News from the Pews

General Convention 101

A Reflection as we approach the 75th General Convention

For more information on General Convention 2006, please visit the Trinity GC2006 webpage and the Trinity GC2006 calendar.

June 25th marks several notable events in the life of Trinity Church:

• The Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Lilly celebrates her 30th Anniversary to the Deaconate—the first woman from Trinity ordained... and she was ordained here!

• Saying good-bye to Rachael Friend as she moves to North Carolina.

• The Rev. Deacon Jennie Crockett will preach at her last services here with us before she begins her duties at St. Patrick’s Dublin.

Sunday, June 18th, 2006
8:00 am - Said Morning Prayer (lay led)
9:00 am - Holy Eucharist
The Rev. Harold Lewis, Calvary Church, Pittsburgh, preaching
5:30 pm - Festival Choral Eucharist at First Congregational Church (444 East Broad Street), with Trinity's and FCC's Choirs

Previous issues of The Chimes

April, 2006

The 75th General Convention Issue

“Are you the only person in Columbus who does not know the things that are taking place here in these days?” (paraphrase of Luke 13:18, with poetic license)

The 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church in America is coming to the Diocese of Southern Ohio, Columbus and Trinity. You are needed to assist or volunteer at General Convention, Trinity or the Parish House Office. If you have any time between June 10 and 22 to assist, please contact Judy McKissick at or call the Parish Office at 221-5351 and speak with Jim Bliek .

If you are in need of more information in order to make an informed decision please contact us. There are openings from 8:00 am until 10:30 pm daily. Come be a part of this once in a lifetime opportunity. You are truly needed to serve, learn and grow.

News from the Pews

• Gladys Hallum graduated on May 19 from Customer Service and Life Skills Program at the Jewish Family Service Center of Columbus.
• Kohy Washington graduates from Bishop Hartley High School in June.
• Alice Gahbauer, graduated from Johns Hopkins University, BS, summa cum laude.
• Jordan Sellman graduated from George Washington University, BA.
• Molly Johns graduated from Wittenberg University, BA.
• Owen Matthew Barry-Wilson is the newest member of the Barry-Wilson family. Charles, Julie and Olivia welcomed Owen to their family in mid-May.

General Convention 101

by Mary Frances Schjonberg, re-printed with permission from The Vestry Papers, May/June 2006—The Episcopal Church Foundation

Imagine Eucharist for 8,000 people. Imagine a marketplace of goods and ideas. Imagine quiet conversations among friends, old and new. Imagine one of the largest legislatures in the world. Imagine the utter silence of prayer before momentous decisions. The every-three-years gathering of the Episcopal Church known as General Convention is all of these things. The 75th gathering begins in Columbus, Ohio, on June 13 and runs until June 21. Bishops and elected deputies, clergy and lay, from dioceses all over the world will make broad decisions about the church’s policies and worship.

The decisions take the form of resolutions agreed to by both the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops. The House of Deputies ranges in size between 800 and 1,000 members. There are 311 bishops eligible to sit in their house. Resolutions come from the groups which carry out the work authorized by the previous convention, bishops, dioceses, provinces and deputies. Committees hear public testimony on all resolutions before they come to the houses.

Deputies cannot be instructed to vote one way or another. They agree to have an open heart so that they can prayerfully listen to others and be led by the Holy Spirit. Neither can they refuse to vote on an issue.

We can predict some of the issues a convention will face. Others will arise spontaneously. Here are some of the decisions facing this Convention.

• Elect the 26th Presiding Bishop to succeed Frank T. Griswold and elect a new House of Deputies president to succeed the Very Rev. George W. Werner. The holders of both offices help to lead the church (the Presiding Bishop for nine years, the Deputies president for three years) in developing policy, carrying out Convention’s programs and strategies, and representing the Church to the world. The House of Bishops will elect the next Presiding Bishop from among their members on June 18. The bishops will then ask the House of Deputies to agree to their choice. As of press time, the nominees were Neil Alexander of Atlanta; Edwin F. “Ted” Gulick, Jr. of Kentucky; Katharine Jefferts Schori of Nevada; Henry N. Parsley Jr. of Alabama; and by petition, Stacy F. Sauls of Lexington; Charles E. Jenkins III of Louisiana and Francisco Duque-Gomez of Columbia. The House of Deputies presidential candidates are not announced ahead of time.

• Respond to the devastation of the Gulf Coast. The issues include rebuilding destroyed church buildings and communities, possibly planting churches to minister to relocated people, paying salary and benefits to congregational and diocesan staff when income has been reduced or is nonexistent, and possibly making policy statements about states’ and municipalities’ rebuilding plans.

• Approve an approximately $151 million 2007-2009 budget. The Executive Council, elected to oversee the ministry and mission of the Church between conventions, proposed the $151,986,107 budget in January. It will be considered and, no doubt, tweaked by the Joint Standing Committee on Program, Budget and Finance (PB&F) before being presented to the Convention. The budget assumes increases in diocesan revenue commitments of 2.5 percent, three percent and three percent in the respective years. The final year of the current budget will see a two percent increase in diocesan income. The new budget assumes a five percent draw on endowment funds, one half percent less than that in the current triennium. The budget anticipates net rental income of $2.2 million for space in the newly renovated Church Center in New York City and promises to reduce staff costs by $825,000 through attrition and retirements.

• Respond to criticism of the previous convention’s decision to give dioceses some choice in blessing same-gender relationships and to allow the Diocese of New Hampshire to choose an openly gay man as its bishop. A fourteen member special legislative committee has been named to deal with resolutions surrounding the Episcopal Church’s response to a variety of official statements made by Anglican bodies including the Windsor Report.

• Vote to consent or not. The House of Bishops must act on the election of seven bishops who were elected by their dioceses in the 120 days leading up to General Convention (consents for bishops elected outside this period are obtained via mail from all diocesan bishops and standing committees). It is possible that at least one of those consents will be for an openly gay bishop. At press time two of the five nominees for Bishop of California are gay people in committed relationships.

• Revise canons and codes of conduct for ministry at all levels. The Title III canons governing the ordination, life and work of priests and deacons were revised in 2003. Another round of revisions will be proposed in Columbus. A task force is proposing major revisions to Title IV (“Ecclesiastical Discipline”) to include lay people and outline new disciplinary procedures. Its new name would be: “Fitness for Ministry, Accountability and Ecclesiastical Discipline.” It defines a Minister as a baptized person or member of the clergy. It adds a category of “Minister in Leadership,” defining such a person as a clergyperson, a person preparing for ordination or “any Minister other than a Member of the Clergy who ha accepted a Ministry in this Church or in the Community.” The proposal calls for new disciplinary procedures centered on diocesan courts to be known as the Discipline and Fitness for Ministry Board. The full text of the Title III and IV revisions can be read in the Blue Book.

The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is the national correspondent for the Episcopal News Service and the news director of the 75th General Convention. A non-stipendiary priest at Trinity Church in Asbury Park, New Jersey, she was formerly the assistant rector at Christ Church in Short Hills, New Jersey.

A Reflection as we approach the 75th General Convention

In a recent communiqué from his office at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., Bishop Steven Charleston tells the Episcopal Church, “the most important question before us is not about schism or sexuality. It is about witness.” As a veteran of many past battles for change at General Convention, in a mission-minded diocese and in the academy, he speaks as one with authority.

For some twenty years the Episcopal Church has heard a distinct, prophetic voice coming from him. As bishop of Alaska and before that the officer for Native American ministries at the Episcopal Church Center, Steven Charleston dealt in essentials: doing justice; loving compassion; and walking by faith, and in humility, with God. In an unusual move, he resigned his see in Alaska to return to his undergraduate alma mater, Trinity College in Hartford, CT, to serve as its chaplain. A member of the Choctaw Nation would proclaim the Gospel in the groves of Eastern-establishment academe! Shortly thereafter he moved to his former seminary to become President and Dean. Clearly, the Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston manifests the grace and courage of a disciple - and with it offers the whole church a vision of God’s shalom that is inviting as well as demanding.

Remember he was the visiting preacher when our diocese gathered in Athens (November, 1999) and was moved to dream great dreams of wider mission, outreach, congregational growth and community service following his homily on the “offence” of Christ’s message. That was a sustaining witness for the church.

I also remember hearing Bishop Charleston a year ago in the Diocese of Ohio tell leaders gathered for transforming ministry that we in the church must “get past the ‘us-and-them’ separations that destroy the common, united body of Christ in order that we arrive at the ‘us-and-them’ beauty of uniqueness in all God’s children that makes the body of Christ whole.” That, too, was a memorable and strengthening witness to the Church.

In his recent message to the Episcopal Church Bishop Charleston reminds us that, “Christian witness is the public affirmation of faith. It is how we let the world see that we practice what we preach.” In Columbus for two weeks this June the world will watch us very closely. As we approve a budget responsive to the devastation of the Gulf Coast, the world will take note. As we work to improve canons and codes of ministerial conduct that are fair, prudential and just, the world will watch and perhaps follow our lead. And as we respond to various critiques from fellow Anglicans in other parts of the world, the wider world will see how well we live what we proclaim. All this is witness for the sake of the world.

A personal reflection: For the past nine years I have been privileged to serve this parish in this diocese located at the center of downtown Columbus and across the street from Ohio’s statehouse. Over these years the witness of the Episcopal Church for peace, social and economic justice, environmental stewardship and a more faithful citizenship has been clearly articulated by our bishops, fellow clergy and the people of God. Now, our parish will host the election of the Episcopal Church’s 26th Presiding Bishop at General Convention. I am reminded that witness is an essential part of evangelism – the telling of all the good news we have for the sake of the world. But I am also reminded of a simple banner that hung in the chapel of the Episcopal Church Center in New York City during the 1990’s – our now sometimes scorned and derided “Decade of Evangelism.” Three words on the banner said it all for that decade-long challenge and, I believe, for our present moment:

In this way, respectfully and caringly, we offer a witness that will catch the eyes of the world and draw some response.

May we be ready to welcome General Convention and our ecumenical/interreligious partners and friends with the mind of Christ, respecting the dignity of every human being. And may we also proclaim by lively/truth-filled word and gracious/self-giving example all the good news of God in Christ.

I trust we will, with God’s help.

The Rev. Richard A. Burnett, Rector