The special committee responsible for handling resolutions pertaining to the Windsor Report during General Convention will be grounded in prayer, according to the two co-chairs of the committee. Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold and the Very Rev. George Werner, president of the House of Deputies, announced the composition of the 18-member commission earlier this month.

The special legislative committee will overlap the work of the special commission on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion, which Bishop Griswold and Dean Werner appointed last fall to help prepare the way for General Convention to receive and respond to the recommendations contained in the Windsor Report. Some members appointed to the special commission last fall have been reappointed to the special committee. The special commission held its last scheduled meeting March 27. Its report will be published April 10 along with other General Convention documents in the so-called “Blue Book.”

The Rt. Rev. Dorsey Henderson, Bishop of Upper South Carolina and one of the co-chairs of the special committee, told The Living Church the idea of assigning prayer partners among members of the special committee was something he first tried with his vestry when he was still a priest in parish ministry. He came across the idea after reading The Praying Church, a book by the Rt. Rev. Donald M. Hultstrand, who was Bishop of Springfield from 1982-1991.

“It really had a transforming affect, not only on the individuals, but also on the way that the whole vestry functioned,” Bishop Henderson said. “It couldn’t help but help to put us in an appropriate spiritual frame of mind to do the important work we have been given.”

Deputies appointed to the Special Legislative Committee on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion include:

• The Rev. Dr. Ian T. Douglas (Province I, Diocese of Massachusetts, Episcopal Divinity School, co-chair of the special commission)

• The Rev. Sandra A. Wilson (Province II, Diocese of Newark, member of the special commission)

• The Rev. Francis H. Wade (Province III, Diocese of Washington, special committee co-chair, member of the special commission)

• The Rev. Charles E. Osberger (Province III, Diocese of Easton, member of the special commission)

• Russell Palmore (Province III, chancellor of the Diocese of Virginia and Executive Council member)

• Debby Melnyk (Province IV, Diocese of Florida, member of the House of Deputies Committee on the State of the Church)

• Michael Howell (Province IV, Diocese of Southwest Florida)

• Katherine Tyler Scott (Province V, Diocese of Indianapolis, special committee vice chair, member of the President of the House of Deputies’ Council of Advice, member of the special commission)

• Christopher Wells (Province V, Diocese of Northern Indiana, special committee secretary, member of the special commission)

• The Rev. Carolyn Kuhr (Province VI, Diocese of Montana, General Convention 2003 chair of General Convention’s Committee on the Consecration of Bishops)

• Timothy Mack (Province VII, chancellor of the Diocese of Dallas)

• D. Rebecca Snow (Province VIII, Executive Council member)

• The Rev. Dan Martins (Province VIII, Diocese of San Joaquin)

• Blanca Lucia Echeverry (Province IX, Diocese of Colombia)

Bishops appointed to the committee are:

• The Rt. Rev. Dorsey F. Henderson Jr. (Diocese of Upper South Carolina, special committee co-chair, member of special commission)

• The Rt. Rev. Peter James Lee (Diocese of Virginia)

• The Rt. Rev. Edward Little II (Diocese of Northern Indiana)

• The Rt. Rev. Robert O'Neill (Diocese of Colorado)

• The Rt. Rev. Geralyn Wolf (Diocese of Rhode Island)

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