Giving issues a full hearing

Today's Columbus Dispatch has the following article about General Convention. Gives a good sense of what's actually going on down there at the Convention Center. (I say "down there" as it's south of where we live.)

Church puts premium on giving issues a full hearing
Episcopalians advocate careful, methodical route for finding a consensus

"This convention will handle as many pieces of legislation in 10 days as Congress does in a year," said the Rev. Canon Vicki D. Zust, canon to the ordinary for the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio.

"That’s kind of why you see people walking along with glazed expressions on their faces."

The church operates the world's largest bicameral legislative body, with roughly 850 members in the House of Deputies and 280 in the House of Bishops.

Complicating the sheer volume of business is the manner in which resolutions are written, discussed, amended and amended again.

"There are many grammarians in the Episcopal Church," Zust said.

She has never figured out the percentage of English teachers and professors among the denomination of 2.2 million. But she’s pretty sure it's high.

Click here for the rest.

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