What happened at the 80th General Convention?

What happened at the 80th General Convention?

Broad strokes from a virtual attendee

The Rev. Vicki Ix, Managing Editor, ABUNDANT Times

The 80th General Convention was held in Baltimore, MD July 7-July 11. Due to rise of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, plans for a typical 10-day gathering were scrapped in favor of a shorter, leaner agenda. A select planning committee moved resolutions that spurred little or no dispute to the Consent Calendar. This expedited the shortened process and allowed sufficient time for deeply concerning matters to be discussed on the floors of both houses.

Thanks to great coverage from the Office of Public Affairs, Episcopal News Service and Deputy News, I was able to track progress on the most critical resolutions. The livestream from both the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops meant constant discernment. Each day I found myself in and out of both assemblies, though more often, I tracked the program in the HOD.

Our deputation worked from early morning through lunch and into the early evening. Led by the Rev. Tanya R. Wallace, lay and ordained deputies convened daily with the bishop to process the work of the convention. Tanya fed me images throughout and responded to every text. It was “the next best thing to being there.”

The values we espouse, pray into being, and sustain by grace, were well in evidence in the 415 resolutions considered at GC80. Here is a very short list of resolutions that matter deeply to me and to many in our Church.

• A127 Resolution for Telling the Truth about The Episcopal Church's History with Indigenous Boarding Schools

• A003 Uniform Paid Family Leave Policy

• A050 Support collaborative efforts with Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) to place historical markers

• A060 Endorse Guidelines for Expansive and Inclusive Language

• A140 Urge The Episcopal Church and Constituents to Designate Indigenous Peoples’ Day

• B003 Regulating Ghost Guns and 3D Printed Guns (Proposer: Bishop Doug Fisher)

• B008 A Call for the Cessation of Conflict in Ukraine

• C004 Inclusion of June 19th, "Juneteenth" in the Church's Liturgical Calendar in Recognition of the End of Slavery in the United States

• C030 Addressing Anti-Semitic, Anti- Jewish, and/or Supersessionist Interpretations of our Lectionaries

• D019 Acknowledgement of Indigenous Lands

There are so many more! If these intrigue you and you want to know more about what our Church deliberated and decided in the power of the Holy Spirit, visit: www.generalconvention.org/about-gc80 ♦