The Advocate May-June 2006
Looking ahead to the 75th General Convention
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Posted: Jun 11, 2006, 21:41

The 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church will gather June 13-21 in Columbus, Ohio. Lexington’s Bishop and deputies will be joined by volunteers and visitors who want to take advantage of proximity to be a part of the worship, the business and the ethos that is General Convention. Two lay women and an ordained woman are among the elected deputies, normative for representation from the Diocese of Lexington since 1970 and 1976. Convention worship will likely be conducted according to the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, the Book of Occasional Services and some trial rites — both male and female clergy presiding. For many of the deputies, the 1979 book is the only Prayer Book they have ever known. Bishops from across the Anglican Communion will preside and preach. Both the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies will have among their membership men and women who have been divorced, and re-married in the Church. Serious legislation will go before the Houses, reflecting concerns of current world conflicts as well as Church business.

A prayer from another General Assembly seems a fitting transition from the history of issues and decisions that are ours, and those which will be ours a month from now.

George MacLeod was made Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1869. His National Church had often misunderstood him, and pulled in the opposite direction, but MacLeod consistently lived and prayed commitment to the Church. This prayer, adapted by J. Philip Newell, reflects MacLeod’s plea for a “recovery of the vision that would free us, individually and collectively, to see both the heights and depths of the mystery in which we live, the glory within us and in the matter of creation as well as the darkness, which, close and imprisoning, threatens each life.”