By the Rev. Patrick Funston, deputy
Monday, June 29 marks the halfway point of convention. At the beginning of the day, the House of Deputies had considered 70 of 340 resolutions. We certainly had some work to do! The morning started with the major committees having morning meetings, so I spent the morning with Eirnín (my daughter) and my sister-in-law and diocesan seminarian Katie Knoll Lenon and her daughter Joni. I’ve been serving on the Legislative Committee on Environmental Stewardship and Care of Creation, which I do feel is an important committee! When I refer to major committees, I mean a few of the vital committees (Program, Budget and Finance; the Special Committee on Marriage, Constitution and Canons, Governance and Structure) have constant work to do and need to have all their scheduled meetings.
Instead, I had a little later start to my morning with my family and joined the Kansas deputation and the Convention for Eucharist. This morning Archbishop Vicken Aykazian of the Armenian Church of America joined us for worship. In Archbishop Aykazian’s sermon, he taught the Convention about the history of the 100-year-old Armenian genocide, when the Ottoman Empire engaged in a systematic genocide of the Armenian people. He made the assertion that, as Christians in the modern world, we are a displaced people, and he gave thanks that the Anglican Communion is engaging his church in a conversation that will hopefully lead to full communion (full and normalized relations). The rest of the legislative day was pretty full. We started with a resolution amending the Constitution of the Episcopal Church to grease the wheels for dioceses to merge. Other resolutions passed encouraging funding for church planting and church revitalization. The House of Deputies also passed resolutions in favor of decreasing gun violence, increasing the minimum wage, removal of the Confederate battle flag and handgun purchaser licensing.
But the biggest news of the day wasn’t in the House of Deputies. The biggest news for the Episcopal Church is the House of Bishops’ passage of the resolutions to facilitate same-sex marriage in Episcopal churches. These resolutions (if approved by the House of Deputies) change the canons (laws) of the Church on marriage and the approval of same-sex liturgies for trial use beginning on the first Sunday of Advent. “Trial use” means that the larger church is allowed to use them (with permission of a diocesan bishop) during a test-phase until they become fully approved liturgies of the church after agreement at two subsequent conventions. These resolutions will come to the House of Deputies soon (hopefully Tuesday). With Friday’s Supreme Court decision, these changes to canon law and the addition of liturgical resources pave the way for same-sex marriage to take place in Episcopal churches around the country.
This has been a wonderful experience so far, and I’m very thankful to the Diocese of Kansas for electing me to be a deputy and to the congregation of St. Paul’s in Manhattan for sending me off!
Monday, June 29 marks the halfway point of convention. At the beginning of the day, the House of Deputies had considered 70 of 340 resolutions. We certainly had some work to do! The morning started with the major committees having morning meetings, so I spent the morning with Eirnín (my daughter) and my sister-in-law and diocesan seminarian Katie Knoll Lenon and her daughter Joni. I’ve been serving on the Legislative Committee on Environmental Stewardship and Care of Creation, which I do feel is an important committee! When I refer to major committees, I mean a few of the vital committees (Program, Budget and Finance; the Special Committee on Marriage, Constitution and Canons, Governance and Structure) have constant work to do and need to have all their scheduled meetings.
Instead, I had a little later start to my morning with my family and joined the Kansas deputation and the Convention for Eucharist. This morning Archbishop Vicken Aykazian of the Armenian Church of America joined us for worship. In Archbishop Aykazian’s sermon, he taught the Convention about the history of the 100-year-old Armenian genocide, when the Ottoman Empire engaged in a systematic genocide of the Armenian people. He made the assertion that, as Christians in the modern world, we are a displaced people, and he gave thanks that the Anglican Communion is engaging his church in a conversation that will hopefully lead to full communion (full and normalized relations). The rest of the legislative day was pretty full. We started with a resolution amending the Constitution of the Episcopal Church to grease the wheels for dioceses to merge. Other resolutions passed encouraging funding for church planting and church revitalization. The House of Deputies also passed resolutions in favor of decreasing gun violence, increasing the minimum wage, removal of the Confederate battle flag and handgun purchaser licensing.
But the biggest news of the day wasn’t in the House of Deputies. The biggest news for the Episcopal Church is the House of Bishops’ passage of the resolutions to facilitate same-sex marriage in Episcopal churches. These resolutions (if approved by the House of Deputies) change the canons (laws) of the Church on marriage and the approval of same-sex liturgies for trial use beginning on the first Sunday of Advent. “Trial use” means that the larger church is allowed to use them (with permission of a diocesan bishop) during a test-phase until they become fully approved liturgies of the church after agreement at two subsequent conventions. These resolutions will come to the House of Deputies soon (hopefully Tuesday). With Friday’s Supreme Court decision, these changes to canon law and the addition of liturgical resources pave the way for same-sex marriage to take place in Episcopal churches around the country.
This has been a wonderful experience so far, and I’m very thankful to the Diocese of Kansas for electing me to be a deputy and to the congregation of St. Paul’s in Manhattan for sending me off!