Strengthening the Church we Love
By the Rt. Rev. Peter James Lee, Bishop
The General Convention first met in 1785 in Philadelphia, when it adopted a Book of Common Prayer and a set of canons for the governance of the church. Today, the Convention still considers liturgical changes, canonical changes and budgets and elects various officers. This will be the 10th consecutive Convention that I’ve attended. I have been to every General Convention since 1982, first as a deputy from the Diocese of North Carolina and, since 1985, as a bishop from Virginia.
Each of the 110 dioceses of the Episcopal Church is entitled to four lay deputies and four clerical deputies and these 880 deputies constitute the House of Deputies. All bishops in the Episcopal Church constitute the House of Bishops, so the General Convention is a bicameral legislature.
It is also a family reunion. Often, conversations occur in the hallways among bishops and deputies seeking information on clergy who are considering new positions, so the General Convention is an informal “job fair.” The exhibition hall is a very large chamber in which companies selling ecclesiastical goods, vestments, Sunday school curricula, other publications, even samples of altar bread have their particular display stands. The exhibition hall has room for advocacy groups and private mission societies that are seeking to tell their stories.
Frequently, guest preachers from all over the world visit the General Convention. This July, for example, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, will be at the General Convention during the first week to lead a Bible study for the entire Convention.
General Convention is almost two weeks worth of long days and hard work, and many people put in long hours to make Convention possible. Many deputies and bishops are assigned to committees that deal with all sorts of issues (e.g. program and budget, overseas mission, evangelism, a church in urban areas and many others). Committees will often meet early in the morning at about 7:30 a.m. to consider resolutions that come before the convention. Committee meetings will adjourn about 9 a.m., when everyone in the Convention will participate in Bible study and in worship. Later in the morning, each house will have a legislative session, adjourn for lunch, and return for an afternoon legislation. Most evenings are taken up with public hearings on different issues and by dinners for special constituencies. All the seminaries, including our own Virginia Seminary, will have a dinner for their alumni.
In addition to the houses of General Convention, the Episcopal Church Women have their triennial meeting in the same convention center and bring together women from most of the dioceses in the church to consider their involvement in the mission of the church.
The Diocese of Virginia, since the General Convention of 2000, has made a special contribution to the convention by publishing Center Aisle, a daily publication edited by Ed Jones, a parishioner of St. George’s Church, Fredericksburg, and the editor of the Fredericksburg Freelance Star. Center Aisle attempts to examine issues before the convention from the perspective of Virginia’s historic centrist emphases. We focus on our central faith in Jesus Christ and his mission and examine the various issues from the perspective of what will unite and strengthen the church. Center Aisle is distributed free of charge at all the convention hotels, at the entrance to the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops and is also published online. Center Aisle has been well received by the church at large and I am thankful for those volunteers who make it happen.
Issues before this General Convention, besides various revisions to the canons, will include consideration of the budget of the general Church for the next triennium during a period of likely economic recession, consideration of a church-wide health insurance plan; discussion of how the Episcopal Church as a whole will talk about the proposed Anglican Covenant that is under consideration by the worldwide communion; and our relationships with the churches of the worldwide communion. Our presiding bishop, the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, has discouraged any attempt to reach any conclusive action on the Anglican Covenant at this General Convention since the actual wording of the covenant has not yet been adopted by the Anglican Consultative Council, which meets in Jamaica in May and the Presiding Bishop wants widespread discussion in the Church before definitive action is taken. So definitive action is not likely to occur before the General Convention of 2012.
In my judgment, General Convention can be at times inefficient and has elements of unfairness. The Diocese of Virginia is the largest diocese of the Episcopal Church but we have the same number of voting deputies as the smallest dioceses in the church. The time commitment required by Convention can also be a strain on Convention participants. The laity who can take off ten days in the middle of the summer to attend the convention are generally those who have some professional involvement with the church, are retired, or have independent means. The Church of England, by contrast, has its General Synod which meets for two or three days twice a year. The prospect of General Convention meeting even annually presents its own set of obstacles, but its present structure is unwieldy and needs attention.
Nonetheless, I return from General Convention with a renewed sense of the breadth and the strength of our Episcopal Church. Unlike some churches of the Anglican Communion where the bishops or archbishops have unlimited power, power in the Episcopal Church is dispersed among lay people, bishops and the General Convention is a sign of that dispersed authority.
I ask you to keep the General Convention in your prayers that it may be faithful to the gospel we have received and may strengthen the church we love.
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