What is General Convention like? After the 2012 convention, President Gay Clark Jennings wrote this essay for The Washington Post:
Every
three years, the Episcopal Church lays itself open to criticism and
ridicule by gathering about a thousand people together for eight days
and thinking out loud.
The
people at our General Convention come from all over the church, which
includes nearly two million people in 16 countries. The topics we
discuss also come from across the church: it's relatively simple for
Episcopalians to submit resolutions for legislative consideration. The
result at our recently concluded gathering in Indianapolis was that the
world was able to watch us debating issues including the blessing of
same-sex relationships, peace in the Middle East, and whether dogs have
souls.
Our
bicameral legislative structure was borne of the same revolution
against England as was Congress, and we look alike. It's easy to stand
on the outside and view our democratic process with the same disdain and
cynicism that voters feel toward what transpires on Capitol Hill, or to
assume we've sold out our faith in favor of the secular world.
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