Letter from Bishop Shannon -- please read

Bishop Shannon Johnston of the Diocese of Virginia -- our bishop -- issued a letter today reflecting on our recently concluded General Convention, the highest governing body of the Episcopal Church.

His letter is thoughtful, comprehensive and thoughtful. I highly commend this letter to you, whether you live in the Diocese of Virginia or elsewhere. We have a very good bishop who is guiding us well and pastorally. Here is his letter:

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July 24, 2012


The 77th General Convention of the Episcopal Church, recently concluded in Indianapolis, was by far the best - and most positive - of the five that I have attended. How so? In almost every case, disagreement did not manifest itself in division. In all of the "key" votes, bishops and deputies debated and responded in such a way as to minimize the sense of winners-and-losers. Even during the most controversial matters at hand, in which profound disagreements were voiced and significantly split votes resulted, both sides remained respectful and reached out to one another after all was said and done.


For example, with regard to one of the most publicized and momentous resolutions, the authorization of a "provisional" rite for the blessing of same-sex couples, strong conscience-clauses were inserted to protect clergy and congregations whose convictions will not allow for such liturgies. I can tell you first-hand that some of the most vocal support for the conscience-clauses came from those who staunchly supported same-sex blessings. This, for me, is important evidence that Episcopalian inclusivity can indeed embrace both left and right.


I supported the Convention's resolution not because of the movement of secular culture but out of personal and theological conviction. Moreover, after over 30 years of the Church's study and dialogues, I believe that it is time to be publically clear about the full acceptance of committed same-sex relationships in the life and witness of our Church. I will continue to honor the convictions of our clergy and communicants who disagree, because in my judgment we have now reached an equitable and workable settlement of this long-running debate. We can now move on to other important matters that require the Church's energetic attention.


That resolution takes the same track we have had in the Diocese of Virginia for more than a year now. The process I have previously outlined will remain the same - clergy must still submit a fulsome application for my approval to perform such rites- but starting with the First Sunday of Advent this year (December 2, 2012) the liturgy to be used will be the one approved by the Convention (rather than a specially-composed service in each case).


The Convention did address several other critical issues, including the budget, the Anglican Covenant, the nature of baptism and its requirement for admission to the Holy Communion, and the very structure and governance of the Episcopal Church. In each one, there was a high degree of consensus as the classic Anglican via media (middle way) prevailed in the various proposals. On baptism, however, the teaching was traditional and clear: Holy Baptism is the ancient and normative way into full, sacramental Christian life. A large majority of the House of Bishops rejected proposals that weakened the requirement of baptism prior to receiving communion, and the House of Deputies concurred. In this, I wholeheartedly agree. I am aware of places that make exceptions to this requirement and I quite understand what people are hoping for in allowing the communion of those not baptized. There are other ways to achieve hospitality and inclusion within a community of faith. Baptism is specifically a part of the Great Commission from Jesus (Matthew 28:19-20) and it remains primary in our discipleship of the risen Lord.


Another area of particular interest was the proposed Anglican Covenant. Because of its provisions for a legalistic process to enforce a kind of uniformity of doctrine and discipline throughout the worldwide Anglican Communion, the Covenant has been controversial in a number of our global Provinces (the Church of England, among others, rejected it). The Convention recognized that the Episcopal Church does not have a real consensus, and declined to take a position on the Covenant itself. Instead, we strongly reaffirmed our commitment to the Anglican Communion and our full participation in its mutual life and ministries. I have been clear that I am vigorously "pro-Communion." Even so, I oppose the adoption of the Covenant in its present form because I believe that our worldwide fellowship of Churches must be chosen and not required and enforced. To me, this dynamic is at the heart of our very essence. We must be able to honor our faithful differences (many of them cultural and historical in nature) and learn to live together with them. To be sure, this is messy but I am convinced that it is a witness this polarized world desperately needs.


Our presiding bishop, the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, paved the way through a brewing controversy regarding the Church's budget by offering her own detailed proposal, based on the Anglican Communion's "Five Marks of Mission." These points were developed by the Anglican Consultative Council (an international, representative body of the Communion) and are as follows: (1) To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom; (2) To teach, baptize and nurture new believers; (3) To respond to human need by loving service; (4) To seek to transform unjust structures of society; and (5) To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and renew the life of the earth. A very fine presentation of the final version of the proposed budget ensured a virtually unanimous vote in favor from the Convention. That in itself was highly indicative of how hard this General Convention worked to achieve broad consensus. 

After the Convention adjourned, there appeared two op-ed pieces about our Episcopal Church, one in the Wall Street Journal and the other in the New York Times. Probably most of you have either read, read about or simply heard of these articles. They were both "opinion" pieces, the former chock-full of factual errors and shameless personal invective and the latter based on several unexpressed and very questionable assumptions about our Church and its witness. To me, the quite positive thing about these distressing articles is how strongly a broad range of persons (including conservatives who are usually critical of the Episcopal Church) refuted the writers' opinions. I would hope that we agree that "opinion" articles, particularly those published in distinguished newspapers, should not be allowed to leave plain fact behind, let alone descend into mean-spirited personal attacks.


General Convention 2012 showed that the Episcopal Church is indeed vibrant and Spirit-filled. Although no one can say that "all is well" - in my view we have some major reality-checks to face - I, for one, came out of our gathering hopeful and encouraged. I also emerged prouder than ever of our Diocese of Virginia. We are strong and very much considered across the Church as a leading and faithful witness. I hope you were able to follow news and perspectives from the Convention in our unique publication, Center Aisle. That is a true gift to the Church at large, one that was appreciated by thousands over those long days.


Our great thanks must go to our hard-working deputation, diocesan staff and the several volunteers who were with us. If ever I'm in need of a reminder of the Church at its best I need only think of all of them. With blessings and prayers for all of you,


The Rt. Rev. Shannon S. Johnston
Bishop of Virginia

General Convention: "One essential rule, love on another" -- Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori

Photo by Mary Frances Schjonberg
Episcopal News Service

General Convention is concluding for another three years. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori preached this morning at the final Holy Eucharist. At the next General Convention, a new presiding bishop will have been elected (hard to believe her tenure has gone so quickly).

Below is a video of her sermon, and below that the text. This is my last post on General Convention 2012. See you back here in this space soon on something else!

General Convention July 12 Sermon:
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori

[July 12, 2012] The following sermon was presented today at the 77th General Convention of the Episcopal Church, meeting in Indianapolis IN through July 12.

CLOSING EUCHARIST OF GENERAL CONVENTION
12 July 2012
Soderblom

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church

I have some bad news.  PB&F[1 ] asked Gregory Straub [2] to find the latest audit, and when he went looking in the Archives, he discovered that we have been using the wrong edition of the Constitution and Canons all through our deliberations.  The general conclusion is that everything we’ve done here is therefore invalid.  Are you ready to start over?

That’s basically what happened with King Josiah.  Hilkiah went to investigate the Temple finances and discovered that they’d been reading the wrong rule book for years and years.

We’ve had some struggles here that sound a little bit like that – like whether this body is hierarchical or not, or what kind of governance or structure fits what those guys who held the first Episcopal Church convention had in mind back in 1785.

It will take many more Conventions before we all agree about anything, but, you know what?  IT DOESN’T MATTER!  We won’t all agree before the Second Coming, but there is only one essential rule – “love one another,” says Jesus, “as I have loved you.”  That is the one and only rule of life together in Christ.  It is the same one that Augustine of Hippo cited:  “love God and do as you please.”  Martin Luther’s version was, “sin boldly… and more boldly still rejoice in Christ.”

Our task is not to timidly take comfort in the details of our nice behavior – not even in impeccable parliamentary procedure!  Life in Christ is risky, it’s about leaping into the uncertain choices before us, like Indiana Jones on that light bridge [3 ] – stepping out over the chasm without knowing if the bridge will be there until we do.  Way down in the depths, deep down, the body of Christ has an abiding memory of the trustworthiness of that bridge, even if some of the individual members don’t remember quite so well.

That’s what Lars Olof Jonathan Söderblom offered the world.  The body of Christ, indeed the whole body of all faithful people, has much to teach its members about trust and confidence – and it is all about love. 

Söderblom – who went by Nathan – was a Swedish Lutheran pastor, theologian, and Archbishop of Uppsala, born in 1866 and died in 1931.  He came from a tradition of border crossers, and it was evident even in his early life.  His university degree was in Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Latin, and he started the formal academic study of comparative religions.[4]  In 1890 he came to the United States for a meeting of the Student Missionary Association – something like a General Convention for young adults.  He went back to Sweden, was ordained and was appointed chaplain to a mental hospital. Then he started looking for a job that would pay enough to let him get married.  Anna Forsell was one of 20 women students among the 1700 men in the University, and she was his writing partner as well as his wife.  Söderblom did find a job; he was appointed to the Swedish church in Paris, and stayed there until 1901.  That Parisian congregation was filled with Scandinavian artists, diplomats, and merchants, among them Alfred Nobel and August Strindberg, and the several older of the Söderblom’s 13 children. 

The Church of Sweden started planting churches abroad in 1626, and that church in Paris was the first one.  Several of the ones in the American colonies were later transferred to The Episcopal Church.[5]  The Church of Sweden has an ancient tradition of ecumenism, loving and learning and working with others.

Söderblom went back to Sweden to take an academic post in theology at Uppsala University, and he began a theological revival in the Swedish church that spread about the world.  He worked on the easy stuff like world peace and liturgical renewal.

Söderblom is remembered most distinctly for starting the modern ecumenical movement, with the Conference on Life and Work in Stockholm in 1925.  He insisted that personal spirituality made no sense if it was divorced from work for justice in the larger society, and he repeatedly called on Christian leaders to make common cause for world peace.  He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1930.

Peace begins with loving one another.  Start with the people in this room.  This body has done a pretty good job over the last few days.  We’ve seen quite a few leaps beyond old spheres of safety for the sake of the other.  Each person who has stepped out has done so in order to meet another.  And we have discovered a new place, a third way beyond what either one knew before.

Take what you have learned here about deep hospitality [6] and keep moving toward the other.  Maybe we can even figure out how to love everybody in this church.  This reconciling work isn’t like BASE jumping [7] – finding a thrill by stretching some rubber band that ties you to the earth.  God’s mission is real faith work, the kind of trusting vulnerability that knows there’s only one rule to keep us safe, the spirit’s tether that will draw us into the arms of a Friend on the other side of that chasm. [8]

So step on out there past this narrow ledge of safety and love one another.  Step out there and expect to find your Friend on the other side.  Cross the chasm and you will find the other – and every single one of them will bear the image of God.  Trust the wings of the morning, and take a flying leap!  Take a flying leap into the future, and toward the other.  The bridge is there – we call it the Light of the World.

[1] Program, Budget, and Finance – committee that develops the budget
[2] The Rev. Gregory Straub is the Secretary of General Convention
[3 ]Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
[4] A good biographical review here:  http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1930/soderblom-bio.html
[5] http://www.colonialswedes.org/Churches/Churches.html and related sites
[6] http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2012/07/11/the-rev-stephanie-spellers-preaches-at-convention-eucharist/
[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASE_jumping
[8] Draw us in the Spirit’s Tether, music by Harold Friedell; text by Percy Deamer

General Convention: Reflection from Bishop-elect Susan Goff

Earlier this morning I shared a reflection from our diocesan bishop, Shannon Johnston, about his experience at General Convention in Indianapolis. Here is another reflection published in Center Aisle, from our Bishop Suffragan-elect, Susan Goff. She will be ordained a bishop on July 28 at St. Paul's, Richmond, and I hope you will join us if you can. Here is Susan's reflection:

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Church Structure: Be Servants to One Another

This entry was posted on July 11, 2012, in From Today's Print Edition, Reflections & Perspectives. Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment

By the Rev. Susan E. Goff, Bishop Suffragan-Elect, Virginia

Jesus said, “I am among you as one who serves.”

A bishop, two priests and a homeless man were walking down the street.  It sounds like the beginning of a joke.  In reality, it was the beginning of an illustrative encounter – one night here in Indianapolis.

As my husband and I were returning to our hotel in the soaring heat, a visiting bishop from another country came to us with a look of distress in his eyes.  He could not find his hotel. I pulled out a downtown map, but the hotel did not seem to be where the map said it was.

Just then, a homeless man came along and we asked him for help.  He gave us directions, then pointed to the place where he was going to spend the night.  He asked if we could spare a few dollars so that he could get something to eat.

In thanksgiving for his help, we gave him enough to get a meal.  He then gave us even more specific directions. Together we found the entrance to the seemingly hidden hotel.

With relief visible on his face, the bishop thanked us and we all parted to go our different ways.  In that brief encounter of people from different races, languages and socio-economic backgrounds, it wasn’t clear who was servant and who was served.  The roles kept changing as we entered into relationship with each other.

At this General Convention, we have talked much about structure, both of the convention and of the Episcopal Church.  We have talked much about the power and authority that structure represents.  Our encounter on the street reminded me powerfully of the whole point of structure.  It is intended to be a vessel, like the hull of a great ship, which holds us together in relationship with each other.

Our life of faith, after all, is all about relationship with God and with one another.  The mission of God in which God calls us to participate is all about serving one another and the world in Christ’s name.  So our structures need to be all about relationship and service.

A few weeks after I was elected bishop suffragan of the Diocese of Virginia, I had a waking dream that gave me a visual image for structure in service to relationship. In my mind’s eye, I saw hands placing a miter on my head, but it jumped off as if it were on a spring.  Another set of hands placed it on my head, and again it sprang off.

Then I put the miter on my head myself, and it leaped even higher than before.  But it landed in my hands, upside down.  As I held that inverted miter, it filled with fruit of every shape and color.  The upward pointing triangle of the miter had previously looked to me like the hierarchical structure of the Church.  Held in a different way, looked at from another angle, the structure became a vessel that holds God’s people in loving, fruitful, faithful relationship.

May whatever work we do to restructure General Convention and Church institutions always be for the sake of bearing fruit.  May it always be for the sake of building relationships.  And may it always teach us how to be servants to one another and to a world in need, for Christ’s sake.

General Convention: Reflection from Bishop Shannon Johnston

The 77th General Convention of the Episcopal Church concludes today with Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori preaching at a Holy Eucharist and with whatever business is still in the hopper. Most of the big items are wrapped up or awaiting the appointment of task forces for the next three years until the next General Convention. You can see and hear her homily on a webstream by clicking HERE.

This morning I bring you the reflections of our Bishop Shannon Johnston, published in the final edition of Center Aisle, the convention newspaper published by the Diocese of Virginia. For those of you joining us at Shrine Mont this weekend, Bishop Shannon will be with us, so I hope you will get a chance to ask him first-hand about his impressions of General Convention.

Here is his reflection:

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From Today’s Issue: Convention’s Liturgies Have Offered Energy, Spirit

This entry was posted on July 12, 2012, in From Today's Print Edition, Reflections & Perspectives. Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment

By the Rt. Rev. Shannon S. Johnston, Bishop of Virginia

With this last issue of Center Aisle for General Convention 2012, I want to continue with a theme I noted in the first issue:  fundamentals in our life and witness as a church. Specifically, I happily consider our worship throughout the days of this convention.

It is my firm belief that worship is the first “response-ability” of the Church.  It is our greatest privilege and our primary means of identity and expression.  Whether in the day-to-day, week-to-week ministry of a congregation or at this massive triennial gathering, our worship is what empowers us, above all else, to live more and more fully into the creeds and our Baptismal Covenant, both personally and in community.

This conviction that I hold so dearly is why I’ve been so encouraged (not to mention strengthened) throughout this convention.  With the Holy Eucharist being celebrated each day, we gathered to be the people of God and the Body of Christ as the very basis of all else that faces us.

Attendance has been consistently strong.  The quality of planning and execution was truly exceptional – from the logistics, to the music, to the preaching, and in all else that made this convention’s spiritual life deeper and richer.  To borrow from the unforgettable sermon preached by the Rt. Rev. Michael Curry, bishop of North Carolina, we are all “crazier Christians” because of the care that was lavished on this central aspect of our corporate life as a church in council.

The very fact of worship each day carried us through the many long hours that followed. Time and again, I both engaged in and overheard conversations that overflowed with the energy, spirit and message that worship brought to us.

This convention prompts me to suggest that we would all do well to think again about the power of worship in our congregations. That power is truly defining.

In my experience, most seekers and newcomers still encounter the Episcopal Church most meaningfully (or not) through our liturgies.  Perhaps that is different in other places, but then I suspect that those who are engaged by our Church through specific ministries and other activities look next to go deeper, to connect more to the Church’s broader life and expression.

By whatever means people find themselves at worship with us, we must never underestimate the fact that it is their experience of our liturgies that makes sense of their spiritual yearnings and confirms the presence and movement of God in their lives.  It is for us, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, to let a predominantly secular culture know that the living and loving God can indeed be found in and through the Church.

All being said and done, it is worship that unites us as a church and makes us the best that we can be. To be sure, we differ in many ways with respect to how we express ourselves in worship, but I strongly believe that this diversity is all to the good.

Even more than that, it is the postures of praise and thanksgiving, of intercession and supplication, that bring out the best of us as children of God. Whatever our programs and issues, however we go about our mission to proclaim and serve the Gospel, it is the font and the table that make us who we are, most recognizable to one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. And it is the journey from font to table that is our center aisle.

General Convention: Same-gender rite gets blessing

The Rev. Ruth Meyers, professor from CDSP
presenting A029 to the House of Deputies

Certainly the major news coming out of General Convention, our highest governing body, meeting this week in Indianapolis, is the approval of a single liturgical rite for the blessing of same-gender couples.

The House of Deputies on Tuesday concurred with the House of Bishops in assenting to Resolution A049 that authorizes a "provisional" liturgical ceremony for such couples. 

General Convention meets only every three years, so it is momentous event for the Episcopal Church that, as some deputies put it, represents a "turning point" in this long controversial issue.

The lead story today in Episcopal News Service began this way:

[Episcopal News Service -- Indianapolis] Same-gender couples soon can have their lifelong relationships blessed using a rite approved by General Convention July 10.

You may ask, though, what is new here? The moment felt a bit anti-climatic. Same-sex couples have been blessed in ceremonies by Episcopal priests for at least 30 years, though until recently, not always with the permission of bishops, and often in someone's backyard and not inside a church building. Until recently, they were mostly outlaw blessings.

Three years ago, General Convention allowed bishops to "provide a generous pastoral response" to gay and lesbian couples by allowing blessings. What those blessings would look and sound like was left to the bishops. 

Meanwhile, for the past three years a team at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, led by the Rev. Dr. Ruth Meyers, embarked on an extensive study of the theological and biblical foundations for blessing same-sex couples. They published an extensive report and a proposed liturgy -- the liturgy, with a few revisions, that was adopted by General Convention this week.

Also meanwhile, in the Diocese of Virginia, Bishop Shannon Johnston asked those of us who wanted to proceed with such blessings to follow an intentional process of discernment with our congregations before going forward. Because there is a plethora of liturgies floating around in the church's ethernet, Bishop Johnston also required us to bring our proposed liturgies to him for approval.

Here at St. Paul's, we spent a year in study, prayer and discernment in the congregation on the topic of blessings, marriage and the history and doctrine of the Church. You can read all of our presentations on a special blog by clicking HERE. 

With the approval of Bishop Johnston, we held our first blessing ceremony of a lesbian couple in April for two longtime members who have lived in a committed partnered relationship for many years. The entire parish was invited, and it was a truly glorious day.

So what is new here from General Convention? And what does it mean?

The immediate impact of General Convention's action is that there will be a single "provisional" liturgical rite for such blessings. Our prayer book has a single rite for marriage, and now there will be a single rite for the blessing of same-sex couples. This represents one more step among many in a long journey rather than a startling tidal shift. 

I suspect that Bishop Johnston will still want to review what we are doing before we do it. 

During the debate at General Convention, there were a number of speakers, both for and against, who equated the rite with marriage ceremonies. It certainly sounds like marriage, looks like marriage, feels like marriage. A number of people who came to our blessing at St. Paul's in April called it a "wedding," though the couple and myself were careful to not call it that. I suspect in years to come such blessings will be called "weddings," but we must also be mindful that the Church -- even the The Episcopal Church -- is not quite there yet.

In a little noticed move a few days ago in the House of Bishops, Bishop Johnston successfully inserted an amendment to A049, the same-sex blessing resolution, that would, in effect, prohibit heterosexual couples from using the same-sex blessing liturgy for their marriage ceremonies. Indeed, some speakers at General Convention said they would have liked the same-sex liturgy at their weddings. With Bishop Johnston's amendment, at least theoretically, that won't happen. His amendment keeps at least some semblance of a wall around the Holy Matrimony liturgy in the prayer book.

The Rev. David Thurlow, of South Carolina,

presents minority report opposing same-gender blessings

In watching the debates this week in the House of Bishops and House of Deputies, I was grateful there was no triumphalism or gloating. The self-righteous tone was gone that has characterized all sides at previous conventions on the topic of gay rights. And that was to the good. I did not hear anyone threaten to leave the Episcopal Church if they did not get there way, probably because those who have threatened to leave in the past have gone.

I must admit that I have come a long way on this issue myself over the years, as have many people. I was not always in favor of same-sex blessings or marriage equality. I've traveled a large distance, and I pray others will, too.

Yet, maybe because I have traveled such a long distance on this topic, I have also struggled to understand what one of my friends terms "the pain of the conservatives." 

Why should including a marginalized persecuted group be painful for the majority? I don't quite get that. 

I was helped immensely yesterday in the debate by the Rev. David Thurlow of South Carolina who gave a respectful minority report explaining why he and others oppose the blessing of same-sex couples:

“For 2,000 years, the church has had clear teaching regarding marriage...We haven’t taken heed of the universal voice of the church universal or the Anglican Communion. This resolution marks a clear and significant departure — theological, doctrinal and in worship — from the doctrine, discipline and worship of Christ as this church has received them.” 

The fear expressed is that by our inclusion, we will as a church have excluded ourselves from the wider Church-writ-large. Our General Convention's action does put us at odds with much of the Anglican Communion, the Roman Catholic Church and much (but not all) of the Protestant world. There will be a reaction, and it will not be pleasant, and there will be people in our church who feel excluded from the larger Church by no action of their own.

And that brings me to a question: How can we include the marginalized without excluding others? Why should inclusion bring exclusion?

My only answer -- the only possible answer I can have -- is to look to Jesus who marches into the tombs to bring everyone out, to free us from fear and death. He included all and invited everyone to his table. No one was kicked out.

"And this good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world, as a testimony to all the nations." (Matthew 24:14)

By James Richardson, St. Paul's Memorial Church, Fiat Lux

General Convention Update: The Episcopal Church Intergalactic World Headquarters NOT for sale

The House of Bishops Tuesday took up the proposal, previously approved by the House of Deputies, to sell the Episcopal Church headquarters in New York -- and decided it isn't time to sell without knowing where HQ would go.

The drab building operates at a net loss of $11 million a year, but it sits on choice real estate at 815 Second Avenue in New York City. The bishops voted to await a study, due in October, on what to do and where to go. You can read the full story on Episcopal News Service HERE.

There is one more full day of General Convention and then everyone can go home.

General Convention: Will the Episcopal Church become nimble?

The Very Rev. Dr. Ian Markham, president and dean of the Virginia Theological Seminary, wrote a brief commentary for Center Aisle, the Diocese of Virginia's daily newspaper at General Convention, that has gotten some buzz. It is reprinted below:

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Revolution is in the air. This General Convention is open to possibility. It is interesting hearing from deputies and Bishops about some of the ideas for the future. So the House of Deputies has already passed a resolution instructing the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church to sell the Episcopal Church Headquarters (fondly known as 815). Talk of the next Presiding Bishop (due to be elected in 2015) being free to retain her or his Diocesan position is being taken seriously. Restructuring the church so that it can become much more nimble is a major theme.

Some credit this revolutionary conversation to the growing number of younger Bishops in the House. Others feel that it is being forced on the Church by the pressures on the budget. Others think it is due to the fact that this Convention is not obsessed with issues around human sexuality and therefore starting to look ahead. Whatever the actual reason (and probably all three are factors), it is a good conversation.

I suspect there are more surprises to emerge from this General Convention. The Seminary has been present since the start and will be present until the end. We will use this week of Commentaries to keep you all posted.

The Very Rev Ian Markham Dean and President

General Convention: Same-sex blessing rite approved by House of Bishops

House of Bishops Monday
during vote on same-sex blessings.

This afternoon, the House of Bishops voted 111 to 41, with three abstaining, to authorize a liturgy for same-sex blessings. The proposal, A049, moves to the House of Deputies where it enjoys even stronger support. This is the most significant action so far coming out of the once-every-three years General Convention, meeting in Indianapolis.

You can read the Episcopal News Service story HERE. The story also mentions an emotional moment of "personal privilege" by New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson in which he asked people to "cut me a little slack... it's been nine long years."

It should be remembered that this measure is a logical step from the resolution approved three years ago to provide a "generous pastoral response" by allowing bishops, if they so wished, to approve same-sex blessings in their diocese and to continue studying the issue church-wide. There was no single rite approved at the time, and that allowed bishops to develop their own. The measure approved by the bishops Monday would bring a uniformity to these rites. As one bishop put it, the measure would end "liturgical anarchy."

The measure would continue to allow bishops, priests and congregations to decline to participate in same-sex blessings.

The debate by the bishops took more than an hour and I listened on the "mediahub" webstream. The debate was respectful.

Bishop Nathan Baxter of Pittsburg said that voting for the measure would take courage by the bishops. "Unless we take certain movement, the conversation will stop."

But other bishops said same-sex blessings will put the Episcopal Church out of step with other provinces of the Anglican Communion and traditional doctrine of Christianity.

Our Diocese of Virginia bishops, Shannon Johnston and Ted Gulick, both voted in favor, as did all of the California bishops (I do have many California readers here).

Monday's development is founded on the work of a team of scholars and theologians at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific who spent the last three years studying the biblical issues and liturgical foundations of same-sex blessings. You can read the full report that was given to General Convention by clicking HERE.