Welcome to the inaugural 2022 edition of Deputy News, created by the House of Deputies news team. We will be covering the 80th General Convention and the activities leading toward it with an emphasis on the House of Deputies and its members.
Even before the convention gets underway in Baltimore on July 7, we are planning stories that will prepare you for the eight-day legislative gathering. In this edition, we cover the legislative hearings of two key committees, Racial Justice & Reconciliation and Prayer Book, Liturgy and Music, which held hearings on the church’s calendar, expansive language and translations and the revision and publication of the lectionary and liturgies. We will follow other online hearings as they get under way.
This edition also includes a commentary on anti-Semitism in the church’s lectionary by noted New Testament scholar Amy-Jill Levine, Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace. Dr. Levine delivered a version of these remarks in testifying before the Prayer Book, Liturgy and Music Committee on Resolution C014, which deals with lectionary readings for Holy Week that been interpreted as anti-Semitic.
Once our news team is fully operational in Baltimore, we also will be bringing you features – on key players and trends – and video reports. Not to mention photos.
Our team is vastly expanded from 2018 and we look forward to providing as full a report as possible throughout Convention and before it. If you’ve got feedback or story ideas, you can contact us at news@houseofdeputies.org
Jim Naughton and Anne Swardson, co-chairs, Deputy News