Day 8, Bishop Lillibridge (click here) discusses two major issues that came to the General Convention today – the triennial budget and same-gender blessings.
Archive for July 15th, 2009
Bishop’s Audio Report (Wednesday, July 15)
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009Bishops Call for Collection of Same-gender Blessing Resources
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009
DWTX from Anaheim – After a one-day time out for reflection and conversation, the House of Bishops on Wednesday, July 15, passed a resolution that calls for the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music, in consultation with the House of Bishops, to “collect and develop theological and liturgical resources” for the blessing of same-gender relationships but stopped short of authorizing an official rite.
The resolution also gives latitude for bishops, “particularly those in dioceses with civil jurisdictions where same-gender marriage, civil unions, or domestic partnerships are legal,” to provide “generous pastoral response” to meet the needs of the members of the Church.
The final vote for the resolution was 104 in favor, 30 opposed, with two abstentions. Both Bishop Lillibridge and Bishop Reed voted against it.
The resolution, C056, had come to the House of Bishops on Tuesday. But after some discussion, the bishops decided to postpone a final decision on the resolution until they could have some private discussions about it. Especially at issue was being conscious of the impact the resolution would have on “moderate” bishops who would not able to support it.
The pattern of this General Convention, both in the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops, is a division of two-thirds in favor of moving forward on issues of human sexuality and one-third against.
Bishop Dean Wolfe of Kansas on Tuesday observed that “sometimes we give our brothers and sisters [those in the House of Bishops with a conservative or moderate leaning] very little room to operate so that those who would want to vote with us [more liberal bishops] cannot do so.”
About 26 bishops gathered informally on Tuesday evening to address this situation, and after candid discussion, on Wednesday presented to the House of Bishops a substitute resolution. The Tuesday evening discussion, said one bishop, “was characterized by a deep sense of holy listening and seeking after a better understanding of the contexts in which each of ministers.”
The substitute resolution acknowledges that legislation being passed in the United States and other nations concerning marriage, civil unions, and domestic partnerships for gay and lesbian persons “calls forth a renewed pastoral response from this church” and an “open process for the consideration of theological and liturgical resources for blessing same-gender relationships.”
Some of the debate in the House of Bishops centered on the word “develop” in the phrase that asked the Standing Commission to “collect and develop” resources. Bishop Nathan Baxter of Central Pennsylvania said removing the word develop “makes it clear that we are not asking for formal work of design” of liturgies.
However, an amendment to remove the word failed.
Bishop Steven Miller of Milwaukee said the word was used in the architectural sense – “Here is what it would be like” if the Church decided to move forward with liturgies.
The resolution invites participation from “provinces, diocese, congregations, and individuals” and encourages members of the Church to engage in this effort and invites “theological reflection from throughout the Anglican Communion.”
– Marjorie George
Communication Officer
TEC Budget Faces Cuts
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009DWTX from Anaheim – Saying we need to focus on abundance not scarcity, Chair of the Program, Budget and Finance (PB&F) Committee, Pan Adams-McCaslin, presented a somber budget on Wednesday to a joint session of the deputies and bishops. “This is a very difficult day,” she said. “The decisions are heart-wrenching and emotional.”
She predicted death will be reflected in the budget, both of programs “that are of immense importance to some” and of staff reductions at the Episcopal Church Center in New York City.
The draft budget proposes a $23 million reduction for the 2010-2012 triennium, largely because of reduced income from the dioceses and church investments.
However, said Adams-McCaslin, for each challenge there is new opportunity. “The economic environment and its effect on the resources available for the next triennium call us to take a close look at what we do, how we do it, what programs should continue, and how programs might continue through a network of service organizations.”
Adams-McCaslin said she wanted to be clear that budget cuts are “not a statement on the importance of the work of the ministry or on the staff and volunteers” who carry out the programs of the Church.
Along with the budget, PB&F presented a recommendation that diocesan askings be reduced over the next three years, from the current 21 percent to 20 percent in 2011 and 19 percent in 2012. In addition, the $100,000 exemption for all dioceses is being raised to $120,000. The hope is that with these changes, more dioceses will be able to pay their full asking.
McCaslin admitted that the budget can no longer sustain a ten-day General Convention and will recommend that the 77th General Convention in 2012 be reduced to eight days.
Other budget-savings will come by reducing the number of face-to-face meetings of the committees, commissions, agencies and boards (CCABs) of the church in favor of online meetings.
Deputies and bishops were given copies of the budget for their reflection overnight; voting on the enacting resolution, D067, will likely begin on Thursday. McCaslin said that amendments can be made to the draft budget during voting, but those proposing additional spending in a line item must suggest a comparable reduction in another line item.
– Marjorie George
Communications Officer
Environmental Issues are on the Table at Convention
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009DWTX from Anaheim – Episcopal News Service – Climate change, global warming, economic and environmental justice, creation care, renewable energy and nuclear energy and weaponry are among the cadre of environment-related resolutions under consideration by General Convention.
The Episcopal Church’s Office of Government Relations (OGR), based in Washington, D.C., lobbies Congress and the president in response to legislation passed at General Convention. The legislation also sets the agenda for the church’s Advocacy Center, which includes OGR, the Episcopal Public Policy Network, Native American/Indigenous Ministries and environmental and domestic affairs.
As the church has become more involved in environmental issues, and as science has matured, the church has taken a more detailed approach to its official policies. If proposed resolutions pass, the advocacy staff’s work is made easier in some cases, said DeWayne Davis, domestic policy analyst in OGR.
“If these resolutions pass we won’t have to do as much interpreting. For instance C011 [Governmental Policies for Environmental Stewardship] specifically addresses renewable energy standards. We’ve already been working on it in a limited way under the auspices of creation care and global warming.”
That resolution, passed by the House of Deputies but pending before the House of Bishops, encourages the U.S. government to adopt “equitable subsidies for renewable energy (such as solar and wind turbine power, and research into new technologies) … along with balancing its current subsidies for non-renewable energy sources (oil, gas, coal)…” It also supports the adoption of a federal renewable energy standard that would require power plants to produce 20 percent of their electricity through renewable sources.
Another resolution pending in the House of Deputies, C070, Memorializing the Genesis Covenant, would commit the Episcopal Church to a 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from the facilities it maintains by 2019.
The Diocese of Olympia’s Genesis Covenant task force has created a six-parish pilot program aimed at developing a workable, cost-effective plan to accomplish this goal, said Michael Schut, associate program officer for economic and environmental affairs in the church’s Advocacy Center.
The resolution also “gives a nod” to work done on the federal economic recovery package, which made grant money available for nonprofit organizations, including churches, in their efforts to go green, Davis said.
Two resolutions, C034 and D001, have been filed that would establish a liturgical creation cycle during Pentecost from St. Francis’ Day to Advent, “for the purpose of affirming the sacredness of God’s creation, of spreading hope about God’s reconciling work in creation and an understanding of environmental stewardship and ecological justice.”
“There is both an implicit and explicit curriculum when you walk into a church and the liturgy really is both spoken word and also embodied,” Schut said. “And in the Episcopal Church it is one of the most important realities, practices, mechanisms that define world views and say to people, ‘this is important.’ I think strongly encouraging a creation cycle regularly in the calendar year would be a particularly powerful way for the church to begin in its thinking and feeling to move in a direction that would get expressed eventually in actions.”
– by Lynette Wilson
Focus on the Environment Now, Charleston Tells Eucharist
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009DWTX from Anaheim – Episcopal News Service — Future generations will look back on the Episcopal Church aghast that it spent 30 years talking about human sexuality and largely ignoring the ecological disaster affecting the world, said Bishop Steven Charleston in his July 15 sermon during a General Convention Eucharist that celebrated creation care.
“For years now the environmental movement has told us that there is a clock ticking, a clock, ticking, a great organic ecological clock that is ticking away the time of our lives to that when we no longer will be able to reverse the damage that we have done to this planet through our own greed, negligence and ignorance,” said Charleston, assistant bishop of California and provost of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.
Charleston said the reason we do not hear the cry is that “we have been distracted.”
In addition to being distracted by discussions on human sexuality, the church has been worrying about its institutional survival; its relationships in the Anglican Communion; money, budget sheets and head counts, Charleston said.
“I am here to tell you that unless we recognize that there is a higher, deeper calling that lies behind all of these needs … none of our hopes and dreams, whether they come from conservative hearts or liberal minds, will sustain the day on anything we have been discussing, for all will be for naught, all will be for naught lest we wake up and pay attention to the underlying great issue of our day.”
The Episcopal Church continues to address environmental issues, including global warming, through legislation passed at General Convention, advocacy work by the Office of Government Relations, and its commitment to the Millennium Development Goals, the seventh of which specifically underscores the issue of environmental sustainability.
There are up to 15 environment-related resolutions under consideration at the 76th General Convention that take steps to address climate change, global warming, economic and environmental justice, renewable energy, nuclear energy and weaponry, and the establishment of a liturgical creation cycle during Pentecost.
– Lynette Wilson