The Rev. John Talbird
We have all heard the one about two things you never want to see made: sausage and legislation. Both are messy and not pretty to watch in the making. However the end product of both can be good.
With all the parliamentary wrangling and maneuvering, a good idea put in the form of a resolution can be intimidating. Not many are willing to take the time or effort to try to get something through General Convention and thus have an impact on the larger church. Having sat on the World Mission Committee, Committee #8 this convention, I think I have a greater appreciation of how all this comes about and I want to walk you through one particular piece of legislation on our World Mission Committee.
Since I have spent a lot of time in Haiti I thought this was the committee for me until I realized that we also were given all the resolutions that had anything to do with the controversial resolution (BO33 – B resolutions coming from the House of Bishops) from the 2006 General Convention. B033 urged the Episcopal Church to show restraint in nominating candidates for the episcopate that might cause concern for the rest of the Anglican Communion. There were 13 such resolutions concerning B033 proposed for this convention.
Because we had a number of resolutions concerning different countries and mission strategies, our committee was divided into two parts. Sub-committee #1 got all the B033 resolutions; and Subcommittee #2 (which I sit on, got all the other resolutions). Our subcommittee dealt with increasing the funding our 75 missionaries around the world, supporting work in the Sudan, and continuing partnerships with Brazil and the Philippines and other matters concerning world mission. In the meanwhile our sister subcommittee struggled with what to do with all those resolutions that were trying to walk the tightrope between staying connected to the rest of the Anglican Communion and being an open and welcoming church to all persons with total inclusion in all orders of ministry.
We met in separate subcommittees and then came together to vote on what we wanted to send to the floor for voting by the entire House of Deputies. If our resolutions pass, then they are sent to the House of Bishops. In the two open hearings on B033, we all sat as a total committee listening to anyone who wanted to speak either for or against B033. Then on Saturday morning from 7:30 AM until 9 AM our entire committee listened to the proposal that subcommittee #1 had spent hours in writing over the past two days. They had taken one of the resolutions, D025 (D resolutions are written by members of the House of Deputies) and reworked this resolution trying to incorporate as many of the ideas as possible of the other resolutions. For the next hour and a half we sat and went through strict parliamentary procedure trying to perfect the language of D025 that would say who we were as a church and what we were committed to as to inclusion of all persons and connection to the rest of our Anglican brothers and sisters.
We finally had the language we wanted (although our subcommittee wanted some language that stated regardless of disagreements we found our unity in serving God’s Mission to the world). Time elapsed and we never got that in, but we all felt good about the new resolution. We voted on it and it was ready to be sent to the House of Deputies.
Sunday it came up on the floor of the House of Deputies. It was controversial and there was much parliamentary maneuvering. Finally with a vote called for “by orders” where the clergy and the laity voted separately, resolution D025 passed by a large majority in both orders and now is ready with no amendments to go to the House of Bishops. We will now see what happens to this one piece of legislation.
I hope this was not TMI for those of you back home. The thing that is important to remember is that as formal and as structured as all of this is, it is so American and democratic. Rules are followed. People are listened to. Anyone can speak for or against or suggest changing the entire resolution. And when it is all said and done, it will not make us better Christians, but it does say that we are serious about what we are doing. We are serious about trying to see that what we do is the will of the people and at the same time trying to discern what God’s will is in what we are about. It can be messy stuff. But then Jesus knew that himself.
