Convention Revisited

The 140th Convention of the Diocese of Albany met the Camp of the Woods in Speculator over the weekend of June 5-6.  Bishop Love's opening address on Friday night has already been covered in Bishop Bill's favorite weblog, Virtue Online.  Marc Parry has summarized the Bishop's address as well as the results of the business meeting on Saturday in his Times Union article. Episcopal Life has followed with its report of the Convention, which provides a link to the text of the resolutions. Taken together, these reports will give a fairly complete idea of the proceedings.

Since none of the above sources has covered the actual voting, I offer the following from my notes:  Resolution #5 passed, but the number of votes for and against were not noted.  This is the amendment to Diocesan Canon that bans the celebration or blessing of a marriage "or any other union, except between one man and one woman."  The associated Resolution #6 was also adopted.  In a vote by orders, clergy weighed in with 110 yeas, 9 nays.  the lay delegates voted 70 for and 20 against, with 4 abstentions.  This was the amendment of canon which specifies that "a member of the clergy must live within the covenant of Marriage between one man and one woman."

Resolution #7, proposed and seconded by members of Albany Via Media, failed of adoption.  This resolution called for the termination of the "parish choice" option in our Diocese.  Associated Resolution #8, which called for the Diocese to disassociate from the Anglican Communion Network, also failed.  The vote was 16 clergy for, 108 opposed.  There were 26 lay delegates for and 69 against.  Resolution #9, also supported by the AVM, was ruled out of order as ambiguous.  Resolution #10, calling for better identification of the Spiritual Life Center as an Episcopal institution, likewise failed. 

One fact that these reports of Convention did not cover was the treatment of the AVM Resolutions on Friday night.  About 10 PM I received a cell phone call from a Convention attendee reporting that the resolutions had been referred to Diocesan Council to determine if they would be part of the next day's agenda.  This, in spite of the fact that they had met all of the requirements previously for inclusion, they were printed in the pre-Convention informational booklet, and the complete text of each had been published for review by the delegates.  The closed-door session of Council reported the resolutions back to the floor in greatly abbreviated form, with the recommendation that they not be accepted by Convention!  Is it any wonder that the AVM inspired resolutions resoundingly failed?

Clearly, the progressive forces within the Diocese of Albany have much work to do.  Now is not the time to lament the events of the past week, but to plan for future action.  We will be doing so individually and in concert in the days and weeks to come.

Pray for the Diocese.

Comments

[Tom Pritchard]

However spirit filled the annual diocesan conventions are supposed to be, the planning for predictable speeches forcing an abbreviated business meeting is just plain sloppy and inappropriate.
If all the leadership wants is rubber stamps and to stifle meaningful discussion of controversial issues they will only succeed in eroding, even further, whatever residue of respect they think we should have for their offices while reflecting on their personal conduct in such offices. Do they look in their mirrors and see themselves among the marginalized that Jesus chose to associate with or the tradition bound pharisees and sadduces in their little version of a sanhedrin that Jesus was not sparing in his criticism of?

[Jeremy R. Feedore]

NO ONE from AVM spoke in favor of the resolution to disassociate from the Network. In fact, there was little said by anyone in support of the resolutions to indicate that AVM took them seriously. The Friday Night Revisions made to the resolutions made it that much more difficult to address them the next morning, but more preparations for them by, among other things, assigning people to working on/speaking on specific resolutions, spreading out the workload and demonstrating broader support for them, certainly would have helped.

I agree that moderates/progressives were notably absent, but that is easily remedied by astute delegate selections by the parishes. While the atmosphere at the Convention is certainly not favorable to TEC, those who support TEC cannot rightly complain of exclusion if they do not attend and speak up!

Don't lose hope; the National Convention is next year....

[Rich Angelo]

As I see it what is truly sad is that in the midst of homlessness, poverty ( in spirit and finances), environmental issues, family discord, emotional and personal distress, health issues both globally and locally in our cities and towns, the Diocese of Albany makes no resolutions to bring the love of Christ into these sitiuations( something Jesus tells us to do) but passes resolutions to limit faithful members of the Church from living out their baptismal calling!

[Tom R]

I'd like to recommend to the diocese that in order to promote environmental sustainability (Millennium Development Goal #7), they consider holding the convention in a location that reduces the amount of travel for the highest number of people. Surely there must be data available on who is coming from where, so a location that makes sense can be determined. I realize that people do come from all directions, so perhaps they should consider keeping it near the diocesan offices (in Albany) at least? Just an idea...

[Robert Dodd]

One reason for the last minute review of several Convention resolutions was limited time available for them on Saturday. The business meeting was sandwiched between speeches in the morning and a Eucharist in the afternoon. As a result, the session after lunch was hurried, adding to the problems faced by authors who were obliged to defend unfamiliar condensations of what they had written.

This parliamentary mess is a consequence of squeezing the sole diocesan business meeting into a gathering with many other, competing activities. The workshops, speakers, services,and fellowship at Convention are valuable but expensive: A parish can easily pay $1000 or more to send three lay deputies and a priest to Speculator, a real hardship for many cash-strapped parishes.

The great majority of Albany's priests and lay deputies could attend a one-day, business only meeting at the Cathedral without driving long distances or paying for lodging. This would permit business matters to have the full attention that they deserve. Those who want an Adirondack convention could then enjoy one without the distraction of a business meeting.