Bishop Hollerith
and a deputation from Diocese of Southern Virginia will head to Salt
Lake City, UT, June 25 - July 3 to take part in the 78th General
Convention of the Episcopal Church. Over the next few weeks, we'll be
giving you some background on General Convention, explain how it works,
and introduce our deputation. While we are in Salt Lake City, you can
follow the action on our General Convention blog and the diocesan Facebook page.
General Convention: Equality of representation
Equality of representation between lay persons and priests was
enshrined from the beginning of General Convention, as was the equal
representation of states - the words "state" and "diocese" were
synonymous in the church's early years.
Equality of representation between lay persons and priests was
enshrined from the beginning of General Convention, as was the equal
representation of states - the words "state" and "diocese" were
synonymous in the church's early years.
To
protect the rights of states with fewer church members the constitution
made provision for votes by states for major issues. This provision was
the ancestor of our votes by orders in which each diocese casts one
clerical and one lay vote on amendments to the constitution, revisions
of the Book of Common Prayer and other weighty matters.
Because
the organizing conventions and the first General Convention under its
constitution did not include bishops, the House of Deputies is sometimes
referred to as the senior house (by date of establishment).
To encourage the church in New England to join the General Convention,
provision was made in the church's first constitution for a House of
Bishops at such time in the future as there would be at least three
bishops. After the passage of the constitution, the election of bishops
required the consent of both houses of the General Convention, and
consecrations could take place only during a meeting of the convention.
When this proved unworkable, the convention voted in 1799 to allow
diocesan standing committees to vote consent in place of the House of
Deputies, except when the election fell within a reasonable time before a
meeting of the General Convention.
Even
after the formation of the House of Bishops, the House of Clerical and
Lay Deputies could override a "no" vote in the House of Bishops by a
4/5's vote. This provision was amended in 1808, allowing the bishops to
veto legislation passed by deputies, but only if they did so within
three days of passage. (The House of Bishops did not get parity with the
House of Deputies until 1901, when the "three days clause" was deleted
from a revision of the constitution.) Since then, for legislation to be
enacted, it must be passed in identical language by both houses. If
either house fails to concur, the resolution does not pass.
