OUR GENERAL CONVENTION 2000 COVERAGE includes this report from Anglicans Online correspondent Pepper Marts. Other reports are listed here. You may contact the writer at pmarts@efortress.com.
The first day of business
5 July 2000
Beloved:
In the weeks to come you'll see many references to GC resolutions. It's useful to remember that their sponsors are not some faceless "it" or "them" but real people with names and faces, human beings made in God's image.
Resolutions have four principal sources:
- A-Resolutions: Standing Commissions and the Executive Council of General Convention;
- B-Resolutions: Individual Bishops;
- C-Resolutions: Dioceses;
- D-Resolutions: Individual Deputies.
It's also useful to remember that resolutions can affect institutions and the individual human beings who are their members. For example, one of the first resolutions considered by this General Convention included language directly affecting our own Diocese of the Rio Grande. Resolution C001, sponsored by the Diocese of California, is titled Proposed Sanctions for Failure to Pay "Fair Share"
Because Rio Grande currently pays less than 10% of the Asking; adoption of C001 would have reduced the number of deputies to which she was entitled from eight to zero.
Presenting the resolution to the House of Deputies, a spokesman for the Constitution & Canons committee said the committee recommended rejection because the proposal "places too much emphasis on political things." The House followed the committee's recommendation, offering a witness of charity that's become increasingly—and sadly—rare.
For a report on other first-day acts and actions, see the article by Genie Carr, a freelance writer in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Pepper Marts, 2911 Maximillian Rd NW, Albuquerque, NM 87104-1817
(505) 843-9625
In the Diocese of the Rio Grande
What does God require of you but to do justice, love kindness and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)
