What’s up with B033 at GC2009?

Warning: This post may contain far more information than you want. It may contain less information than you want. Its intent is to provide a bit of background to a Resolution that has not yet been debated or acted upon by the House of Deputies.

What is Resolution B033? Resolution B033 was famously passed during the last hour of the 2006 General Convention, as a response to the Windsor Report from representatives of the Anglican Communion. The Windsor Report was itself a response to the strained and broken relationships resulting from reactions to our Episcopal Church’s consent to the consecration of Bishop Gene Robinson. Here’s the text, for your reading pleasure:

Resolved, That the 75th General Convention receive and embrace The Windsor Report's invitation to engage in a process of healing and reconciliation; and be it further
Resolved, That this Convention therefore call upon Standing Committees and bishops with jurisdiction to exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion.

Those of you who watched the development and response to B033 three years ago remember the discomfort that many of our Oregon deputation and many others felt with Resolution B033. The 2006 General Convention passed this resolution in part as a move toward reconciliation with other parts in the Anglican Communion and in hopes that it would make it possible for our Episcopal Church to continue to be a “big tent” for all, and for our then newly-elected Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts-Schori to be welcomed into the community of primates. Some of us remember the mixed results of B033 with regard to both of these areas.

The World Affairs legislative committee of this 2009 General Convention, most ably served by Anne McCollom of our Oregon deputation, has been hard at work crafting a resolution that presents a more expansive and faithful position of The Episcopal Church to the Anglican Communion. You can read and track this new resolution, B025, by going to http://gc2009.org/ViewLegislation.

The background of this developing resolution—upon which the World Affairs Committee hopes the House of Deputies will act early the week of July 12—is a holy conversation facilitated among all 830-plus members of the House of Deputies held this past Thursday, and referred to as a “committee of the whole.” During that conversation, using the questions employed in the Public Narrative process (see my earlier blog post), we explored our own experience and feelings about B033, and members of the House of Deputies heard and gave testimony. about their own story about B033, our Church’s story about B033, and what God may be calling us to do. There are several distinct but overlapping t issues that call many at this Convention to want to move beyond B033:

• The desire to welcome all people to the Episcopal Church as full members with equal access to all sacraments
• The longing, on behalf of priests, to be able to minister fully to every member of their congregations, including to those who are in same-sex committed relationships.
• The desire of many with deep concerns about the human suffering around the world, to move through and beyond these issues so that mission and the healing and transformation of the world can return to its rightful place in the center of our Church’s work.

The wish to use our own canonical process to determine the fitness for ordained ministry of candidates called to ministry.

• There are other equally distinct yet overlapping concerns about how we might choose, as a Convention, to continue or modify B033, which were also voiced in the testimony during the committee of the whole:
• The concern that any action of the convention other than reaffirming our commitment to the position stated in B033 would impair our fragile relationships with other parts of our Anglican Communion
• The position that full access for all baptized people to all the sacraments of the Church is contrary to scripture and tradition.
• Concern that more people would leave the Episcopal Church at a time when the Church as a whole is experiencing decline and many parishes are experiencing financial anxiety.

The Committee of the Whole was a new experience for General Convention, a time of sharing without debate. There was no “pro” or “con,” no named resolutions under discussion. The purpose was to prepare the House of Deputies for the work to come, including discussion of Resolution D025, which may come before the House as early as Sunday, July 12. Stay tuned!