General Convention Day 8

The madness continues.  

Two resolutions and one Title change defined the day.  First, the resolutions:

D025
Having cleared the House of Deputies resolution D025 went before the House of Bishops for final consideration.  The bishops overwhelmingly passed a slightly modified version by the following count:  99 yes, 45 no, 2 abstentions.  You can see how they voted here.  As you might expect, +Lawrence of SC, voted “no.”  Since the resolution was modified it now comes back to the House of Deputies for final acceptance.  Both Integrity and the Archbishop of Canterbury seem to agree that this resolution ends the B033 era.

Baby Blue attended the House of Bishops’ Press Conference.  The arrogance is stunning; note especially Bishop Saul’s condescension with regard to the Archbishop of Canterbury.  Read it here.

C061
The second resolution to move through the House of Deputies proposed a canonical amendment with regard to the matter of transgender identity and expression.  I’m not kidding.  The descent into perversion is total and staggering.  Here’s the text of resolution C061:

Resolved, the House of Bishops concurring, That Title III, Canon 1 Sec. 2 of the Canons of the Episcopal Church is hereby amended to read as follows: All baptized persons shall have full access to the discernment process for any ministry in this Church, lay or ordained, except as otherwise provided by these Canons.  No person shall be denied access or have his or her discerment process terminated because of race, color, ethnic origin, national origin, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disabilities or age, except as otherwise provided by these Canons.  No right to licensing, ordination, or election is hereby established.

Many questions arose, most especially, “what is gender expression?”  As you might imagine, there was no clear answer.  This resolution sailed through the House.  It now goes onto the House of Bishops.  Your guess is as good as mine as to what they’ll do.

Here’s a sampling of the testimony given on the floor:

[Deputy X]: I am 19 years old, and a transgender. I am biologically female, but live and identify as male. Gender identity refers to who you are. While sexual orientation refers to who you love.  Many of my transgender siblings have been explicitly rejected. By adding gender identity and gender expression it will serve as a beacon of hope to transgender people and all people who wonder if they are truly loved by this church.

As a parent who has children the same age as this young woman, watching this tragically confused young woman speak was deeply moving.  And the church, the very vehicle intended by Christ to be the agency offering identity and healing, consigns her to a hopeless, Christless, life.  Truly heartbreaking.  

Now the Title change (here’s a link giving a good summary of Title IV changes):

After NO debate on the actual language (the 20 minute time allotment to address the changes was consumed addressing GRAMMATICAL amendments) of the document implementing the most comprehensive canonical revision (giving unprecedented authority to the institution) in recent history it swept through the House of Deputies.  Canonical lawyers spent THREE YEARS working on this revision and there is no debate.  We tried everything to amend the rules extending debate (actually, allowing debate); the canonical lawyers sought an extension; the President of the House of Deputies sought an extension.  The House, though, was in no mood to grant this request.  

It now goes onto the House of Bishops.  Again, no idea what they’ll do.

I am by no means surprised by what is taking place.  The church has been moving in this direction for years.  I had no illusion that SC could change the course of this convention by our presence and/or verbal witness.  However, with all that said, you have no idea what it is like to watch God’s judgement being poured out upon a people.  It is horrific to watch a church exchange the truth of God for a lie.  It is frightening to watch God hand this church over to debased minds and dishonorable passions.  While I am relieved that this body is finally being honest about what they believe and where they are (to their credit) I find no joy or relief only a profound sadness.  I’m ready for this Convention to be over.

At the end of a very long day Bishop Lawrence met with the deputation from South Carolina.  He reiterated that this was his anticipated outcome; he reminded us that General Convention is not over and he wants to see the full landscape before offering any commentary.  A clergy day has been called for Thursday, 13 August to address the events of this General Convention.

Highlight of my day?  Catching up with Todd Hunter. He’s been in the LA area for the past week and he came by the hotel to spend some time with me.  Very nice.

Lastly, I preached today.  I hope Jesus Christ was honored.

Good night from Anaheim.