July 11 dispatches from 79th General Convention in Austin

Posted Jul 11, 2018

[Episcopal News Service – Austin, Texas] Much happens each day during General Convention. To complement Episcopal News Service’s primary coverage, we have collected some additional news items from July 11.

Episcopal News Service Managing Editor Lynette Wilson, left, interviews Cuba Bishop Griselda Delgado del Carpio, right, via Spanish-language interpreter Dinorah Padro during a special edition of Inside General Convention. Photo: Melodie Woerman/Episcopal News Service

Special edition of Inside General Convention focuses on Cuba

Lynette Wilson, reporter and managing editor for Episcopal News Service, interviewed Cuba Bishop Griselda Delgado del Carpio and Western North Carolina Bishop José McLoughlin about the House of Bishops’ and House of Deputies’ historic vote to admit the Episcopal Church of Cuba as a diocese.

 

What once was lost can now be found

With as many as 10,000 busy people scurrying around the Austin Convention Center and surrounding hotels for committee meetings, legislative sessions, Exhibit Hall shopping and chance encounters with friends, it’s inevitable that some of them will misplace some of their belongings. Some of that paraphernalia winds up lining the counter of the Information Center.

The size of the lost water bottle collection waxes and wanes as people come to the Information Center to claim their lost hydration devices. Photo: Mary Frances Schjonberg/Episcopal News Service

With participants warned to keep hydrated under the blazing Texas sun, water bottles and sunglasses are the most common stragglers, according to volunteer Louise Horner of Marysville, Missouri. Two folding hand fans also were in the lost and found the morning of July 11.

Horner said the Information Center volunteers also have a small collection of single earrings.

Some larger items go astray at times. Volunteer Beth Deleery of Austin said one participant jokingly stopped by to see if the volunteers could look for her spouse.

And, ever the theologians, some convention participants, invoking the information services of the booth, have asked if any of the volunteers know the meaning of life.

– Mary Frances Schjonberg

Mothers, babies reunited on House of Deputies floor

The Rev. Jenny Replogle from the Diocese of Chicago speaks in favor of Resolution D087 while holding her son, Rowan. Photo: Canticle Communications

A July 5 misunderstanding of the Rules of Order that allowed for the House of Deputies president’s discretion to permit babies to accompany deputies onto the floor has been clarified by the passing of Resolution D087 on July 11 of the 79th General Convention. The resolution spells out who is permitted on the floor, and now includes “infants under 1 year of age with a parent or guardian who is a deputy; children over 1 year old who require nursing or bottle-feeding only while feeding; and caregivers of children to bring a child to a feeding parent when the child needs to be fed, escorted in and out as directed by the president.” A “designated feeding area” will be present on the house floor that provides for voting access, but a parent will not be required to use it.

– Sharon Tillman

Bishops approve task force on theology of social justice

The House of Bishops, meeting during the 79th General Convention, on July 11 adopted a resolution that attempts to answer the question of how social justice fits into the mission and ministry of the Episcopal Church. Resolution A056 directs the presiding bishop and president of the House of Deputies to appoint a Task Force on the Theology of Social Justice Advocacy as Christian Justice. The bishops approved the resolution without debate.

If the $15,000 that is requested for the work is allocated, the committee would be tasked over the next three years to consider scripture, approved liturgical resources, other theological texts and previous actions of General Conventions to summarize ways in which the Episcopal Church understands the work of social justice as an essential mission and ministry of the Christian church. The resolution also directs the task force to study how the Episcopal Church currently fosters theological understanding and leadership for social justice, as well as to recommend ways to foster theological and practical conversation on social justice.

– Mike Patterson


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Comments (12)

  1. Rev. Dr. James Hargis says:

    Lets hope TEC will also end up in the “Lost and Found’ Department!!!

    1. Susan Warner Nance says:

      Rev. Dr. James: I’m not sure your comment fulfills the Comment Policy, which is excerpted below. I hope you are able to find a forum in your life in which you find contentment and a sense of belonging. I value listening and learning to opinions of others, and hope you will find a place to share your thoughts without receiving an ugly response.

      We want these conversations to be safe, open and respectful, and so we moderate comments. We reserve the right to remove any comment that we consider to be inappropriate for any reason.

      Comments that are critical of ENS or the Episcopal Church are approved unless they use vulgar language, hate speech or personal attacks of any sort. We delete such comments immediately and may block those commenters from participating in the future.

      1. Frank Harrision says:

        I find it wad, although these days necessary, that there needs to be a watchdog over “style of conversation.” You speak of “vulgar language, hate speech or personal attacks of any sort” as being eliminated. If I had done that in years past, I would have gotten “the look” from my mother and more especially my grandmothers. This was quite sufficient to freeze me and make me mind my manners. Does anyone else remember the times when good manners were demanded by family? Just curious.

    2. Thomas Scott Ball Jr says:

      Please spew your negativity elsewhere Rev. Dr. Doom and Gloom.

      1. Robbie Johnson says:

        Views of conservatives are not welcome.

        1. Susan Warner Nance says:

          Views of all are welcome for me, I just don’t have room for the degradation of individuals or organizations. That’s just me.

          1. Frank Harrision says:

            Dear Ms. Nance. I would imagine that what you say is not exactly the truth. Or perhaps it is. You say, “I just don’t have room for the degradation of individuals or organizations.’ Let me suggest a counterexample. What of the Nazi party of Germany in say 1940. Would you not seek the “degradation” of this organization? I am merely curious concerning your universally applicable criteria for “degradation”. Thanks.

          2. Susan Warner Nance says:

            Dear Mr. Harrison Good point. Let me clarify – commenting in a deragoratoy manner on the Episcopal News Service Dispatches comment fields is what I prefer to avoid.

            No more comments from me on this post – moving forward to July 12! Thanks for seeking more details.

  2. John Roberts says:

    The Episcopal “Church” has become nothing more than a platform for radical left-wing ideology and practices. Raising homosexual “marriage” to the same level as true marriage, making God gender neutral, radical feminism, ecofascism, wasting money on “racial reconciliation”, whatever that means, changing the Prayer Book once again (it was bad enough in 1979). My 57-year association with Epsicopalianism will soon be ending. What liberals have done to the Church is nothing short of blasphemous.

    1. Frank Harrision says:

      Dear John, I think that many of the “old timers” (I am 83) are being forced out of the Episcopal Church by a group of Baby Boomers who want their way. Interestingly it is many of these same people who claim to love everyone and be inclusive of everyone. My general observation is that they are inclusive of those who agree with them and are, in MANY cases, shrill with those who do not.

  3. William F. Maxwell says:

    I was ordained deacon in1947. I have lived my life within the life of the Episcopal Church, and while I have not agreed with every action taken by our church over those years, I have never for a moment believed that we have abandoned the faith and life of our historic commitment to Christ’s will for his Body. I see the faithful, week by week, fed and enriched and sent out into His world, to proclaim the Gospel to the best of their ability. I refuse to agree that we have abandoned our Lord or that He has abandoned us. Christ continues to work with imperfect sinners, including me. And including those who totter on the brink of despair.

  4. Frank Harrision says:

    For those of you interested in Prayer Book revision, I strongly suggest reading this article:

    http://www.episcopalnet.org/TRACTS/Deceived.html

    pax —

Comments are closed.