Tight Convention Faces Wide-ranging Agenda
Episcopal News Service. July 25, 1985 [85161]
NEW YORK (DPS, July 25) - While many Americans are wading through the popular novel Ladies of the Club this summer, delegates to the Episcopal Church's General Convention will have to put that aside for a bit to grapple with golden, brown and white volumes of reports if they are to get a handle on same of the nearly 300 resolutions that they will deal with at the Convention Sept. 8-14 in Anaheim, Calif.
The "Blue Book" (which is gold), the Report and Proposal of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church (brown) and a supplemental volume on Title III of the Canons (white) have been mailed to all bishops and deputies. These will be complemented at the Anaheim Convention Center by resolutions submitted by diocesan conventions, and individual bishops and deputies. Of course, many of the latter duplicate one another. There are eight seeking a permanent evangelism committee and six addressing APSO funding, for example.
Convention executive officer, the Rev. Canon James R. Gundrun, noted that, despite the shorter eight-day session, the Convention actually will have more committee time and more than five hours additional legislative time than it had during the 10-day meeting in 1982. This was accomplished in response to Convention calls in 1979 and 1982 for better stewardship by slightly longer legislative sessions and by having deputies' committees with full agenda start a half-day to a day early.
Four morning sessions will run from 9:30 to 12:30, and most afternoon sessions are 2 to 6. In the past, morning sessions started at 10:30 and afternoon meetings usually ended at 4:30 or 5.
Gundrum also noted that there are actually fewer resolutions than Convention has faced in the past.
One item that commends universal attention - the election of the twenty-fourth Presiding Bishop -- now appears set for early resolution in order to clear the legislative decks further. The report of the Joint Nominating Committee to the two houses had originally been set tentatively for Wednesday, Sept. 11, with the election and confirmation the following day, beginning in the morning. In a recent letter to all bishops and deputies, the Planning & Arrangements Committee noted that two provinces had asked for earlier action. The committee announced that they will present an agenda to Convention that calls for nomination report on Sept. 9 and election and confirmation Sept.10.
In another item dealing with the office of Presiding Bishop, the Committee on Structure is reconsidering that the canons of the Church be changed, to be effective immediately, to allow the next Presiding Bishop to serve until the Convention nearest his 72d birthday. Current Church law requires a Presiding Bishop to retire at age 65. The change removes an anomaly, since all other bishops are allowed to serve until 72.
Another item that has commanded a great deal of attention concerns the location of the Episcopal Church Center. At the 1982 meeting, Convention asked the Council to study this matter and report back. As reported earlier (EDS: See DPS 85085 of April 25), Council agreed in April to present a report that details criteria for various models of a Church Center, explores results of a church-wide survey that suggested a preference for leaving it in the New York metropolitan area and asks that Convention authorize the Council and new Presiding Bishop to act in this matter.
The Council is also submitting a $27.4 million budget proposal for Convention's consideration. Convention is required to approve a detailed budget for the first year of a triennium and set guidelines for Council to follow in succeeding years. (See DPS 85087, April 25)
Coincidentally with the retirement of Presiding Bishop John M. Allin, a number of other changes will take place in Convention leadership.
Dr. Charles R. Lawrence, President of the House of Deputies since the close of the 1976 meeting, will retire after presiding over his third session. Lawrence, 70, is the first President of the House to make the post a full time one, having retired as a professor of sociology from Brooklyn College in 1977.
The current Vice-president, the Very Rev. David Collins, retired dean of Atlanta, has announced his candidacy for the top post, as has the Rev. Robert Wainwright of Rochester. Collins has served as Vicepresident for the last three Conventions. He was first elected a deputy in 1967 and has also served on the Clergy Deployment Board. Wainwright has been a deputy to Convention since 1969, has chaired the Structure Committee and the Coalition for Human Needs Commission as well as serving on Executive Council and as a delegate to the Anglican Consultative Council.
Two lay woman deputies -- Marjorie Christie of Newark and Pamela Chinnis of Washington -- have declared their intention to seek the post of Vice-president. Both are finishing six-year terms on Council. Chinnis was presiding officer of the 1976 Triennial meeting and a delegate to the Anglican Consultative Council and a leader in the Verture in Mission. Christie, also active in Venture, has served as a deputy in 1976, 1979 and 1982 and a member of the National Council of Churches governing board.
In addition, two other deputies are reported to be considering seeking the post. They are Spokane Judge George Shields and Detroit attorney John Cannon. Shields, a deputy since 1970, has chaired the Dispatch of Business Committee for the last four conventions. Cannon is completing a term on Council, has been a deputy since 1976, and parliamentarian since 1979.
Elections in the House of Deputies are scheduled for the mornings of Sept 12 (presidency) and Sept. 13 (vice presidency), and the officers take over at the conclusion of the 1985 Convention.
Convention also will elect two bishops, three priests and six lay people to Executive Council.
The canonical requirements on budgets and elections aside, a major block of Convention attention will be directed toward the canons on ministry and membership.
The Council for the Development of Ministry -- in collaboration with the Joint Standing Committee on Constitutions and Canons -- has proposed a rewrite of all 30 canons in Title III (ministry), as requested by the 1982 Convention. For the most part, these are changes to bring more logic to the order and to bring them into conformity with the Prayer Book theology on ministry. In the revision, "minister" and "ministry" are no longer used when ordained members are referred to.
Two of the proposed changes are more substantive in nature, and there are indications that these may be the source of some debate. The first, a change in Canon 12 dealing with clergy ordained in other Churches, eliminates a requirement for reception first as a deacon and then reception as a priest only after four months. The second is a complete revision of the canon on the dissolution of a pastoral relationship, designed to build in a pastoral process and procedural safeguards that many felt the current canon lacks.
In 1982, Convention passed a revision of the canon defining membership but specified that it not take effect until January, 1986. This new canon was sought by the liturgical and ecumenical standing commissions to facilitate movement of members among communions in light of broader ecumenical understandings. Some deputies and bishops believe that the revision went too far and made Confirmation an optional form of commitment.
Two major educational items will come to Convention from the 1984 interim meeting of the House of Bishops.
The first is a request brought through the Human Affairs and Health Commission for all dioceses to engage in study of the "personal, sociological and theological implications of abortion" in a way that brings the broadest possible representation to bear on the discussion. The study paper prepared by the Bishops' Theology Committee and accepted by the House of Bishops is recommended as the study basis.
The second, through the Joint Commission on Peace, asks the Church to study the issues and implications of military deterrence theories based on a paper the panel produced for the House of Bishops.
The Church's Stewardship Committee -- chaired by Oklahoma Bishop Gerald McAllister -- will ask the Convention to shift to a unified budget, rather than the separate apportionment and assessment budgets that now support the national program and the General Convention. More than 80 dioceses already use a unified budget.
A number of dioceses have abandoned quota systems altogether and operate on voluntary giving or "fair share" plans. The commission is asking authority to study the effects and implications of this shift. A proposal for a voluntary system was passed by the House of Deputies but rejected by the House of Bishops.