With neither winners nor losers

From Deputy Alicia Schuster Weltner

What a privilege it was and is to be chosen as one of the deputies from the Diocese of Atlanta! Thank you for electing me. I have learned a great deal about how our church orders its common life; both the blessedness and the challenges of it. I have learned a tremendous amount about our church and how it works and prays and tries to bring order to its life these past two weeks.

I have also learned first hand that what I have heard from others with more experience is true--our polity (the authority structures by which we make decisions) makes for complicated decision making. It means that I, along with many others, have agonized over votes because they dealt with such complex issues but required a yes or no vote. It has become clear to me that almost all legislation involves some compromise, perhaps in the best sense; some giving on all sides. It is also an awesome responsibility to be at General Convention. No vote is simple, and please know no vote is taken or made lightly.

In interpreting the actions of this General Conventon, I pray that the wider church and the world will be as attentive to the receiving and interpretation of actions taken there as we were in making them. I commend to you in particular this letter sent to The Most Reverend Rowan Williams from President of the House of Deputies Bonnie Anderson and Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefforts Schori. You can read the Episcopal Life article on the letter here, which includes a link to the letter posted online.

I was truly blessed as a first time deputy to be a member of a legislative committee at this Convention. I served on the "Canons," committee, which engaged in important and faithful work about the laws that govern our church's life together (which we call canons), and how those rules intersect with the life and loves and challenges of this church. We had particularly difficult work to do around "Title IV," as our disciplinary canons for the clergy of this church are known. This involved a complete redoing of the canons that have been in place since 1994, and generated considerable debate. It was in how this debate and division was listened to and incorporated into the life of the committee itself and the final resolution that was presented and passed without amendment by both houses that I learned the most about how a legislative process, as challenging as it is, can also be holy, and how negotiation can be the gentlest of arts when done by those whose love for the church and its people informs it. It was in that committee work that I was able to see on a smaller scale how those who differ profoundly can come together in a common statement that has neither winners nor losers but simply the truth of the group that crafted it, and the prayer that it is also what God would will.

In summaries of this Convention, which in many places have focused almost exclusively on the actions we took in D025 and C056, it could seem that we have spent most of our time talking mainly to and about ourselves. But it is important to point out that we have also made important witness to the vital importance of keeping our minds, hearts, and financial resources focused on those who have so very much less than we do. So in spite all the pain of the budget we passed, it does include 0.7% for the Millennium Development Goals as well as a corresponding 0.7% for domestic poverty initiatives through our Jubilee Ministries.

We also reached out to take stands for the weakest and most in want in our world; victims of human trafficking, those without health insurance, those still routinely sidelined for reasons of race, as well as for youth and children and young adults. We added new feast days to our church calendar. We made a commitment to continue and grow our outreach and ministry with Latinos and Hispanics. We worshiped and we prayed and sang together; a lot. We showed that we believe both in repentance and restoration, in facing the truth of our lives together and the ever-enduring nature of Christian hope.

And now we are back home, to the churches and families who were so gracious to give us this time away and this holy responsibility. I come home newly aware of both the challenges we face together as a church and also of God's call to unite in praying for the grace to accomplish them.