The Matter Before the House (Part 2): Justice and Reconciliation
Some clarity on decisions made regarding social advocacy and public policy at Baltimore.
The Episcopal Church is a relatively small body, and - despite its assortment of shrines from the days of civic religion (my home parish being one such place) - casts a relatively small shadow across the national landscape. Gone from our land (for now) are the days when civic leaders and dignitaries might discreetly seek the counsel of our clergy. Nevertheless, we cannot predict the outcome of any of these resolutions, and so I present some of the ones which came to the floor of the House for your review.
Resolution A125: Extending and Furthering the Beloved Community
This resolution establishes a body called “the Episcopal Coalition for Racial Equity and Justice,” intended to work against racial bigotry, and ultimately to be funded through a draw on one tenth of the general-use funds found in the Episcopal Church’s endowment. (Ultimately, they are funded at 2/3 of the amount they had requested for the next two years.) As you may guess, this resolution led to some rather wild ideas being tossed about in debate; in truth, I’m a bit uncertain as to what this new group’s intentions are, or what steps they would propose to achieve them; therefore, I look forward to receiving a concise and plainspoken summary in short order. This resolution is also closely connected to Resolution A129, which conducts a forensic audit on the assets of the DFMS to determine what, if any, assets are directly tied to chattel slavery. This will be an interesting project, not least of which for the archivists; I am not at all sure how complete that documentation may be, but I look forward to reviewing the resultant report.
Resolution A127: Telling the Truth about the Episcopal Church’s History with Indigenous Boarding Schools
Much has been written about the atrocities of the Indigenous boarding school system, and the complicity of the Church therein, particularly between 1875 and 1928. However, enrollment in the boarding schools actually reached its height in the early 1970s. This means that there are many people who did suffer trauma there, and their stories should be told while they, themselves, can still tell them. The testimony we heard on this resolution was extremely powerful, and it would behoove us to proactively and fully reckon with this dark point in the Church’s history.
To both of these resolutions, I would add an excerpt from the text of Micah 6.
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God. (…)
“Am I still to forget your ill-gotten treasures, you wicked house,
and the shorted weight, which is accursed?
Shall I acquit someone with dishonest scales,
with a bag of false weights?”
Resolution D054, which would have called upon the GCO to consider relocating GC81 out of Louisville due to reproductive healthcare concerns, and was amended to include the welfare of LGBT+ individuals, was subject to extremely passionate testimony. Ultimately, however, it was rejected by the House of Deputies, and in truth asking the GCO to consider relocating at this point would probably have gone no further - the contracts for GC81 are already being let, and the last-minute scope change of GC80 puts us into an awkward position.
A significant amount of commentary from D054 spilled over into Resolution A001, which customarily adopts a shortlist of locations for the Convention-after-next. The amendments here, which added an additional five paragraphs to the resolution, encourage the Joint Standing Committee on Planning and Arrangements to consider the physical and emotional welfare of all participants when choosing host locations, but nicely brackets the matter by ensuring that both care is taken to do this, and that General Convention commit itself once more to Christian witness in places where disenfranchisement does occur. (This is an acceptable compromise to me; I’m a bit suspicious of the concept of holding Convention on an island in the Caribbean during hurricane season.)
Resolution D076: Addressing the Ongoing Harm of Crisis Pregnancy Centers
This one passed the House of Deputies, but not the House of Bishops; I’m also not entirely sure whether any such facilities operate on ECUSA-owned property. Regardless of one’s views on abortion - and the Episcopal Church has for many years considered it a grave and serious matter (but ultimately one for individual discernment) - these facilities are of no use whatsoever in an actual medical emergency, and may therefore be at least condemned for representing themselves to be something which they are not.
Due to the truncated period of Convention, quite a lot of social justice and social concern resolutions were passed through the Consent Calendar, and therefore did not get the full hearing they would otherwise have received, and may well have deserved. I would therefore state only that they may represent the mind of the House, which may be radically differentiated from the mind of any one parishioner. Indeed, as noted above, I am not certain that these resolutions will gain much traction in the wider world. Therefore, I have chosen only to address a few resolutions upon which I suspect much ink will be spilled.
Finally, a word on the events of Convention Eve.
As many of you may have heard, an altercation between a motorist and a nonzero quantity of local “squeegee guys,” which turned violent, led to the motorist being shot to death on the Inner Harbor esplanade. On the first evening of Convention, members of both Houses joined in solemn procession to the site, where we conducted a vigil of prayer (which was covered by all of the local news outlets, and may have been the only mention of Convention in the Baltimore press). We understand that, yesterday, a 15-year-old was arrested and charged with murder in the first degree. I therefore encourage you to remember both the victim and the suspect in your intentions, as well as their families and those who witnessed the incident, and to strive to show, through your own life, a witness to the Way of Christ in a world weary of violent passions.