My Sisters & Brothers in Christ,
By now many of you have heard various news reports and opinion pieces about our Church’s 77th General Convention. Not surprisingly, I have read many exaggerated reports and some that are just plain wrong. Two opinion pieces that seem to be circulating in the Diocese of Georgia are Ross Douthat writing in the New York Times on July 14 and Jay Akasie in the Wall Street Journal on July 13. I will not go through here a point by point refutation of the inaccuracies in both pieces, but suffice it to say there are many and they give the reader a skewed understanding. For example, in an otherwise thoughtful piece, Douthat claims that “most recent leaders of the Episcopal Church have shared” the theological “premises” of retired Bishop, Jack Spong. That is patently false. I know my fellow bishops well enough to know how absurd that is. It is an irresponsible and misleading claim for Douthat to make.
Akasie’s piece, unlike Douthat’s, is not thoughtful at all. It is a hatchet job, particularly on our Presiding Bishop. While I do not agree with everything our Presiding Bishop does or says, she has presided over the House of Bishops with grace and fairness. She is not “secretive” or “authoritarian,” as Akasie claims. He uses the budget process as an example of his claims. The Presiding Bishop only proposed an alternative budget because the Executive Council presented an incoherent one, one that failed to move our Church away from a focus on governance and toward a focus on mission. The budget we passed at General Convention improved on the Presiding Bishop’s budget, but in my opinion did not go far enough in making the necessary changes toward a true missionary budget. It is a step in the right direction, but we have a long way to go.
I am confident that over the next three years we will see continued movement toward future budgets that will make mission a higher priority. The Task Force on the Church’s structure will convene soon. We must get things right in terms of structure, so we can get things right in terms of budgetary resources toward mission. There is a strong and growing movement for such transformation. I believe it was and is the Holy Spirit driving us toward significant change. Let us all pray for that to continue.
Our Deputies already reported on the General Convention’s vote to authorize a provisional rite for the blessing of same-sex couples. In both orders our deputation voted 3-1 against the enabling resolution. As I explained before General Convention, I also voted against the resolution, not because I am opposed to a blessing rite for same-sex couples, but because the rite itself is problematic, poorly written, and confusing in terms of the Church’s teaching on Holy Matrimony. The rite, however, was approved by over 70% in both the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops.
What will this mean in the Diocese of Georgia? Frankly, I do not know. Since this is a provisional rite and the resolution gives the Diocesan Bishop sole authority to determine its use in his/her diocese, I need more time to consult with our General Convention Deputation, our Standing Committee, and the priests of the Diocese. I plan on doing just that over the next few months. The provisional rite is not officially authorized until Advent, so I have the time needed to consult, pray, and decide. I expect to issue my decision sometime after the fall clergy conference in October.
Until then, I urge all of us to avoid reckless hyperbole and unfair speculation. Rather, let us remain constant in prayer and generous in love. It is by God’s merciful grace that we have the privilege to serve our Lord Jesus Christ on this earth. One day we will have the privilege of serving him in heaven. Until that day, we will struggle to discern what is faithful to the Gospel of Jesus.
Yours in Christ,
The Right Reverend Scott Anson Benhase
Bishop of Georgia
As we prepared this year for General Convention, each of us did so with a keen awareness of the broad theological spectrum that exists in the Diocese of Georgia, confirmed by our listening sessions and your many communications with us. Ours is a diocese in which faithful Christians on many sides of several issues find a home. In the Diocese of Georgia, both left and right have their place, and in our common love for Christ, one another, and the mission of God’s Church, the center holds.
Despite the controversy of a few issues, you should know there were numerous moments of grace that seemed to be the undeniable work of the Holy Spirit. The most surprising of these was a unanimous call to overhaul the way the Episcopal Church structures and governs itself, shifting our denomination’s priorities to mission and ministry by reducing governance and overhead. Also surprising was Canon Frank Logue’s nomination for President of the House of Deputies, which neither he nor we expected. Though he was not ultimately elected (for which we Georgians may be selfishly grateful), his well-supported nomination revealed a strong desire in the church for a new way of doing business. That desire, we hope, will be a major factor in the forthcoming restructuring efforts.
The Evangelism Committee decided to handle the two resolutions by adopting a substitute for C029 Access to Holy Baptism and Communion which initially called for a study on the underlying theology. The substitute was a two sentence resolution, the first of which affirmed baptism as the ancient and normative entry point to receiving Holy Communion. The second sentence acknowledged “that in various local contexts there is the exercise of pastoral sensitivity with those who are not yet baptized.” Your deputation considered this a significant step toward regularizing the practice of communing the unbaptized and so took action. Working with the deputations from Southwest Florida, Alabama and South Carolina, whose support of our effort was largely gathered by the Rev. Lonnie Lacy’s efforts, the Rev. Ted Clarkson moved for a vote by orders. This more conservative measure moves a simple majority decision to a system that usually takes a two-thirds majority to prevail. In addition, Canon Logue stood to offer an amendment striking the second sentence. When a deputy from Dallas made this amendment first, he spoke in favor of the amendment which subsequently failed. The vote by orders on the resolution then passed the House of Deputies with 77% of lay deputies and 64% of the clergy in favor of the resolution.
The Deputies of the Diocese of Georgia voted 3-1 against provisional adoption of this rite in both clergy and lay deputations. This, by the rules of the House, is registered as a “No” vote by both the clergy and laity. This vote may be deeply painful to both those who wished we had spoken with one voice in favor of this rite as well as those who wish we had unanimously rejected the blessing liturgy. Having listened to those who spoke at the Listening Sessions around the Diocese, two of our deputies felt that while a no vote would represent the Diocese, it was a more accurate representation of the Diocese we were elected to represent if the vote registered that the Diocese is not of one mind in disapproving of this rite. The lay person and priest who voted in favor of this rite willingly represented those in the Diocese who spoke in favor of a rite of blessing same sex relationships.
![](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-xfh5qH4zn00/T_zdG0hckFI/AAAAAAAAeek/ZJcZD-hYMyw/s720/convention%2520041.JPG")
In recent years, there has been much work and discussion on the proposed Anglican Covenant which seeks to put a framework around the relationships among the provinces of the Anglican Communion. It was clear that the General Convention was not prepared to endorse the covenant at this time because of concerns about the fourth section of that document which outlines a disciplinary method for resolving disputes in the communion. Although there were many present who wanted to reject the Covenant, the only resolutions offered were to keep The Episcopal Church in that process, and the deputation endorsed both of those resolutions as we value our connections to other provinces of the Anglican Communion and did not wish to end that process at this time.
Once out of commitee, resolutions are sent to either the House of Deputies or the House of Bishops as a “house of initial action.” Just like with the Federal government with House of Representatives and Senate which must both approve of the same form of a bill, the General Convention has only acted when both bishops and deputies approve of an identical resolution.
Canon Frank Logue testified to three Bishops of the Diocese speaking of her as a prime example of a Christ-like life during her life and shortly after she died. He also told of the widespread acceptance of her feast day since she was named a Saint of Georgua by Bishop Louttit in 1999. The Very Rev. Ted Clarkson spoke as a priest in a church where the Deaconess served and the living testimony he has seen to her life and work. The Rev. Jason Haddox spoke to the process he went through to write the proposed Collect for the observance and how it spoke to her as an example of one way of doing Christian work, but actually speaks to her saintly life. Finally, the Rev. Cheryl Parris spoke passionately about the importance of the Deaconess image in icon and stained glass around the Docese and how it has inspired her as a black female rector in the Diocese of Georgia. These brief outlines don’t quite do justice to the testimony in the meeting by the four priests as they endorsed passage of the resolution by the committee and this convention. We will keep readers posted on the progress of that resolution, which was 
Each resolution proposed to Convention is assigned to one of these committees which works on the resolution, eventually sending it to either the House of Bishops or the House of Deputies. The committe sends resoltuions with a recommendation. The recommendations are limited to: 1) adopt, 2) adopt with ammendment, 3) adopt with a substitute, 4) reject, 5) re-refer to a different committee, or 6) discharged as either having been dealt with by a previous convention or by other action at this convention.
Bishop Benhase is serving on the Pension Fund committee. Canon Logue serves for the second time on Dispatch of Business, which functions in an “air traffic control” role for legislation, and on behalf of that group serves the Evangelism Committee to ensure their resolutions get due consideration in the flow of the Convention. Bill Steinhauser is on the Standing Committee on Liturgy and Mission where he is also on the subcommittee on the proposed Blessing of Same Gender Relationships. The Rev. Lonnie Lacy serves on the Committee on Small Congregations.
The committees hold hearings on resolutions to permit anyone in the Church (not limited to elected Deputies) to sign up to speak to the resolution to inform the committees’ work. Some of these meetings are immense with hundreds of people in a large ballroom, while other resolutions are looked at in smaller gatherings with a small gallery present in addition to the two dozen or so committee members. The hard work of considering and perfecting resolutions takes place most fully in these many dispersed meetings.
The Bishop and Deputies for the Diocese of Georgia are en route today to Indianapolis. Some will begin their duties today, all will begin their work by tomorrow. As the work of the General Convention is underway, there are two great ways to keep up with what is going on. For a Diocese of Georgia perspective, stop in here to this Journal, which wil be updated at least daily during the Convention.
Given the anticipated weight of these many matters, your Bishop and Deputies were surprised that an area of even greater concern for them was the draft budget for the next three years. The process used to create the proposed budget was termed “an experiment that failed” by a member of the Executive Council and “confusing” by our Presiding Bishop. The current proposed budget with annotations from the Presiding Bishop’s Staff is online here: 
