by Herb Gunn
[October 2008]

The appropriate balance and blend of authority and voices in the Episcopal Church is at the heart of what makes our church unique, not only among denominations across the Christian spectrum but clearly among the Provinces of the Anglican Communion. The role of the laity as a partner in ministry and the wisdom, experience and theological insight of everyone in the church is essential to our identity and understanding of God’s Providence. This historic blending has not been easy to achieve, but laity and clergy, men and women, gay and straight, white, black, Latino and Asian have steadily pressed for equity in authority and clarity in voice.

This blend is at the core of how and why the Episcopal Church was founded; it is essential and worth both preserving and bearing witness to in the intra-Anglican discord surrounding our church. When the Episcopal Church is at its best, this blend is not like water and oil—a temporary amalgam that separates as it settles. It becomes a richer broth and a new substance.

Our Diocesan Convention raised an issue last October in the form of a constitutional amendment that comes back to convention this year for a second reading. Amending the constitution requires approval at consecutive conventions.

The change would give voice and vote at convention to the members of Diocesan Council. It is noted that the change would only impact the lay members of council, since members of the clergy already exercise voice and vote at the annual meeting. But slicing the argument in this manner skews the discussion in a way that invites us to miss the point.

As the bishop opined shortly after last year’s convention, this question should not be viewed as a lay equity issue; the laity already have a substantial voice at Diocesan Convention. And in the House of Deputies, I would add, which is an enhancement to our ecclesiology that we should help the remainder of the Anglican Communion respect if not embrace.

When considering whether to invite members of Diocesan Council to vote on the floor of Diocesan Convention we should focus on the overarching blend of authority and accountability in our diocese, not an inaccurate sense of symmetry between laity and clergy.

The Diocesan Council and the Diocesan Convention hold different roles. To oversimplify, council prepares a budget; then, through representatives of the congregations, convention decides whether to pay for it. These roles call for different plateaus of discernment. It is not necessary, not essential, and not ppropriate to attempt to ensure that Diocesan Convention echo Diocesan Council’s angle on everything.

As the bishop explained in his critique, the clergy participate in Diocesan Convention for reasons other than their membership on Diocesan Council. Therefore, those members of the clergy who sit on council have a dual discernment role.

If the diocesan norms on convention/council need adjustment, two other changes might have a more helpful bearing on the balance and blend of perspectives than the proposed amendment to the constitution.

The clergy who sit on council could voluntarily recuse themselves from convention if their dual roles become confusing or if they feel their contribution on the topic has been absorbed in council’s pre-convention preparation. Better yet, they might sit in a designated spot, perhaps with their non-voting lay colleagues on council, and absorb attentively everything that is said at and by convention.

More germane perhaps, we might consider actually electing the lay and clergy representatives to Diocesan Council from those who are members of Diocesan Convention. After all, a chief role of council is to “act on behalf of convention between meetings.” There are logistical circumstances that might frustrate such a goal, but at least it would suggest a proper ordering of the relationship: that council should follow convention’s lead, not presuppose or unduly influence what convention will do.

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