The Rev. Scott Gunn, executive director of Forward Movement, has worked his way through the Blue Book for the 79th General Convention. Gunn notes on Twitter that he has written about 188 of the 222 resolutions, and jokes that this achievement is “probably a sign of ill health.”
Gunn has organized an index of the resolutions and his likely votes.
In the fourth post of the series, Gunn explains the rationale behind his decisions on how he is likely to vote:
As I continue to prepare for General Convention this summer, to say nothing of writing the Blue’s Clues series of blog posts, I have been reading through some of the Blue Book reports. I have found myself leaning toward “no” on quite a few resolutions, some of which appear to do noble things. So I thought I might take a step out of the Blue’s Clues series to say a bit more about how I decide whether I will vote for a General Convention resolution or not. If the idea of reading this sounds boring, I won’t judge you; just move right along.
Here’s why I’m writing all this. Partly it’s to explain my own thinking. Also, I must confess, I hope that bishops and deputies will sometimes be more discerning as we vote. It might feel good to vote yes on a resolution that addresses a topic of importance to us, but does that make passing a resolution the best course of action? Sometimes yes, sometimes no.
My hope is that we, as a General Convention, will be able to say no. We need to say no when resolutions are merely attempts to make us feel good, because that distracts us from the work we need to do. We need to say no to hundreds of resolutions that are not necessary, because they dilute our focus. Voting no on resolutions that merely commend things may result in fewer commendy resolutions, and that will free up precious time for vital work. This is why, sometimes, I end up being the party of no.
Just be glad you don’t sit next to me at General Convention. The poor person to my right or left has to listen to no, no, no, no, no, no. At times I feel like Jim from the Vicar of Dibley.
Matthew Townsend is a Halifax-based freelance journalist and volunteer advocate for survivors of sexual misconduct in Anglican settings. He served as editor of the Anglican Journal from 2019 to 2021 and communications missioner for the Anglican Diocese of Quebec from 2019 to 2022. He and his wife recently entered catechism class in the Orthodox Church in America.
