Global issues a priority for General Convention

Archbishop of Canterbury to attend first two days

By Matthew Davies, February 23, 2009

[Episcopal News Service] Global concerns and Anglican Communion issues will be a major focus of the Episcopal Church's 76th General Convention when it meets July 8-17 in Anaheim, California.

The church's main legislative gathering, which meets every three years, also will welcome many international guests from various Anglican Communion provinces. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams will attend General Convention for the first time July 8-9. He will participate in Bible study and be a keynote speaker at a global economic forum on the evening of July 8.

Convention will devote extensive conversation to global issues through its Committee on International Concerns, which will prepare legislation to be addressed by convention's House of Bishops and House of Deputies.

Some of the key issues will focus on the crises and peacemaking efforts in conflict areas such as the Middle East, Sudan, Sri Lanka and the Great Lakes region of Africa.

Convention addresses global concerns for two reasons, said the Rev. Canon Brian Grieves, the Episcopal Church's senior director of mission and director of the Advocacy Center.

"One is in response to God's mission to reconcile all things to Christ. We join in Christ's work of salvation of the world. Secondly, we undertake this work as an expression of our partnership with other provinces of the Anglican Communion. These are life-and-death matters."

The legislative process, Grieves said, "may seem pedantic and ineffective to some, but, in fact, the resolutions adopted become the work of the church, especially through our Office of Government Relations [in Washington, D.C.]"

Alexander Baumgarten, international policy analyst in the government relations office, said that "Episcopalians frequently ask where the Office of Government Relations gets direction for its advocacy work, and the answer is from the resolutions of the General Convention.

"Any Episcopalian who wishes to influence the voice of our church in the public square can work with his or her deputies and bishops to bring a resolution to convention, which, if adopted, shapes the advocacy work of our church in the years to come," he said. "Each of the global issues for which the Episcopal Church has become noted in Washington in recent years -- whether the Millennium Development Goals, the Jubilee 2000 campaign for debt relief or the struggle for peace and human rights in the Sudan -- has begun as a result of resolutions brought to the convention by Episcopalians from around the country."

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-- Matthew Davies is editor of Episcopal Life Online and international correspondent of Episcopal News Service.