Special Discussions will Focus on B033

From The Living Church-

The House of Deputies will be asked to consider meeting in two unusual sessions early in the 76th General Convention July 8-17 to discuss Resolution B033, which was adopted during an extraordinary session of its own on the final day of the 75th General Convention in 2006.

This will be the first time since 1973 that the House of Deputies convenes as a committee of the whole. Then the house met to discuss ordination of women after which it narrowly rejected a proposal to allow women to be ordained to the priesthood and the episcopate.

In a letter sent to deputies and first alternates June 29, Bonnie Anderson, president of the House of Deputies, said she believes the house “will benefit by having an opportunity to discuss B033 apart from the context of legislative procedure” and noted that “many deputies have indicated their longing to discuss B033 together as a house.”

A dozen prefiled resolutions address B033 in some form or another. These have all been assigned to the legislative Committee on World Mission. A more typical legislative procedure would for the Committee on World Mission to hold hearings and combine the resolutions. From there they are forwarded to the Committee on the Dispatch of Business, which determines when and if proposed resolutions come to the floor for debate.


http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2009/7/2/special-discussions-will-focus-on-b033

WESTERN NEW YORK: Search committee told to honor Resolution B033

From Episcopal Life Online-

The Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York has told a newly formed bishop search committee that they are expected to "honor the mind of the Episcopal Church regarding acceptable candidates for the episcopate as expressed through the General Convention."

The Standing Committee said in a posting on the diocese's bishop search website that the requirement referred to Resolution B033, passed by the Episcopal Church's General Convention in June 2006.

In Resolution B033, General Convention called upon standing committees and bishops with jurisdiction to "exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion."

Under the canons of the Episcopal Church (III.16.4 (a)), a majority of bishops exercising jurisdiction and diocesan standing committees must consent to the ordination of a bishop within 120 days of receiving notice of her or his election. (If the election occurs within 120 days of a meeting of General Convention, the convention is asked for its consent.)

The Rev. Eric Williams, chair of the Western New York standing committee and rector of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Jamestown, told ENS April 2 that "we do understand that the letter of B033 does not relate to search committees at all."

"So we are taking a step -- and probably a somewhat controversial step -- of interpreting that and offering our guidance to the search committee," he said. "But it is not our intention to muzzle the search committee or prevent them from doing their discernment. In the end, they have to make these difficult discernment choices as they do their work over the next year and a half, and this is really an invitation to see their work in the context of the whole Episcopal Church."

More here-

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_106665_ENG_HTM.htm