Joel Connelly, of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and a member of St. Augustine’s in the Woods on Whidbey Island in Washington state, writes about being a delegate to the convention of the Diocese of Olympia (western Washington). He raises the issue of the voting power of large cities in a diocese of small towns.
Straight out of the box, the convention began balloting on delegates [ed.note: Deputies] to the Episcopal General Convention…
The last diocesan gathering produced an all-King County slate of eight clerical and lay delegates: Six were from Seattle parishes, and four from the liberal bastion of St. Mark’s Cathedral.
With a lot of candidates and recent staff layoffs putting St. Mark’s under a bit of a cloud — one laid-off priest made national news by proclaiming that she is BOTH a Christian and a Moslem — a more diverse delegation seemed likely in this year’s voting.
‘Wasn’t so. One after another, King County claimed the General Convention delegate slots.
The four priests who served as delegates to the 2006 General Convention will repeat as delegates to the 2009 General Convention. All all-King County lay delegation — with three from Seattle and two repeaters from St. Mark’s — was elected. One delegate is reputed to be a moderate.
An interesting note occured during the usually perfunctory Courtesy resolutions when one for the Archbishop of Canterbury raised questions about thanking him for his efforts to foster forebearance. The convention amended the resolution to send greetings and prayers.
The Living Church is reporting that Olympia joined Utah in calling upon the Archbishop to delay Lambeth 2008. The report from the Living Church here