A General Convention deputy called it "the calm before the storm." An assistant to a bishop said it was "the church taking seriously our Presiding Bishop's wish that we engage in conversation." Whatever the reason, 1999 turned out to be a year in which major news stories did not prevail in the Episcopal Church. There was no shortage of news. Rather, the news tended toward more routine matters.

The conflicting points of view above referred to the 73rd General Convention, to be held in Denver in July. The Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold, Presiding Bishop, has said he hoped controversial legislative matters wouldn't mar the convention. Meanwhile, Pamela Chinnis, president of the House of Deputies, said in a letter to convention deputies, "I don't need to remind deputies that bishops cannot make decisions for our house, as we cannot make decisions for theirs."

Bishop Griswold observed his first year in office in January by a teleconference with church members at various sites to discuss the state of the church.

Another bishop in the news was the Rt. Rev. Joe Morris Doss, Bishop of New Jersey, who ended a long struggle with a portion of his diocese by resigning in March. Bishop Doss took a sabbatical leave of absence from the diocese in June, with a $1.27 million package. His official resignation date is Sept. 30, 2001.

A two-year investigation by the New York State attorney general into the church's handling of its trust funds was concluded. The attorney general vindicated the church's treatment in a statement issued Jan. 5. The statement includes a consent agreement wherein the church will continue or institute specific procedures ensuring that changes in financial management are carried out with the approval of the Executive Council's administration and finance committee. The investigation was brought about by concern shown by the Trust Group, a committee of 10 persons represented by Mobile, Ala., attorney James Crosby.

A lawsuit brought by the dioceses of New Jersey and Newark against the corporation PECUSA (Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America) was settled with PECUSA agreeing to adopt a new name. The two-year-old organization had been founded to be an "umbrella for orthodox individuals, organizations and parishes."

Another organization making news was First Promise, a group of conservative Episcopalians who began to have serious discussions about creating a non-geographic province, and even named the Rev. John Rodgers, former dean of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, as a candidate to be consecrated bishop. Later in the year, leaders of First Promise, headquartered in Pawleys Island, S.C., held discussions with Anglican primates and others in Uganda about the state of the Episcopal Church.

Some of those primates sent a letter to Bishop Griswold expressing their concern over the Episcopal Church's failure to pay attention to the Lambeth Conference resolution on sexuality, adopted in 1998. The Presiding Bishop responded to those bishops with an invitation to visit the Episcopal Church and to engage in conversation with some of its members. Several primates or their representatives did come to the United States later in the year and spoke with persons in several dioceses.

The Executive Council, the national body that makes legislative decisions between sessions of General Convention, met three times during 1999. In February, council members met in Denver and heard of plans for General Convention. Bishop Griswold told council he wanted to make this convention a time of jubilee.

In June, council members traveled to the Diocese of Fond du Lac, where they confirmed Minneapolis as the site for the General Convention of 2003.

The third council meeting was held in Honduras in October, where members saw hurricane damage, assisted in the building of houses for victims of the storm, and experienced many of the ministries of the fast-growing diocese.

Continuing its practice of recent years, the House of Bishops stayed away from business sessions and spent much of its time in a more retreat-like setting. In March the bishops went to Camp Allen, in the Diocese of Texas, and in September they traveled to San Diego.

Ecumenical involvements were emphasized in 1999, highlighted by Called to Common Mission, the revision of the Concordat of Agreement between the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The ELCA's Churchwide Assembly approved the document in August. It awaits approval by the Episcopal Church at next summer's General Convention in order for full communion between the two churches to be achieved.

In May, a document titled "The Gift of Authority: Authority in the Church III," was issued by the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC). It was the third statement issued by ARCIC, and speaks to various types of authority.

The Consultation on Church Union (COCU), involving nine churches, met in January and agreed to form a covenant communion, but participation by the Episcopal Church seemed doubtful. Bishop Griswold told representatives of the churches that if COCU could not resolve more fully the role of the historic episcopate in the plan, "we might have to go our separate ways."

As usual, some major conferences attracted large numbers of Episcopalians. Living the Covenant, a gathering designed to address the development of ministry within a baptismal context, was held at St. Olaf (Minn.) College in June.

The church lost one of its giants with the death of the Rev. Canon H. Boone Porter, educator, liturgist, author and editor, in June. Canon Porter, former editor of TLC, died June 5 in Connecticut. Another noted educator, the Rev. Charles Price, longtime member of the faculty at Virginia Theological Seminary, died a few months later.

The House of Bishops lost several of its members during 1999. Bishops who died were: Lloyd Gressle, Bethlehem [p. 10]; Alexander Stewart, Western Massachusetts; Jeffrey Terry, Spokane; Moultrie Moore, Easton; Nelson Burroughs, Southern Ohio; Fred Wolf, Maine; George Bates, Utah; Harold Gosnell, West Texas; Stewart Zabriskie, Nevada; Robert Appleyard, Pittsburgh; Albert Van Duzer, New Jersey, and Gray Temple, South Carolina.

Bishops recently consecrated were: the Rt. Rev. James Kelsey, Bishop of Northern Michigan; the Rt. Rev. Keith Whitmore, Bishop of Eau Claire; the Rt. Rev. Bruce MacPherson, Bishop Suffragan of Dallas; the Rt. Rev. Charles von Rosenberg, Bishop of East Tennessee, and the Rt. Rev. William Persell, Bishop of Chicago. Bishop Suffragan Andrew Smith of Connecticut is now diocesan there; the Rt. Rev. Jack McKelvey, Bishop Suffragan of Newark, became Bishop of Rochester. Elected but not yet consecrated are the Rev. Robert Trache, Atlanta; the Very Rev. Jon Bruno, Los Angeles; the Rev. George Packard, Bishop Suffragan-elect of the Armed Forces; the Rev. Edward S. Little II, Northern Indiana, and the Rev. David Bena, Albany suffragan.

A significant study of the Episcopal Church, the report of the Zaccheus Project, was issued by the Episcopal Church Foundation in June. The report is a compilation of responses to questions asked during interviews with nearly 2,000 Episcopalians, 85 percent of them lay persons, in nine dioceses.

Bishop Paul Marshall of Bethlehem made news in May when he announced he would try to be more inclusive in his diocese and would allow bishops of the Episcopal Synod of America (now Forward in Faith North America) to celebrate the sacraments and that he was hopeful that any prayer book adopted for use in this church could be used in his diocese. Bishop Marshall's generosity resulted in the Rt. Rev. Donald Parsons, retired Bishop of Quincy, confirming 38 persons from the Diocese of Pennsylvania in St. Stephen's Church, Whitehall, Pa. Those persons who crossed diocesan boundaries to be confirmed are members of FIFNA-affiliated congregations which have been at odds with Bishop Charles Bennison of Pennsylvania.

One Pennsylvania congregation which did not participate was St. James', Philadelphia, which decided it would disaffiliate from the diocese because Bishop Bennison would no longer give permission for visiting bishops to function in his diocese unless parishes agreed to visits from him as well.

The Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston, former Bishop of Alaska, became dean and president of Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass. Two American priests were named to take over leadership positions at foreign seminaries. The Rev. George Sumner, rector of Trinity Church, Geneva, N.Y., became principal (dean) of Wycliffe College of the Toronto School of Theology, University of Toronto, and the Rev. Stephen Noll, a member of the faculty of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, was appointed vice chancellor (president) of Uganda Christian University. Another American priest, the Rev. Stephen Woods, director of pilgrimage ministries of FreshMinistries, Jacksonville, Fla., was appointed dean of St. George's College, Jerusalem.

As usual, there were major stories involving churches and the weather. On Jan. 2 and 3 a blizzard struck several Midwest states, making churchgoing virtually impossible in some places. Trinity Church, Clarksville, Tenn., was heavily damaged by a tornado, and churches in several dioceses in the East and Southeast were called upon to help the victims of floods caused by the heavy rain of a hurricane.

Elsewhere, in August, a celebration of 25 years of ordained women was held in Philadelphia, site of the ordinations of the "Philadelphia 11" in 1974. A group of Anglican primates gathered at Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, N.Y., in November at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury to discuss matters concerning human sexuality. As the year came to a close, the Rev. Miriam Pratt, deacon of the Diocese of Southeast Florida, continued to be missing.