Tuesday, September 20
6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
Jeffords Hall
Join us for a potluck meal as we enjoy each other’s fellowship and learn!
Please bring something to share. We will provide dessert, water, iced tea, lemonade. We hope you will be able to join us! The General Convention is the governing body of The Episcopal Church. Every three years it meets as a bicameral legislature that includes the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops, composed of deputies and bishops from each diocese. The General Convention is the Church’s highest temporal authority. As such, it has the power to amend the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church; to amend the Book of Common Prayer and to authorize other liturgical texts; to adopt the budget for the Church; to create covenants and official relationships with other branches of the Church; to determine requirements for its clergy and other leaders; to elect its officers, members of the Executive Council, and certain other groups; to delegate responsibilities to the Interim Bodies of The Episcopal Church; and to carry out various other responsibilities and authority. In other words, the work done at General Convention determines The Episcopal Church’s current priorities, states her position on current issues, creates and authorizes liturgies, and oversees requirements for clergy and lay leaders. This affects The Episcopal Church, our province, our diocese, and our parish. The legislative process of General Convention is an expression of The Episcopal Church’s belief that, under God, the Church is ordered and governed by its people: laity, deacons, priests, and bishops. This year The Episcopal Church gathered for the 80th General Convention for several July days in Baltimore. Archdeacon Carole Maddux attended General Convention this year as a first-time deputy from the Diocese of Atlanta and a member of the legislative committee on US Social Policy. She’ll share with us information about the governance of The Episcopal Church, her impressions, some of the outcomes, and answer any questions you may have.