1996. Mr. Duggan said the cost of General Convention in 1997 and restoration of program spending were the main reasons for the increase.

The budget was adopted unanimously and will be sent to General Convention for final action.

The Concordat of Agreement, which would establish full communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) also was discussed. The Rev. David Perry, the church's ecumenical officer, reported on the meeting of the Lutheran-Episcopal Coordinating Committee, held in November in Indianapolis to make final changes in the document.

"Substantial issues remain unchanged, but clarified," he said. Fr. Perry added that the document will be circulated soon among bishops, General Convention deputies and other leaders. He introduced Bishop Ralph Kempski of ELCA's Kentucky-Indiana Synod, who addressed the council.

"The Spirit is moving in a special way at this time," he said. He reminded the council that the ELCA is still a new church, and that two-thirds of its bishops are new. Bishop Kempski called the joint meeting of bishops of the two churches [TLC, Oct. 27] "a mountaintop experience," and added, "I saw bishops do a 180-degree turn on this issue."

In other business, council heard reports on the Anglican Consultative Council in Panama [TLC, Nov. 3,10], preparations for the Lambeth Conference in 1998, and adopted a wide variety of resolutions ranging from the treatment of women in Afghanistan to addressing conflict of interest policies for council and staff members.

Council meets again in Cincinnati Jan. 27-31.