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General Convention (I): An Overview

Episcopal News Service. April 28, 1988 [88078]

Charles W. Scott

NEW YORK (DPS, Apr. 28) -- On Saturday, July 2, nearly 900 clerical and lay deputies and some 200 bishops will assemble in Detroit's Cobo Hall for the 69th General Convention of the Episcopal Church, the first Convention for Edmond L. Browning as Presiding Bishop. Counting alternate deputies, delegates to the Triennial Meeting of Women of the Church, spouses, exhibitors, and visitors, the total attendance at Convention will be in the thousands.

For ten days in July the bishops and deputies will deliberate and debate issues of church governance and social policy. About 500 legislative items will be presented by resolution at Convention, and those that are adopted by both the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops will become statements of the official position of the Episcopal Church and, in many instances, will amend its canon laws.

Episcopalians have been meeting in General Convention since 1785, when the Church organized itself as an independent body following the Revolutionary War, effectively severing its direct ties to the established Church of England. The first Convention met as a single House, but in 1789 the House of Bishops was set apart, with only two bishops present at this first session.

The Convention meets every three years in regular session, and the House of Bishops also meets in interim session during the non-Convention years.

The House of Bishops is made up of all the bishops of the Church, including those retired bishops who choose to attend. Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning is the presiding officer of the House of Bishops, with Bishop John T. Walker of Washington as vice-chairman, and Bishop Herbert A. Donovan, Jr., of Arkansas as secretary. The Presiding Bishop customarily addresses one or more joint sessions of the Houses as well as chairing the deliberations of the "junior house."

The House of Deputies comprises four clergy deputies and four lay deputies from each of the Church's 118 dioceses in the United States and overseas, the overseas dioceses being principally in Latin America and the Philippines. The Very Rev. David B. Collins of Georgia is president of the House of Deputies, and Pamela P. Chinnis of Washington, D.C., is vice president. The Rev. Donald A. Nickerson, Jr., executive officer of the General Convention, presently serves as interim secretary of the House of Deputies and, upon election as its permanent secretary, will also become secretary of the General Convention. Mrs. Ellen F. Cooke, executive for Mission Support and treasurer of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society (the corporate title of the Episcopal Church), will be nominated to serve as treasurer of Convention.

Legislation before the General Convention originates from four sources: "A" resolutions (prefaced by the letter "A") come from over thirty "interim bodies," which are the commissions, committees, boards, and agencies that carry out much of the Church's work between Conventions. These resolutions form part of the report of each agency that appears in the Blue Book, a pre-Convention publication that sets much of the agenda of Convention. "B" resolutions are submitted by bishops, "C" resolutions come from diocesan conventions, and "D" resolutions from individual deputies. Each resolution is referred to a legislative committee of one of the Houses, which reports its recommendation to that House for action. If the resolution is passed it is sent to the other House, which may concur, with or without amendment, or may reject the resolution. Amendments or substitute resolutions by the second House entail further consideration by the House of origin. Only fully concurred resolutions become church policy.

The triennial budget is a major concern for Convention, and all legislation calling for expenditures must have money for it allocated in the budget. The "Program Development Budget" for the next triennium will be adopted by the Convention, beginning with a 1989 proposed figure of $38,235,593. This supports the work of the national Church carried out by the Presiding Bishop and Executive Council with the staff of the of the Episcopal Church Center in New York. There is also a "General Convention Assessment Budget" that provides for the expenses of the General Convention itself and the interim bodies as well as the salary of the Presiding Bishop and his immediate staff. The chief funding for the budgets comes from an assessment and an apportionment to each of the diocese based on its net disposable budget income.

While legislation occupies a great part of the time and attention of the Convention, it is also an occasion for people from all parts of the church to come together in worship and fellowship, to have their spirits lifted, to refocus and to set priorities for the church's work. The high point of the ten-day event will be the great opening Eucharist on Sunday, July 3, when over 10,000 Episcopalians will gather in the arena in Cobo Hall to offer their sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to Almighty God and to rededicate themselves to the Church's mission of reconciliation and renewal.