On to General Convention GC81 June 2024

On June 20, 2024 I start my journey to Louisville, Kentucky for the Episcopal Church General Convention. I have the distinct pleasure of being the first Deacon from EDOW to attend a General Convention as a Deputy. I was supposed to go to the one in Baltimore, MD, however because of Covid only the actual Deputies could go and not the alternates.
I am looking forward to this time with the greater Church, but I am also a little nervous about it. Like most people who are going for the first time, I have no idea what to expect. My fellow Deputies have tried to prepare all of us newbies, but you can never prepare for everything.
During this convention we have some major issues that we will vote on. One of the first things will be to vote on House Rules which tell us how we will conduct business in the House of Deputies. As deputies we will also elect a President and Vice President of the House of Deputies. Some of you might not know that we elect a President first, who will either be clergy or lay. Two days later we will elect a Vice President, who must not be of the same category as the President. So until the President is elected we won’t even know who is running for Vice President.
This convention is historic for another reason and that is it is the conclusion of Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s term. The election for the next Presiding Bishop will be held in the House of Bishops. There are currently 5 candidates running for that position. You might not know that a Presiding Bishop can only hold the office for nine years.
I know for me that Bishop Curry is really the only presiding Bishop that I was aware of and I’m sure that is because of my place in the church. I was aware of others but because I was just a parishioner, it was just a name to pray for each Sunday.
But for me Bishop Curry has been it. He leaves a high mark to attain. Before convention starts, we will come together for one last revival to celebrate the ministry of Bishop Curry.
I will attempt to report back as often as I can. I expect these to be long days with some starting at 0700 and ending at 1600. We already know that we have an EDOW Deputation lunch everyday to go over the previous day.
I will return the afternoon of 29 June but I won’t return to church until Sunday, 7 July when I will preach and do communion from the reserved sacrament.