The 158th Convention of the Diocese of California, held at San Francisco's Grace Cathedral on Friday and Saturday, October 19 and 20, passed nine resolutions, and elected diocesan officers and deputies to the 2009 General Convention of the Episcopal Church to be held in Anaheim, California.

The week leading up to convention included a Taizé service for diocesan unity held at St. Paul's, Walnut Creek, and town-hall meetings around the diocese featuring the Most Rev. Njongonkulu Ndungane, Archbishop of Cape Town, and primate of the province of Southern Africa. Members of St. Paul's, Walnut Creek, held a reception following the Taizé service welcoming Ndungane to the diocese. The reception included proclamations from the mayor and Contra Costa County supervisors, and a short speech by the archbishop.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of convention week featured programs that included the Chinyakare Ensemble (a Zimbabwean music and dance troupe), a segment from an HIV/AIDS documentary entitled "A Closer Walk," and a speech by Ndungane. St. Paul's, San Rafael; St. Augustine's, Oakland; and Trinity Parish, Menlo Park, hosted the events. More than 500 members of the Diocese of California attended the events and joined in a conversation with Ndungane about the South African concept of ubuntu, the MDGs, post-apartheid South Africa, and the Anglican Communion.

The convention was called to order on Friday night with an opening Eucharist at Grace Cathedral. The Eucharist included a homily by Ndungane, and a sung Eucharistic prayer, composed by Christopher Putnam, Associate for Liturgy and Music at All Souls, Berkeley.

In his homily, Ndungane addressed the historical breadth of Anglicanism, and denounced the polarization that has caused isolation and division within the communion.

"To follow either extreme is to put at risk the great riches of our Anglican heritage, through which the Lord has blessed us so greatly over the centuries," Ndungane told the convention Eucharist. 

"We must not lose this inheritance, if we are serious about being faithful to the Lord, as he has been faithful to us.

"At the heart of Anglicanism is not one single way of being Christian. Rather, within a broad and fertile territory, there is a breadth of legitimate expressions of faith, which hold to that centre who is Jesus Christ."

Following the Eucharist, a reception with swing dancing was held in the Cathedral's gym.

On Saturday, the convention's business day was opened with Morning Prayer and the Bishop's Address in the cathedral's nave. During his address, the Rt. Rev. Marc Handley Andrus told how baptism moves us from isolation into a sense of mutuality, as he called on the Diocese to share the gifts we have in Christ with the world around us. He pointed out that "It is a fiction, though, that I accomplish anything apart from a great web of creation, to which I contribute and from which I draw my life. Drinking the shared water of the Spirit signifies the process of becoming clear to the sources of our lives, first to the many who participate in life with us, and ultimately to the fountain of all life and creativity, and indeed of individualism properly understood – God."

"All my episcopal ministry is founded in the ideas of this baptismal reality," Andrus said in his address. "I believe that the particular ministry of the episcopate calls me to both always seek to discern the reality of our common life founded in God, and point the Diocese to it."

Following the bishop's address, the delegates and guests of convention moved downstairs to Gresham Hall for the convention's business.

Election Results

Standing Committee elected two new members, one clergy and one lay. The Rev. Nina Pickerrell (Deacon), and Ron Johnson were elected to the Standing Committee's class of 2011. Both Pickerrell and Johnson are from Grace Cathedral.

The Ecclesiastical Court's class of 2010 added two members of the clergy and one lay person. They are the Rev. Nancy Eswein (Deacon), the Rev. Paul Burrows (priest), and Karen Valentia Clopton..

The Board of Directors added two clergy members and one layperson, although unlike the offices above, there is no canonical requirement specifying a specific number of clergy and lay. The new members of the Board of Directors are Margaret K. "Peggy" Greene, the Rev. Paul Fromberg (Priest), and the Rev. Mary Moore Gaines (Priest). Gaines was nominated from the floor of convention.

The Provincial Synod added one clergy member and two laypersons. The Rev. Anna B. Lange-Soto (Priest), Carole Jan Lee, and Diane Audrick Smith.

Convention elected four clergy and four lay deputies to the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. Four clergy and four lay alternates were also elected. The clergy deputies are the Rev. Michael Barlowe (Priest), the Rev. David Ota (Priest), the Rev. Vanessa Glass (Priest), and the Rev. Barbara Bender Breck (Priest). Lay Deputies are Warren J. Wong, Roderick B. Dugliss, Sarah E. Lawton, and Holly McAlpen.

The clergy Alternate Deputies to General Convention are the Rev. M. Sylvia Vasquez (Priest), the Rev. Richard E. Helmer (Priest), the Rev. Katherine (Kate) Salinaro (Deacon), and the Rev. John H. Eastwood (Priest). Lay Alternate Deputies are Carolyn W. Gaines, Liz Graves, Kay Bishop, and Barbara Smith Bisel. Eastwood and Bishop are both members of the San Francisco Deanery.

Two offices were elected without opposition. They are David A. Frangquist, Secretary of the Convention, and Elizabeth (Betsy) Munz, Treasurer of the Diocese. As Frangquist and Munz are both from San Francisco, the San Francisco Deanery won eighteen elections out of twenty-nine possible positions. Alameda and the Peninsula each won four elections, Contra Costa won three, Marin won one, and Southern Alameda did not win an office.

Nine Resolutions are Passed by Convention

Resolutions considered by the 158th Diocesan Convention reflected the diocese's interest in social justice and the environment and for how the diocese is governed. All nine resolutions considered by convention were passed. Resolutions called for Episcopalians to change their light bulbs to more energy efficient Compact Fluorescent Bulbs (CFBs); to support immigrant families and to condemn raids by the Immigration Custom Enforcement Agency (ICE); and called on the Church Pension Group (CPG) to divest in companies doing business in Sudan.

Of international interest was a resolution calling on the bishop to approve the trial use of three rites "as resources in the Diocese of California for formalizing the blessing of same-gender unions." Garnering the most discussion was a resolution proffered by the Standing Committee calling for "the creation of the position of Assistant Bishop" and authorizing "the Bishop of California to appoint a Bishop for that position, whose appointment is subject to the consent of the Standing Committee of the Diocese of California."

Another resolution called on the diocese to approve the work of the Companion Diocese Task Force and to enter into a companion diocese relationship with the Brazilian Diocese of Curitiba.

The governance of the diocese was also considered, and a resolution calling for a special convention on May 10, 2008, "to consider and give final approval to proposed changes to the Canons of the Diocese of California" was passed.

Convention adopted "The Five-Year Ethnic and Multicultural Strategic Plan" to develop new multi-ethnic and multi-cultural ministries, and calling for the bishop to install a multicultural missioner by June of 2008. This resolution also called on all clergy and diocesan lay leaders to complete two sessions of anti-racism training within the next five years.

A resolution was presented from the floor responding to the House of Bishops' Statement from September 2007. The resolution, offered by the vestry of St. John the Evangelist, San Francisco, "affirms the unanimous decision of the Standing Committee to refuse to discriminate against partnered gay and lesbian bishops-elect in the consent process as called for in General Convention 2006 resolution B033." It also points out that discrimination against LGBT persons continues in many dioceses of the Episcopal Church and calls on the Presiding Bishop to establish a listening process within the Episcopal Church.

Certified copies of the convention's resolutions are now available.