Well,
it’s over and we are heading home. Thanks be to God.
Looking
back on General Convention as a whole, this is how I would sum it up:
Some good
things happen here. A lot of good people gather for the purpose of doing good
things, but the things done are not as good as the people. This legislative
assembly is a piece of the Church, but it is not the main act. The main act
plays out in congregations around the world – in churches large and small, in sacristies, kitchens, and fellowship halls, in
hospital rooms, and homes, at food banks and in social ministries of justice
and mercy. Having periodic conventions is a necessary support to all that, but
the fact of the convention, the event, is not the same as the actions taken,
the decisions made. Those actions and decisions are not insignificant, but
their significance pales in comparison to the daily life of the Church lived in
the midst of the world.
At this
convention, the headline news is the approval of a provisional rite for
blessing same gender relationships. Ironically, that creates a somewhat more
restrictive situation in Nevada than we had before – but I think it is a good
one. Until this week, acting on the basis of a Primates’ Communique, I have not
formally authorized blessings but have informally assured priests they would
not suffer any adverse consequences from doing them. I honestly don’t know what
forms of blessing people may have been using. As of now, we have a prescribed
rite and that is the one our priests will be required to use. From an Anglican
perspective, it is good for us all to be on the same page. We can keep our story straight about what we
are doing. Of course, no one who opposes such blessings will be required to
perform them. So for us, the practical effect of the change is subtle, but this
formal authorization has an important symbolic value for the LGBT community.
The importance of that symbol should not be gainsaid.
The other
big issue was structural reform. Given all the paranoid accusations flying
around before Convention, I was quite surprised and extremely pleased that the
conversation was rational and the proposal passed unanimously in my committee,
then in both houses. Regardless of how it all plays out in the future, that was
good.
Will
structural reform actually happen? The verdict is still out. We had several
opportunities to initiate or clear the way for structural reform now. We turned
down every single opportunity to open the window. The reason usually given is
that we should not make changes piecemeal or incrementally, that we should
entrust it all to the task force and do revolutionary things all at once in 3
years. Maybe. But in my experience, change happens incrementally and piecemeal –
especially in the Episcopal Church. Deferring decisions by referring them to a
not-yet-created task force may be just a way to give the appearance of change
without actually doing anything. No one at this Convention had an ox gored
except the three committees that are in charge of structure generally. Of the
big decisions we did not make, I was actually in favor of only one of them. So
I am not complaining that we did not act now. We may act more wisely and
effectively in the future. But I am just noting a definite uncertainty about whether
we will dare to make changes next time. If we would not do a few things now,
will we really do many things then?
The
overall impression I have of General Convention is that we are work very hard,
excessively hard, in the belief that we are doing something important. We
imitate the ways of important people in the world, people who are important
because they exercise power. One of our translators noted, not of us in
particular but of people in general, that we strive so hard to have a purpose –
not realizing we already have a purpose. We lack repose. We lack serenity. We
miss the opportunity to appreciate and enjoy each other because we are pushing
so hard to make ourselves matter.
Business
must be transacted. Decisions must be made. But our structure and our process,
based as they are on governmental structures and processes, are not spiritually
helpful. We have been confused about this ever since Constantine legalized us a
good long while ago. I missed Indaba groups this time. I longed for a Circles
of Trust conversation. I wanted to hear people’s stories. If we set the
business in that context, as even some of our best business leadership
theorists recommend, I believe we would have better decisions and we would become
better people in the process.