East Tennessee perspectives:
Day Nine ...

Bishop vonRosenberg, members of the East Tennessee deputation and East Tennessee visitors to the General Convention used these pages throughout the convention to share with the "folks back home" their impressions, activities and insights:

Settling in  •  Day One  • Day Two  • Day Three  • Day Four
Day Five  •  Day Six  •  Day Seven  •  Day Eight  •  Day Nine

• East Tennessee photo gallery at the convention
• "Suzanne discovers Columbus" - a blog by the Rev. Suzanne Smitherman, an East Tennessee deputy

Other pages related to the convention:

• Episcopal News Service convention coverage
• June 21 "unofficial" ENS round-up of legislation
• Official record of legislation
• "Windsor Process" background materials

We have arrived at the eleventh hour of this General Convention - the final legislative day - and, unfortunately, we have no legislation passed on the Windsor Report yet. However, the good news is that a plan has emerged that, I believe, will help us produce something today.

It is important to realize that nearly everyone here wants to respond affirmatively to the Windsor process ... however, the particulars of an appropriate response seem to have eluded us thus far. The danger is that we might become deadlocked in our efforts to get our response just right - but I honestly do not believe that will happen.

I had the opportunity to have a conversation with the Archbishop of York - Archbishop Rowan Williams' representative here - last evening. As we were talking about General Convention and our difficulties in crafting legislation in response to Windsor, I said to the Archbishop that perhaps we should simply say that we affirm the Windsor process, in compliancy with the Windsor Report. He pointed his finger at me, smiled, and said, "That's right! That's exactly what we need!"

The point is, therefore, that this is a process ... and we (the Episcopal Church) need to respond next. We will not get everything just right - but then, not many conversations get it all right at one point in the give-and-take of discussion. We need to say something, committing ourselves to the longer- term conversation, and to continue to return to the table. And I believe - and I hope and pray - that we will take that step today.

We made it!

On the first day, we couldn't figure out how to vote; today we concurred with 39 individual resolutions, a bunch of courtesy resolutions that we did as a group and another bunch of discharged resolutions because we had dealt with them somewhere else. Then there were at least two votes by orders, maybe three, and several elections to useful committees like the committee to elect the next PB just in case this one doesn't last three years - yes, we are ever prepared.

Bishop Jefferts Schori preached this morning. The gospel was John's telling of Jesus before Pilate (18:33-37). She spoke about fear, saying that we approach each other with wariness. There are glimpses of reconciliation but we have a long way to go. Can we live in a world where all can greet each other without fear?, she asked. "Jesus calls us friends, not agents of fear." Once again, the need to be open, vulnerable was part of the sermon.

Then we went into joint session with the bishops and heard from Bishop Griswold. Here follow some salient quotes:

"When I became your presiding bishop, I called the church to the costly discipine of conversation ... conversation and conversion come from the same Latin root. I said that to enter into conversation deeply, and with an undefended heart, opened the way to conversion. By conversion I did not mean one point of view capitulating to another - but rather a new way of seeing one another and recognizing Christ in one another."

"Unless there is a clear perception on the part of our Anglican brothers and sisters that they have been taken seriously in their concerns it will be impossible to have any genuine conversation .... And conversation works. I have already experienced some of its potential fruits in the course of primates' meeetings, as difficult as they sometimes have been. There have been times when, with great difficulty, I have had to receive before I was able to give. Such moments have not been easy but they have been necessary."

"Humility is not an easy virtue but it is very much required in this season. Humility requires at times a stance of restraint in order that something larger can happen."

There is quite a bit more but his point was that we needed to pass a resolution calling on Standing Committees and bishops not to consent to a bishop-elect "whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church. ..." The House of Bishops considered this resolution first, after they returned to their own meeting room, and they adopted it after much discussion. The House of Deputies was reluctant to concur and, again, there was dissent on both sides of the debate. Bishop Jefferts Schori asked to speak to us and we then invited her in (very formal rules about this sort of thing, of course!). She said that Bishop Jenkins had talked about how we are one church with two minds and how that had brought the image of conjoined twins to mind for her. Doctors, she said, don't operate if one of the twins will die, that sometimes remaining joined is the healthier plan. We did pass this resolution by a vote of more than two-thirds.

The afternoon was spent considering one resolution after another. We giggled at some of the titles - one is about "educational debts: seminarians." We joked with Bob [Leopold] that he was now required to leave seminary dumber than when he went in. Lynn was determined we finish up all the snacks on our tables before leaving, so several of us snuck them into our bags or carted them to the trash when she wasn't looking. You can only eat so many pretzels and peanuts, after all!

At 6:00, we took the coonskin cap and the Lodge frying pan off the pole for East Tennessee and headed out for one more huge dinner eaten too late in the day. We all leave sometime tomorrow and look forward to meeting with Upper East Tennessee on Sunday afternoon, followed by Middle East on Tuesday and South East on Wednesday.

Thank you all for your prayers and your interest in this, the largest vestry meeting in the whole world.

Peace.

This last day of the convention was in a sense a bit of a reversal from yesterday. After the deputies did not pass resolution A161 having to do with the ordination of bishops "whose manner of life poses a challenge to the wider church" yesterday, this morning the presiding bishop called a joint meeting of the two houses and introduced a new resolution that said much the same thing as the one defeated by the deputies yesterday, albeit with a couple of important changes.

The presiding bishop read a brief speech in which he stressed the importance of conversation as something that leads us to conversion. He believed it was very important for The Episcopal Church to pass the resolution he proposed (numbered B033), if The Episcopal Church were to be able to remain in conversation with the rest of the Anglican Communion. After that, he dismissed the joint session and the bishops returned to their own house, where they immediately began debating the new resolution.

Since I was not on the floor today, I was able to go up to the House of Bishops and listen in. After much debate and attempts to amend the resolution, the bishops passed it. I went back to the House of Deputies to listen in on their debate on the resolution. Ultimately, on a vote by orders, the deputies also passed the resolution.

I think the decisive moment for the deputies came when the vice president of the House informed us that the presiding bishop-elect, Katharine Jefferts Schori, wanted to address the House on the resolution. The House invited her to do so, and a few minutes later, the presiding bishop-elect stood before the House to make her statement. She acknowledged the importance of giving every child of God full participation in every aspect of the life of the church and indicated that she was also not thrilled with the resolution. But she made it clear that she believed it was the best we could do under the circumstances, and that it was important that the resolution be adopted. When she left the podium, you could have heard a pin drop in the House of Deputies. The presiding officer of the house allowed that silence to continue for a minute or two before debate continued. In my own mind, it seemed that Bishop Jefferts Schori's statement made the difference.

I think we have to acknowledge that this vote on B033 was very difficult for everyone concerned. It was a vote that was emotional and challenging for everyone. In the end, I believe it passed based on a hope: a hope that it might provide needed space for our conversation with the larger church to be advanced. Only time will tell how this resolution, and the others passed in response to the Windsor Report, will be received by the rest of the Anglican Communion. But I think this convention ends having done everything that could be done given the circumstances that obtain in our church today.

And, of course, the Windsor Report resolutions were only a small part of what happened at this convention. Many, many resolutions were passed that advance the work of the church and the proclamation of the gospel in ways large and small, and these other actions of the convention must not be forgotten. I hope that you will take the time to go to the Episcopal Church Web site and review the other actions of the General Convention [ gc2006.org/legislation/]. And I hope that if you do, you will take away from your review of all that work what I have taken away: that our church is indeed faithful in so many ways, and that faithfulness should be celebrated and lifted up with thanksgiving. The Episcopal Church is a wonderful gift to us all - I'm not sure we always take the time to appreciate that.

In closing, let me just say thank you to the people of the Diocese of East Tennessee. It was the convention of our diocese that made me a part of this deputation, and it has been an incredible experience. I am grateful for all of your support, and especially for your prayers during this time. I am grateful for the opportunity you have given me to serve you and the larger church. And I also want to thank the other members of our deputation. They are an amazing group of people who are passionate about our church and its life. They have given incredibly of themselves over the past 10 days, and together we also have had a great deal of fun. I am grateful to them all.

Finally, I want to say how grateful I am to our bishop for his leadership. When you come to a gathering like this, you really learn to appreciate your bishop. He does a tremendous job for us, and he deserves our gratitude and continuing support.

May God bless us all as we return home, and may God bless our diocese, The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion as we seek to live the gospel ever more deeply and ever more faithfully.

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