Dear Friends,
The 81st General Convention of the Episcopal Church begins this coming Sunday, June 23, in Louisville, Kentucky. The General Convention is the triennial churchwide gathering where leaders are elected to important positions in The Episcopal Church, legislation is considered and acted upon, networking and fellowship connect people from over 100 different dioceses, and celebratory worship takes place.
An advance team, members of the Episcopal Church staff, have been in Louisville for several days preparing for legislative committee meetings and other pre-Convention events. One of the most anticipated of the pre-Convention events will take place today (June 21) at 7:00 pm, when Presiding Bishop Michael Curry headlines a revival at Louisville’s KFC Yum! Center. You can find out more about the revival here.
This General Convention marks the last one for Curry as Presiding Bishop. His successor will be elected by the House of Bishops in a closed meeting of the bishops on June 26 and installed as the next Presiding Bishop during a service to be held on November 1 in Washington National Cathedral.
Five bishops are standing for election as the 28th presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church. They are Nebraska Bishop J. Scott Barker, Central New York Bishop DeDe Duncan-Probe, Pennsylvania Bishop Daniel G.P. Gutiérrez, Atlanta Bishop Robert Wright and Northwestern Pennsylvania Bishop Sean Rowe, who also serves as bishop provisional of the Diocese of Western New York.
To give you some sense of the size and scope of the General Convention, Episcopal News Service reports that more that 10,000 people are expected to gather in Louisville. Deputations from 108 dioceses, along with the Episcopal Church in Navajoland and the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe, were invited to attend.
Registered attendees include 167 bishops, two bishop-elects, 829 deputies and 239 alternate deputies. All the hotel rooms reserved for the convention are booked, and General Convention even had to increase its blocks of reservations – about 21,000 “room nights” – because of the high demand.
The General Convention, like the United States Congress, is a bicameral body. As the church’s primary governing body, it splits its authority between the House of Bishops, comprised of all bishops (both active and retired), and the House of Deputies, comprised of clergy and lay deputies elected by their respective dioceses.
In addition to the election of the next Presiding Bishop, who will serve for a term of nine (9) years, the House of Deputies will elect its President and Vice President. Julia Ayala Harris, as the incumbent House of Deputies president, is running for re-election against two challengers, Zena Link and the Rev. Rachel Taber-Hamilton, who is the sitting vice president.
Three people have declared candidacies for the House of Deputies’ vice president: the Rev. Charles Graves IV of the Diocese of Texas, the Rev. Ruth Meyers of the Diocese of California, and the Rev. Steve Pankey of the Diocese of Kentucky. Episcopal Church Canons require that the positions of President and Vice President be held by leaders from different orders, clergy and lay, so the outcome of the presidential election will determine who, if anyone, will be eligible on the ballot for vice president.
If you’d like to know more about the worship services a General Convention click on this link. And, more than you could ever want to know about the Convention can be found at The Episcopal Church’s Media Hub.
Following the June 23-28 General Convention will help you learn more about the wider Episcopal Church.
I ask you to join me in praying for those who are traveling to Louisville, those who are casting ballots, and those who are giving of their time to serve the Episcopal Church as faithful disciples of Jesus of Nazareth.
Finally, please join me in giving thanks for Presiding Bishop Curry’s faithful and exuberant ministry. Through his preaching and presence, he has represented The Episcopal Church in remarkable ways – preaching at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, appearing frequently with Hoda and Jenna on The Today Show, and thrilling participants during one of his 27 different revivals since he became Presiding Bishop in November 2015.
May God bless the work of the 81st General Convention of the Episcopal Church!
Blessings,
Stephen Applegate