Musings from Jim Pritchett

From: Jim Pritchett, Clergy Deputy
Sorry you haven’t heard from me before now. I am assigned to the Communications Legislative Committee, and we have met almost every morning at 7:30, often again after lunch, and sometimes again after dinner. I’ve just been pooped! (How Bishop Taylor attends his meetings and still blogs is beyond me.)
Here is a bit of what it is like in the House of Deputies:
The room contains about 830 deputies, 100 or so alternates, some press, some visiting bishops and dignitaries from other parts of the world, and a 100 or so spectators (a number that rises and falls depending on what we’re considering). To get on the floor, deputies must pass through a partition and show their credentials to volunteers. Going through the checkpoint, I’m always tempted to say, “Hold your fire!”
Here’s a typical exchange:
A Deputy goes to one of the eight microphones. A light goes on when she steps onto a platform, alerting the President of the House.
President: For what purpose does the deputy at microphone 4 rise?
The Deputy’s image then appears on 2 giant screens on either side of the dais.
Deputy: [Introducing herself by name and diocese] Snow, Alaska. [This is a real example. Other of my favorites include, “Land, Wyoming,” and “Houston, Texas.”]
Deputy: Madam President, I ask the House to divide the question so that we consider resolution 4, beginning at line 23, separately.
President: Deputy, that motion is in order. Is there a second? [etc., etc., etc.]
General Convention is, I believe, a separator of Christians. It doesn’t separate the sheep from the goats, but rather one kind of faithful sheep from another. Some good, faithful, wonderful Christians would rather have a root canal than be required to attend General Convention. For many Christians for whom faith is found primarily in contemplation and quiet prayer, or who think that the institutional Church has little to do with the practice of faith, a day on the floor of General Convention would, at best, be unpleasant and might, at worst, make them lose their religion.
I understand and respect that perspective and know it is held by good, faithful, wonderful Christians. But it is not my perspective. Let me tell a story:
When Sir Christopher Wren, the architect of St. Paul’s in London, was inspecting the construction, he saw a worker engaging in a task that didn’t make sense to Wren. Wren approached the laborer, who did not recognize him, and asked, “My good man, what are you doing there?”
“Sir,” the laborer replied, “I am building a great cathedral!”
I can despair when my perspective becomes too small, when I focus too much on the endless list of tasks before me. I can despair when I reflect on how little things seem to change. When I focus only on my little job in my little office, it’s easy for me to say, “What difference does this really make? So I’ve helped one person or one parish? What real difference will that make in the long run?”
General Convention reminds me that what we are about is not small. As I am among the Church gathered, as I hear the passions of my sisters and brothers, as I worship with thousands of (singing!) Episcopalians, as I see such a variety of people and concerns and such a multitude of ways the Church responds to those concerns, General Convention reminds me (in a way I’m sure it doesn’t for others) that we are about a great work. We Christians are about God partnering with us to bend a warring universe toward peace. We Christians are about God partnering with us to bend an estranged universe toward unity; we Christians are about God partnering with us to bend a guilty universe toward forgiveness; we Christians are about God partnering with us to bend a despairing universe toward joyfulness.
What I can do might be small, but General Convention reminds me that the work that we, together, are about, the work of being the Body of the Risen Christ in the world, is anything but small. We, my sisters and brothers, are not just about the endless tasks before each of us. We, my sisters and brothers, are, together, about building a great cathedral.

I thought I’d give you a glimpse of the kinds of resolutions we’ve considered. (The media would have you think we only talk about sex.) Here, by title, are some of the things we’ve voted on to date. You can go to the webpage linked to the WNC home page to tack specific legislation:
• Budget Priorities (not in order of priority-all have the same priority):
o Networking the members of the Body of Christ
o Alleviating Poverty
o Claiming our identity
o Growing congregations for the next generations of faith
o Strengthening Governance and Foundations for Ministry
• Adopt the “Five Marks of Mission” and specify that they will be budget priorities at the next GC:
o To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom
o To teach, baptize and nurture new believers
o To respond to human need by loving service
o To seek to transform unjust structures of society
o To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth
• Youth: Camping ministries curricula, resources, and training
• Commending The Episcopal Church in the Philippines
• Addressing human rights violations in the Philippines
• Funding missionaries
• Endorsement of the Earth Charter
• Addressing immigration concerns
• The Charter for Lifelong Christian Formation (Gus, it passed!)
• Health care
• A huge and very significant Strategic Vision for Reaching Lationos/Hispanics
• Evangelism Toolkit of the 21st Century
• HIV/AIDS training
• A “Just War” resolution renouncing “first use” military action (in accordance with the teachings of, among others, St. Augustine)
• Governmental policies on Environmental Stewardship
• Third World Debt
• Pensions for survivors of clergy
• Consent to the election of several bishops, including a hotly contested one (Central Ecuador)
• A statement regarding the church’s position on sexuality and ordination (which will get all the press, but which is ingeniously ambiguous)
• A wholesale revision of the disciplinary canons (12 years in the making)
• Changes to the Book of Occasional Services and Lesser Feasts and Fasts: Holy Women and Holy Men
• Increasing the Church’s giving to the Millennium Development Goals (to reduce extreme poverty in the world) from 0.7% to 1% (this is a huge step of faith and commitment in the current economic crisis. You should be proud!)
This is just a sampling. There is more to come. We’ll consider an important insurance question and lots more resolutions. I’m hoping the one I proposed, calling for the formation of an “information technology cooperative network for dioceses, congregations, and other institutions” will pass on the consent calendar tomorrow or the next day. (Resolutions on the consent calendar or considered non-controversial and are voted on without amendment or debate.)
Be well, and keep us in your prayers, as you are in ours.
Peace,
Jim Pritchett