Dear Friends,

This coming Tuesday, I will be headed to Austin, Texas, where the General Convention of the Episcopal Church will be meeting. Thomas Brown is one of the eight deputies of the Diocese of Massachusetts, so I will be joining him for part of the convention, which lasts for two weeks.

The General Convention meets triennially, and is the Church’s highest temporal authority. Among other things, it has power to amend the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church; to amend The Book of Common Prayer; and to carry out various other responsibilities and authority. There are two legislative Houses of General Convention: the House of Deputies, made up of an equal number of clergy and laity, and the House of Bishops.

As with any legislative body, the work of General Convention is complicated. Legislative committees meet, resolutions are considered, revised, sometimes adopted and sometimes rejected. In a time when many governing institutions are being attacked, there are those who criticize the structures of the larger church as being ineffective or unwieldy.

And yet, if Jesus promised that where two or three are gathered in his name he is there, then the Church believes that even when over a thousand are gathered in one convention center in his name, he will be there as well.

I invite you to remember in your prayers all who are gathered for the 78th General Convention, meeting during the first two weeks of July.  Pray that they will hear the Spirit, see God’s beauty, and act in love, even as we seek to do so in this place.

Faithfully,

Tom

You can find out more about General Convention here.