East Tennessee grows in understanding:
2006 General Convention

A number of opportunities exist to learn more about this important event in the life of the church, before, during and after its meeting:

• Episcopal News Service covered all aspects of the convention as they occurred.
• The Web site for General Convention contains the official, searchable database of all resolutions and action taken on each, and Episcopal News Service summarized the convention's decisions and its legislation in response to the Windsor Report.
• Bishop vonRosenberg, members of the East Tennessee deputation and East Tennessee visitors to the General Convention shared with the "folks back home" their daily 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
• The Windsor Process pages on the diocesan Web site includes materials that review the history of the human sexuality controversy arising from decisions at the 2003 General Convention and from the Anglican Communion's "Windsor Process."
• The June, July/August and September issues of the East Tennessee Episcopalian reported on the diocesan area meetings that were held before the convention in May and immediately following the convention in late June. By decision of the diocesan convention, these three issues also wrapped special "super issues" of Episcopal Life, the official newspaper of the Episcopal Church to bring all ETE subscribers full reporting and analysis of the General Convention. If you worship at an Episcopal parish in the Diocese of East Tennessee, you may subscribe to the East Tennessee Episcopalian free of charge. Send an e-mail to Lynn Lazlo, the ETE circulation director.
• Downloadable bulletin inserts were created by Episcopal News Service to assist congregations in their understanding of the General Convention.
• The process of developing and considering a resolution was rendered as a chart in the Diocese of Connecticut as a PDF file.
• A question-and-answer format booklet prepared in the Diocese of North Carolina has been edited by East Tennessee deputy the Rev. Peter Keese for use in East Tennessee.
• A multi-part curriculum designed by staff of the Diocese of Ohio will aid in understanding how the convention works. It has been adapted for use in East Tennessee by longtime deputy Jim Shearouse, who offers these tips:
• If the user has PowerPoint, he or she can run the .ppt file in each case on his or her own computer.
• If you don't have the program, there are two easy choices for those with Windows computers running Win 98 or higher: The PowerPoint session can be run from the file in the zip titled "play.bat," or unzip the contents of CD1, CD2 & CD3 each onto its own blank CD, and when inserted it will automatically run the presentation.
• In each case above, there are accompanying materials in .pdf files in the Presentation.zip file.
CD1  |  CD2  |  CD3

Our thanks go to the dioceses of Ohio, North Carolina and Connecticut for making resources available to the whole church, and to ENS for its solid reporting on the General Convention.

Many thanks go also to the bishop and elected members of the East Tennessee deputation for their work in Columbus: Lynn Schmissrauter, lay deputy and chair of the deputation; Jim Shearouse, Henry Lodge and Bob Leopold, lay deputies; Gregg Duncan, lay alternate; the Rev. John Talbird, the Rev. Suzanne Smitherman, the Rev. Buckley Robbins and the Rev. Peter Keese, clergy deputies; and the Rev. Matthew Dutton-Gillett and the Rev. Maggie Zeller, clergy alternates.