81st General Convention Daily Updates

The Diocesan Deputation arrived in Louisville today in preparation for the 81st General Convention. Before the heavy work of convention began, the Deputation and Diocesan guests gathered for dinner.

Pictured below: Daniel Richards, Mia McDowell, Dorian Del Priore, Melissa Langford, Rebecca Maitland, Stephen Rhoades, Sue von Rautenkranz, Marie Cope, Susan Louttit-Hardaway, Jack Hardaway, Andrew Waldo, Scooty Burch, Norah Grimball, and Angela Daniel.

The Diocesan Deputation received their General Convention credentials today and attended a few special meetings.

The Opening remarks from the President of the House of Deputies and the Presiding Bishop.

Then there was a presentation of and question and answer session with the three candidates for the President of the House of Deputies.

Following this, there was a presentation of and question and answer session with the five candidates for the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church.

The Presiding Bishop election is scheduled for Wednesday, June 26 at 10:30 am.

Views from the floor:

Today the deputation attended orientation meetings as well as legislative and committee meetings.

In the evening, the deputation attended the Revival led by Presiding Bishop Michael Curry.

Today the deputation attended legislative and committee meetings, followed by the General Convention Opening Eucharist.

The Deputation then attended its first legislative session when the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies were both called to order.

In the House of Deputies, much of the work involved housekeeping matters at the beginning of Convention. Two proposed resolutions involving the Rules of Order of the House were rejected: a motion to increase the number of Deputies needed to remove an item from the consent agenda from three to fifteen, and a motion to require any major amendment to a resolution to be submitted in advance, otherwise it would be ruled out of order.

The House of Bishops passed a number of resolutions, including resolutions and climate care, migration, and the conflict in Gaza, while rejecting a number of other resolutions.

As the week goes on, more and more resolutions will be considered in both houses.

The deputation's day started with early morning legislative and committee meetings followed by Morning Prayer.

Following this, the deputation attended a joint meeting of the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops, where they heard a presentation on the draft triennial budget.

Before this meeting, members of the deputation, The Rev. Canon Mia C. McDowell and Melissa Langford took a moment to record a video update on the work of Convention.

The deputation then met after lunch to discuss the afternoon legislative agenda and to share perspectives on the budget meeting.

The deputation began its day with early morning legislative committee meetings and Morning Prayer.

The rest of the day was spent in legislative session in both houses where important matters were discussed.

In the House of Deputies, the election of the President of the House of Deputies ended up being a contentious affair. Current House of Deputies President, Julia Ayala Harris, was re-elected on the first ballot, overcoming challenges by the Rev. Rachel Taber-Hamilton, the deputies’ vice president, and Zena Link, a former Executive Council member.

In the House of Bishops, many canonical changes were discussed, including amendments to Title IV of the disciplinary canons and Article X of the Constitution which regards the Book of Common Prayer. There were also some careful and honest conversations about the wording of certain resolutions regarding the Israel - Hamas conflict in Gaza.

In addition, the House of Bishops adopted a resolution from the Communion Across Difference Committee what states, "No person shall be denied access to the discernment process or to any process for the employment, licensing, calling, or deployment for any ministry, lay or ordained, in this Church because of their conscientiously-held theological belief that marriage is a covenant between a man and a woman, or that marriage is a covenant between two people." This was a concerted effort to acknowledge the Church's theological differences on the issue of marriage and to protect the careers of individual clergy who hold opposing views. This resolution now goes to the House of Deputies for its consideration.

The deputation continued to meet during the lunch break each day to discuss the issues on the legislative calendar in both houses.

The evening schedule included a dinner for Bishops and their spouses to honor the work of The Most Rev. Michael Curry, and dinners for the alumni of the Seminaries of the Episcopal Church.

The Presiding Bishop's election and confirmation was the primary focus of the morning. The day opened with the Holy Eucharist which was largely in Spanish.

Prior to the Post-Communion prayer, the bishops left the worship space to walk from the Convention Center to Christ Church Cathedral for the election of the Presiding Bishop.

Once inside, the bishops began the process of voting for the next Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church. The Rt. Rev. Sean Rowe was elected the 28th Presiding Bishop on the first ballot, earning 89 out of 158 votes.

Following the vote to confirm, the bishops entered the gallery of the House of Deputies and Presiding Bishop Elect Rowe addressed the gathering from the podium at the invitation of the President of the House.

Both houses returned to work in the afternoon, but the House of Deputies had an evening session as well. The deputation returned to the hotel for their nightly meeting to prepare for an early morning start on Thursday.

his day began early with legislative committee meetings which began at 7:00 am, followed by a forum with the Vice-President candidates for the House of Deputies.

The House of Deputies and the House of Bishops then met in legislative session this morning to continue the work of convention.

This morning, the House of Deputies concurred with the House of Bishop's adoption yesterday of Resolution A092 which guarantees access to ordination and deployment for those who hold traditional and non-traditional views on marriage.

This afternoon, the House of Bishops rejected a resolution from the House of Deputies which called for the defunding of the police and the abolition of the prison system on the basis that it was overly broad did not reflect complex and varied experience of different communities. In addition, many of the bishops participated in a walk against gun violence through downtown Louisville.

The House of Deputies also passed a resolution repudiating the pro-slavery theology of the 11th President of the House of Deputies, The Rev. James Craik, who was one of its Civil War-era presidents and a priest from the Diocese of Kentucky. Bishop Terry White and deputation from the Diocese of Kentucky requested the resolution.

The deputations from both the Diocese of Upper South Carolina and the Diocese of South Carolina stood together on the floor of convention to speak in favor of the removal of The Rev. William Porcher DuBose from Lesser Feasts and Fasts due to his support of the institution of slavery and his views on racial superiority.

The Rev. Canon Mia McDowell speaking on the floor of the House of Deputies.

The deputation wrapped up the day with a late-night session discussing the work done today and the final legislative day tomorrow.

The deputation began the day with the closing Eucharist of the 81st General Convention, celebrated by The Most Rev. Michael Curry.

Both houses then returned to legislative sessions, still with much business to do.

The House of Deputies considered and passed a number of resolutions, including commemorating the 50th anniversary of women's ordination in the Episcopal Church, commemorating the consecration of Barbara Clementine Harris and adding her consecration to Lesser Feasts and Fasts on February 11, and the commemoration of Harriet Ross Tubman in Lesser Feasts and Fasts on March 10.

The language of a resolution calling for the end of hostilities in Gaza and a lasting peace was also agreed between the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops and approved.

The business of both houses concluded on time, and the deputation took a final group photo from the floor of the House of Deputies.

The deputation also took advantage of being in Louisville to visit the site of Thomas Merton's mystical experience which he wrote about in Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander:

“In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world. . . .

The deputation had a final dinner together before beginning the journey back to South Carolina.