This year’s General Convention will be a “magic kingdom” to rival the nearby Disneyland amusement park, according to the three senior officers in charge of convention planning and the bishop of the host diocese. The four spoke at a press conference broadcast over the internet on May 13.
“What happens at General Convention will affect you,” Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said in response to a question emailed by a viewer. “It governs how your diocese is served by church-wide staff and how your diocese uses church-wide resources.”
In addition to Bishop Jefferts Schori, participants included Bonnie Anderson, president of the House of Deputies; the Rev. Gregory Straub, executive officer and secretary of General Convention; and the Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno, Bishop of Los Angeles.
A number of viewers wanted to know how results from the recently concluded meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council might affect convention. Bishop Jefferts Schori said the need to debate the proposed Anglican Covenant obviously was a moot point since it failed to pass during the ACC meeting in Jamaica last week.
In response to a question regarding the repeal of B033, the resolution approved at General Convention in 2006 that recommends caution in consecrating bishops whose manner of life might cause distress to other members of the Anglican Communion, Bishop Jefferts Schori said B033 would be debated, but that she opposes its repeal.
“I would far more prefer that we say here is where we are today,” she said, adding that it was a more positive way to express the mind of the church.
Bishop Jefferts Schori, Bishop Bruno and Mrs. Anderson all expressed hope that the church would emerge from convention as a people empowered and excited about mission.
“In the past we tried to do that through programs,” Mrs. Anderson said. “I’m not sure it is in our DNA yet.”
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10 Comments
Your article mischaracterizes the Presiding Bishop's comments at the news conference regarding BO33. It is unfair to her and to your readers to have left out a critical element of her statement regarding the repeal of past convention legislation.
Here's what Bishop Jefferts Schori actually said...
"My hope is that we not attempt to repeal past legislation at General Convention. It's a bad practice ... a bad legislative practice. I would far more prefer us to say where we are today in 2009 ... to make a positive statement about our desire to include all people fully in this church and that we be clear about who we are as the Episcopal Church."
Her statement regarding making "a positive statement about our desire to include all people fully in this church" should have not been excised -- that kind of editorial prejudice calls into question the integrity of your reporting.
A correction would be appropriate. Thank you.
As a member of the audience in Anaheim yesterday, I heard first hand the Presiding Bishop's reply to the question regarding B033.
I heard her WHOLE reply ... "I would far more prefer us to say where we are today in 2009 ... to make a positive statement about our desire to include all people fully in this church and that we be clear about who we are as the Episcopal Church."
It is a shame that you don't give readers of The Living Church the benefit of the Presiding Bishop's response in its entirety ... for one arrives at a very different conclusion on where the PB "is" on B033 if one factors her "preference" for a "positive statement about our desire to include all people fully."
If this is the kind of journalism we can expect from TLC moving toward General Convention -- quotes abridged to match headlines supporting a specific legislative agenda -- then it does ... to quote another long time church journalist ... "make the heart sad."
Here is the verbatim quotation. As you will see, key parts that add meaning were omitted:
in answer to reporter Rachel Zoll's emailed question (at 21:20 into the video) regarding "upholding or ending" B033:
My hope is that we not attempt to repeal past legislation at General Convention. It's a bad practice ... a bad legislative practice. I would far more prefer us to say where we are today in 2009 ... to make a positive statement about our desire to include all people fully in this church and that we be clear about who we are as the Episcopal Church.
To leave off a part of a quote that substantially alters its meaning shows a profound lack of journalistic ethics. As a former newspaper publisher it particularly irks me that a 'religious' newspaper would stoop this low.
In our era of fear about the future of journalism, and our sure and certain need of media that keeps us truthfully informed, I would hope that The Living Church would amend it's policies to present the truth first regardless of how well it will be received by its readers.
This is not about which side of the debate one is on. This, in my humble opinion, is a moral and spiritual issue upon which your reporters, editors and board may want to consider reflecting.
Rewriting the story to have it say what you might like for it to have said leaves us all, friend and foe alike, in darkness. The truth sets us all free.
You guys used to be so good. I used to be able to depend on you to keep me informed -- but now I don't know... You really blew it on this one. On a whole, this is pretty poor reporting on your part. You left out the heart of what the Presiding Bishop said abut B033. I am terribly disappointed.
To have included the twenty-nine words ending the Presiding Bishop's quote would have helped all of us better understand her position on this matter. People ask me what she thinks. How helpful it would be to be able to answer their questions with all of her words!
The Rev. Anne Stanley, Deputy from Maine
Exodus 20:16 forbids this kind of false reporting. Why do you do it?
Rather than restate the obvious, I fully agree with the comments of Pamela Kandt and Susan Russell above.
This headline and censored quote are terrible examples of church journalism. We who follow the one who is "the way, the truth, and the life" expect much high standards of any who call themselves church journalists.
Corrections, please!!
I was not the reporter on this story, as I sometimes am as a freelance writer for TLC, but I feel obliged to chime in with this defense of my colleagues.
I believe it's a mistake to assume that TLC omitted the latter half of the Presiding Bishop's remarks for reasons of ideology or agenda-driven headlines. Very few reporters are able to reproduce paragraphs whole, short of knowing Gregg shorthand or typing exceptionally fast. I know from experience with TLC, as with any other serious journalistic enterprise, that the headline is written last, and not by the reporter.
"I would far more prefer that we say here is where we are today," while not complete, certainly suggests the Presiding Bishop's abiding commitment to what she has expressed in the past regarding the church's discussions of human sexuality.
TLC has approved each of the comments appearing here. If TLC's editors are hellbent on suppressing the Presiding Bishop's words, they have an odd way of showing it.