Early Thursday morning

Thursday, June 15 -- The Feast of Evelyn Underhill (early morning)

(note, the two previous posts from yesterday are in reverse chronological order)

It strikes me as I get ready to start work this morning that I left out one piece of background info concerning the Episcopal Church's response to the Windsor Report, and that is to mention what we have already done to that end. (for some, this is old news)

I'm not certain of the date, but about two years ago the House of Bishops declared a moratorium on the consecration of bishops in the Episcopal Church up until this General Convention and declared a moratorium on the approval of public rites blessing of commitments of same-gender couples. The church also responded to the Windsor request to explain why we made the decisions we did in 2003 with the report "To Set Our Hope On Christ," a document that describes the Episcopal Church's 30 year conversation about the placed of gay and lesbian Christians in the church and establishes a Biblical, theological, scientific and pastoral rationale for the decisions of the previous General Convention. (That publication is available through St. Paul's bookstore. This was one of the documents we used during our parish conversation process last year.) The Episcopal Church also voluntarily withdrew its representatives from the interim meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council and sent its deputation a listeners rather than voting participants.

The report of the Special Commission that we had hearings about last night is the latest offering. It is the container for the beginning of the 2006 General Convention's deliberations about how to respond to Windsor. By the way, that report from the Special Commission is titled "One Baptism, One Hope In God's Call." One other technicality. The Special Committee #25 of the General Convention which is charged with handling the resolutions concerning Windsor and the Anglican Communion is different from the Special Commission. The Special Commission was an interim body which crafted the report; the Special Committee is the General Convention body which is charged with the Convention's work on the report. There are several members of the interim Commission who serve on the General Convention Committee.

At this point, the Committee's work is to discuss what they heard from last night's public hearing, revise and amend the resolutions crafted by the Commission, and present to the General Convention the resolutions that we will debate. The three C's -- Commission, Committee, Convention. It takes a little concentration to keep that clear. (I tried to do so in my report from last night, but it was late.)

I'm getting ready to leave for our Prayer Book and Liturgy Committee's 7:30 a.m. meeting when (if I've got the time and date right this time) Marion Hatchett, Louis Weil, Lionel Mitchell and Carolyn Westerhoff will appear to testify about a resolution that would make Baptism full initiation into the church. The effect of this legislation would be to remove Confirmation as a requirement for holding office or for exercising any other ministry in the Church. I'm pretty excited about hearing these scholars. These are people whose books I've read for more than 25 years.

Lowell

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