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Executive Council Sets Special Session on General Convention Concerns

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The Executive Council of the Episcopal Church will convene in a special session on Zoom at 9 a.m. EDT on May 11 to discuss “public health and pastoral protocols and procedures that should be in place for General Convention attendees and the relative merits of meeting in Baltimore,” according to an email from the General Convention Office received by council members tonight.

The meeting was called by the chairs of the four joint standing committees of Executive Council—Jane Cisluycis, Julia Ayala Harris, the Rev. Mally Lloyd and Bishop Dabney Smith—and council members Russ Randle and Rose Sconiers under Title I.4.5 of the church’s canons.

The provision, which stipulates that a meeting “shall be convened” at the written request of any five members of council, is rarely used.

At least eight people tested positive for the COVID-19 virus in the wake of the council’s recent meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The final day of that meeting included a charged plenary discussion of COVID-19 and its implications for the General Convention.

According to the email, the meeting comes on the heels of a meeting of the Executive Committee of Executive Council held earlier today. Members of the Executive Committee include the chairs of the four standing committees, the Presiding Bishop, the president of the House of Deputies, Sconiers,  and council members Bishop Scott Hayashi and Dr. Steven Nishibayashi.

Members of the of the Joint Committee on Planning and Arrangements, which meets at 11 a.m. on Zoom on May 11, were invited to observe the meeting in an email signed by the Rev. Canon Michael Barlowe, secretary of General Convention.

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