MY FIRST GEN-CON

My first General Convention of the ECUSA

This Thursday, I will leave the comforts of home to attend my first General Convention of the Episcopal Church held in Louisville, KY, from Friday, June 21 to Friday, June 29. I'm incredibly honored to serve as a deputy for our diocese and most exited about worshipping with so many Episcopalians and hearing so many people say, "AND ALSO WITH YOU!" 

The Deets

"Gen Con", as it cooly called by our outgoing Bishop Seage, is a meeting of deputations from each diocese in the Episcopal church which meets every three years to do the legislative business of the church. These deputations consist of deputies from the clergy and lay orders who are elected at Annual Council to go on behalf of each diocese. From the Diocese of MS, we are sending a deputation of 7 clergy, 8 laity, one Bishop, and one Bishop-Elect.

Together, these deputations create The House of Deputies, a large, legislative body that works with its counterpart, the House of Bishops, to form our bicameral legislative structure. 

Still with me? :P

The business of Gen Con is quite daunting in scale as it includes work from "Interim Bodies" and Legislative Committees. Interim Bodies are committees and task forces created by GC to work on specific areas of church life and ministry. One such example is the "Task Force for Imagining a Church Grounded in Social Justice as Christian Ministry",  a wordy name for a task force that imagines the church more directly involved in social justice issues. You can see all of the Task Forces and other Interim Bodies in the Blue Book Report for 2024. 

The Legislative Committees of Gen Con are formed in the year of the convention and recently began meeting online more regularly ahead of the in-person convention. We have several deputies from our diocese serving on these committees, and each committee has begun to submit it's report to GC on the v-binder site, a site where you can track all the business of GC in live time! You know, if that's you thing... 

Speaking of keeping up with Gen Con in live time, you can watch all aspects of GC from the comfort of your couch at any time you choose! Stream all the action from the House of Deputies, the House of Bishops, and more! You don't want to miss this! 

Or maybe you do, and that's ok. 

Stick Around

My plan is to continue to write/blog my experience of Gen Con to share some highlights with you and help me make better sense of it all. Thanks for reading.

More Resources

• Rev. Scott Gunn's Blog has a complete breakdown of all Resolutions coming to Gen-Con with his own analysis of each.

• This Blue Book Report Podcast was created by the President of the House of Deputies, Julia Ayala-Harris, and is a helpful resource for all audible learners!