What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been

This afternoon, in the middle of the report of Committee #10, Social and Urban Affairs, following the passage of various resolutions, a member of the House rose to move that, from this point forward, resolutions only be introduced by the committee chair, thereby eliminating discussion of the resolution entirely. Resolutions brought before the House by #26, the Special Committee, are an exception to this. The motion failed.

The timing of this motion was very interesting, given that the next order of business was to consider A0167: Full and Equal Claim for All the Baptized. Remember, this is the resolution to which the Social and Urban Affairs Committee reintroduced the notion that we were in a position to dictate committee structure to other provinces in the Anglican Communion.

When it appeared that we might actually discuss this piece of legislation (a dangerous idea), Deputy Seitz of West Virginia moved the previous question. So we moved onto the vote on the resolution, rather than talking about what I believe will be a controversial 4th resolve. Here it is.

“Resolved, That, in evidence of that apology, The Episcopal Church pledge to include openly gay and lesbian persons on every committee, commission or task force developed for the specific purpose of discussing issues about sexuality and request the same of our sister churches in the Anglican Communion and Anglican Communion bodies.”

Of course, it should come as no surprise that this is one of the only SCECAC resolutions which passed with no lengthy debate.

Finally, here’s another doozie from today’s business, D069/Bible: Supreme Authority of Scripture. The original resolution acknowledged that “the Bible has always been at the centre of Anglican belief and life, and declares its belief that Scripture is the Church’s supreme authority…”

Here’s how it came to us. “…General Convention acknowledges the authority of the triune God, exercised through Scripture.” +Ellen Neufield of the Diocese of Albany rose to add the words ‘Father, Son and Holy Spirit’ after the ‘triune God.’ She supported this amendment with the observation that Hinduism recognized a triune God in Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. Good point, but of course they voted it down.

The Fudge continued until 6 p.m. when we adjourned until sine die, or a time certain–which in this case means Anaheim in 2009.

We’ll see.

Let’s give the rest of the Anglican Communion time to read, mark and inwardly digest the actions of the General Convention.