MASSACHUSETTS: Convention explores being 'holy partners'
Episcopal News Service. November 6, 2007 [110607-04]
Tracy J. Sukraw, Associate director of communications and editor of the Episcopal Times in the Diocese of Massachusetts
"Partnership" was the word of the weekend for the 600 members of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts gathered for the 222nd annual convention held November 2-3 at the Royal Plaza Hotel in Fitchburg.
Instead of a traditional address, Bishop M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE, offered three meditations during the course of the convention that provided prayerful reflection, encouragement and challenge around the convention theme of "Holy Partners in a Heavenly Calling," taken from Hebrews 3:1.
Throughout the two days, convention-goers learned, through presentations, videos and discussion, about local, national and global mission partnerships. Bishop Suffragan Bud Cederholm announced a new program of $3,000 challenge grants to help deaneries launch or develop such partnerships.
The diocese's evolving Gulf Coast partnerships, devoted to post-Hurricane Katrina relief, were spotlighted at a high-spirited benefit dinner November 2 that raised more than $22,000 to help fund the second year of Massachusetts priest Jane Bearden's residency at the Church of the Redeemer in Biloxi, Mississippi. Bearden coordinates mission trips and supports parish and community programs in Biloxi and New Orleans.
Additionally, an offering of $4,678 was taken up during the convention Eucharist for St. Luke's Anglican Hospital in Nablus, in Palestine's northern West Bank.
"The continuing political difficulties and their effect on the economic situation have placed a stranglehold on St. Luke's Hospital, and it is struggling to function," Bishop Suffragan Gayle E. Harris told the convention. "Let us remind our sisters and brothers in the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East that we have not forgotten them."
Longtime convention secretary Leon A. Brathwaite II and Elisabeth Keller and the Rev. Maggie Geller, co-leaders of diocesan Jubilee Ministry AIDS-response projects in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, were honored during the Eucharist for their leadership and service.
During its business session, the convention approved three of the five resolutions submitted for its consideration.
One opposes the expansion of gambling in Massachusetts, where the potential legalization of casino gambling is currently a topic of state political debate. (While the diocesan measure received the necessary majority, the substantial minority appeared to be evenly split between those against the resolution and those abstaining.)
Another resolution endorses the development of a Spanish-language antiracism training program.
The third asks that resolutions be submitted to the next General Convention of the Episcopal Church to change the June 18 designation for Bernard Mizeki, catechist and martyr, to read "Zimbabwe" instead of "Rhodesia" in the church calendar, Lesser Feasts and Fasts and any other Church Publishing Company publications.
The two resolutions not voted upon were referred back to committees for more work.
One resolution encouraged analysis and discussion of the U.S. military -- including the morality of its recruitment methods, especially in impoverished neighborhoods -- and consideration of "the moral, ethical, theological and legal ramifications of Christian involvement in war." The resolution spurred heartfelt but wide-ranging debate that led the convention to conclude that the resolution's specific intent was not clear, and it ultimately voted to send the resolution back to the diocesan Peace and Justice Committee.
Another resolution, devoted to the adoption of a diocesan covenant on congregational vitality, viability and mutual interdependence, was sent back to the Congregational Development and Support Committee without discussion.
"There was a shared sense that more work and conversation was needed around issues of concern before going forward," interim chief of diocesan staff Jim Gammill explained after the convention.
Information about the resolutions and the other work of convention is available here.
Elected as deputies to the 76th General Convention of the Episcopal Church were Byron Rushing of St. John St. James Church in Roxbury; Samuel Gould of St. Stephen's Church in Lynn; Richard H. Vanderlippe of Trinity Church in Concord; Rebecca A. Alden of St. David's Church in South Yarmouth; the Rev. Ian Douglas of St. James's Church in Cambridge; the Rev. Jane S. Gould of St. Stephen's Church in Lynn; the Rev. Mally E. Lloyd of Christ Church in Plymouth; and the Rev. Gale Davis Morris of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Acton. Alternate deputies will be elected next year.
In other business, the convention:
- approved a balanced budget of $7.7 million for 2008;
- approved, on second reading, a constitutional amendment entitling each congregation to two convention delegates;
- approved, on first reading, two constitutional amendments, one clarifying when amendments become effective and another allowing lay members of Diocesan Council to vote at diocesan convention;
- approved the addition of a diocesan canon creating a diocesan review committee for the investigation of charges filed under the Episcopal Church's disciplinary canons (to date the diocesan Standing Committee has acted as the review committee); and
- sent condolences to the bishops of Ohio and Colorado, both formerly priests in Massachusetts, on their respective local teams' recent American League championship and World Series losses to the Boston Red Sox.
"It doesn't pay to leave Massachusetts," Shaw quipped.
The Diocese of Massachusetts covers the eastern third of Massachusetts, from the New Hampshire border in the north to the Cape and islands in the south. Established in 1784, it is among the oldest and largest in the Episcopal Church, with 74,000 members in 194 congregations.