Clergy and delegates to the online business session of the 191st Annual Convention approved a $1.5 million budget for 2025, passed several resolutions, and heard Bishop Shannon praise the people and parishes of the diocese who “responded with love and ingenuity and generosity to the suffering they saw all around them.”
In her Bishop’s Address to the online gathering held November 14, the bishop also endorsed the mission strategy goals adopted by Executive Council on October 22, and invited the Very Rev. Greta Getlein, recording secretary for Executive Council, to describe them to the convention.
The goals are strengthening congregations, building relationships, and developing leaders and structures, said Getlein, Dean of the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul in Burlington. She noted that more details are available on the diocesan website.
Bishop Shannon told the convention that she would be taking a sabbatical from March through June, 2025. Her covenant with the diocese provides for a sabbatical every five years, she said, and will be working with the Standing Committee and the staff to plan for her time away.
In concluding her address, Bishop Shannon urged members of the diocese to become more active in diocesan affairs. “Run for something, accept an appointment, volunteer,” she said. “We have work to do, and we could use a few more people sharing in the work. Parish governance and diocesan governance are participatory. It’s one of the glories of the Episcopal Church that we share authority.”
Interim Chief Financial Officer Michael Shapiro reviewed some of the elements of the $1.5 million budget for 2025, which is roughly flat with the actual expenditures forecast for 2024. As in recent years, the budget foresees making $100,000 in loans and grants to parishes to support their ministries. Shapiro noted that 60 percent of the diocese’s income is from parish assessments with the remainder coming from investment income, grants, and miscellaneous sources.
The convention approved all six of the resolutions it considered, most with little debate. One resolution committed the diocese to “working to end all support to Israel’s Apartheid regime, settler colonialism, and military occupation.” There was some opposition based on concerns about the impact on Jewish people in the United States who have been subjected to antisemitism. The resolution passed handily after the addition of language pledging that the diocese will “strive to be an Apartheid-free community.” This replaced language that would have appeared to declare that the diocese already was an Apartheid-free community.
Another resolution was a last-minute addition to the agenda, prompted in part by the words of the Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas, who was the keynote speaker at the in-person portion of the annual convention, which occurred November 9 at the Cathedral. In the face of calls for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, the diocese will “explore declaring ourselves to be a sanctuary diocese.” The resolution, which passed with overwhelming support, called for the creation of a Sanctuary Task Force of up to 10 members to study the matter and report back to the 192nd Annual Convention next October.
