Let's Go to Convention!

This Saturday, our two St. Paul’s delegates and I will “go” to the Episcopal Church in Connecticut annual convention! I put “go” in quotation marks because the convention is online again this year due to COVID. So, we won’t be sitting in a convention center or large hotel ballroom. As for so many major events in the past 20 months, I’ll be sitting at my desk in my home office.

Photo by Luis Quintero from Pexels

At convention, all the clergy in Connecticut and the lay delegates from each parish come together. Usually, we spend some time worshiping and praying together, some time learning about and discussing the state of our church, and some time passing resolutions for our work together going forward.

The resolutions always include the budget for the coming year, of course. But we do other important work as a gathered body, as well. For example, in 2020, we passed Resolution #7, entitled “Acknowledging & Confronting Systemic Racism, White Supremacy, & Anti-Black Bias.”

This Saturday, the topics we’re considering in resolutions are:

1. Budget of Convention

2. Clergy Compensation

3. Care for God’s Creation and Creatures

4. Fostering Right Relationship: ECCT, Indigenous Episcopalians and our Indigenous Neighbors

5. Sharing in the Work of Creating a Safe Church

6. Evangelism of and by Young Adults: Faithfulness to God’s Mission into the Future

7. Addressing Racism within Title IV Complaints and Processes

You can read the full text of each resolution, as well as the people sponsoring that resolution.

If you read Resolution #6, Evangelism of and by Young Adults, you’ll notice my name among the sponsors! That resolution came out of two years of work of the Young Adult Task Force, of which I was one of the co-conveners. We’re also submitting a comprehensive report of our research findings, which you can download and read.

Please pray for all the delegates to convention, and for the many people working hard to make it happen this year. It’s important that we be attentive to the way the Holy Spirit is leading us in this collective work, so your prayers are much appreciated.