A Dope-Slap against Secrecy in TEC
Resolution D045 (Committee Member Transparency) passed the House of Deputies, and was concurred by the House of Bishops today. So it is enacted. Hooray!
The text reads:
Kudos to Fort Worth Deputy Katie Sherrod, who crafted this resolution, and to Deputies Nancy Key of San Joaquin and Joan Gundersen of Pittsburgh who endorsed it, allowing it to be filed with the General Convention Secretariat. And kudos to all the bishops and deputies who saw the imminent good sense of this resolution.
You all may remember some of the back-story on this. In a church that proclaims openness and transparency in its deliberations, Bishop Henry Parsley (Alabama) created a super-duper secret panel to study the issue of same-sex relationships in our church. He refused to name the members of the panel. Many of us decried that action, as I did here. On July 1, I was able to reveal the names of most of the panel members, and Jim Naughton revealed the remaining two on July 10.
Katie did something much more significant in response to Bishop Parsley’s attempted secrecy: She crafted a resolution that should guarantee Parsley and others can never again engage in this kind of secrecy.
With the passage of D045, we should never again have to resort to skullduggery to find out who is serving on our church’s committees, subcommittees, task forces, panels or other bodies – whether elected or appointed.
Go on over to Katie Sherrod’s blog and send her a big “Thank You!” Do it now.
The text reads:
Resolved, the House of Bishops concurring, That the 76th General Convention direct that the membership of all committees, subcommittees, task forces, panels or other bodies elected or appointed by any body or leader throughout The Episcopal Church including, but not limited to, the House of Deputies, the House of Bishops, the Executive Council, Standing Commissions, Committees, Agencies and Boards of The Episcopal Church and their respective Presiding Officers and Chairs be publicly available within 30 days after election or appointment.
Kudos to Fort Worth Deputy Katie Sherrod, who crafted this resolution, and to Deputies Nancy Key of San Joaquin and Joan Gundersen of Pittsburgh who endorsed it, allowing it to be filed with the General Convention Secretariat. And kudos to all the bishops and deputies who saw the imminent good sense of this resolution.You all may remember some of the back-story on this. In a church that proclaims openness and transparency in its deliberations, Bishop Henry Parsley (Alabama) created a super-duper secret panel to study the issue of same-sex relationships in our church. He refused to name the members of the panel. Many of us decried that action, as I did here. On July 1, I was able to reveal the names of most of the panel members, and Jim Naughton revealed the remaining two on July 10.
Katie did something much more significant in response to Bishop Parsley’s attempted secrecy: She crafted a resolution that should guarantee Parsley and others can never again engage in this kind of secrecy.
With the passage of D045, we should never again have to resort to skullduggery to find out who is serving on our church’s committees, subcommittees, task forces, panels or other bodies – whether elected or appointed.
Go on over to Katie Sherrod’s blog and send her a big “Thank You!” Do it now.
posted by Lisa Fox at 7/13/2009 07:08:00 PM
3 Comments:
This is good news! I know that neither of our bishops (Diocese of Olympia) were on board with the secrecy nonsense.
Wow! This is a very encouraging GC.
Good to have it official that there can be no more secret committees.
Amen. But you knew that already.
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