What’s happening in the Episcopal Church?
Photo of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, courtesy of Episcopal News Service
I got that question a lot this summer from friends and family who aren’t Episcopalians and who are bemused by the stuff they read about my church in the national press. So here is my brief, idiosyncratic, and much too general take on “what’s happening.”
Every three years the Episcopal Church gathers for General Convention. General Convention is our governing body; we don’t have an archbishop or pope who decides things for us, but instead work in a complicated, messy, democratic way to get the business of the church done, and even to decide what our business really is. Our bicameral legislative body is noticeably similar in structure to the U.S. Congress, which is no surprise because it developed alongside it, under the guidance of some of the same “founding fathers.” It’s big, though, with over 800 people (lay and…
