Week One of General Convention #79

The Wyoming delegation has wrapped up week one of General Convention in Austin. Members are attending committee meetings, worship services, making exhibitor connections and networking across the greater Episcopal Church during the 79th Triennial Convention. The Episcopal Church’s General Convention is held every three years to consider the legislative business of the church. General Convention is the bicameral governing body of the Church, comprised of the , with upwards of 200 active and retired bishops, and the House of Deputies, with and lay deputies elected from the 110 diocese and three regional areas of the Church, at more than 840 members. Four clergy and four lay delegates, along with one of each alternate are in Austin through July 13th. Youth representatives arrived Monday and will spend several days getting a feel for a General Convention. Episcopal Church Women (ECW), and the National Altar Guild Association, are also hosting their triennial convention in Austin during General Convention. For full coverage of General Convention events and happens, click on the following link: https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/tag/general-convention-2018/ Here are some highlights from the Episcopal News Service (ENS):

Are you ready for a Revival!? Presiding Bishop Michael Curry brought a rousing “God is love and gives life” message to Episcopalians and others gathered here during a revival to standing ovation after standing ovation every time he told the crowd to live. “The only reason to be born is to live,” said Curry. “God wants us to have life … God wants all of his children to have life… “God wants you to live. God wants us to live. Got wants this world to live … live, live, live.”

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry begins an impassioned sermon before a packed audience at a revival held on July 7 at Austin’s Palmer Center. Photo: Mike Patterson/Episcopal News Service In John 21 the risen Jesus who ask Peter three times, “Do you love me?” Jesus asks Peter the question for every time Peter denied knowing Jesus the night before his crucifixion. Through his questions, he demonstrated the way of love. The presiding bishop preached for close to 45 minutes in English and Spanish through an interpreter at the July 7 revival at the Palmer Center with approximately 2,500 people in attendance. In addition, 26,747 individual viewers took part in some or all of the revival service online and the revival video showed up on the Facebook feeds of 79,149 users, One has to lay down selfishness, which is akin to sin, in order to follow Jesus, Curry said. “The key to following Jesus, the key to being his disciple, the key to life is love, is love, is love, it’s love. “The older I get, the more I am convinced that we waste a lot of time in life on stuff that doesn’t give life. And, some of that’s human; we’re human … but at the end of the day, we’ve got to live, we’ve got to live in world where little children are not separated from their parents at our borders,” he said to rousing, sustained applause. “And the work of love is to work to make a world with the possibility of life for all. That is the work of love.” Other Happenings this Week • Philip and April Schentrup, Episcopalians whose daughter Carmen was one of 17 students and educators killed by a gunman at Parkland, Florida’s, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School appeared before the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies on July 7 to ask them to continue their work to end gun violence. • One of the unique offerings at this triennium’s General Convention are TEConversations (The Episcopal Church Conversations), which are being held during three joint sessions of the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies over the coming week. Each conversation offers multiple speakers, video presentations and engaging interludes around three priorities of this gathering: racial reconciliation, evangelism and care of creation. Speakers represent international leaders, well- known Episcopalians, and rising voices in the Church. • Legislative Action in House of Deputies - The House of Deputies on July 7 adopted a resolution that would set the stage for the revision of the 1979 . The resolution now goes to the House of Bishops for its consideration. The resolution adopts a process recommended by the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music, or SCLM, which from now until 2021 will gather data about how the current 1979 prayer book is being used in congregations across the Episcopal Church, with a focus group meeting in every diocese and a variety of consultations. The resolution directs that any future revision will “utilize inclusive and expansive language and imagery for humanity and divinity” and will “incorporate and express understanding, appreciation, and care of God’s creation.”

Additional guidance for the process was included in floor amendments. The amendments direct that elements of prayer book revision be faithful to the historic rites as expressed in the Anglican tradition while making space for rites that might arise from the working of the Holy Spirit. Work also is to take into account the church’s “liturgical, cultural, racial, generational, linguistic, gender, physical ability, and ethnic diversity,” as well as adhering to the four elements identified by Anglicans as the essentials for Christian unity: scripture, the creeds, sacraments of baptism and Eucharist and the historic episcopate.