Albany Via Media

The Rt. Rev. William H. Love
Bishop of Albany
68 South Swan Street
Albany, NY 12210

Dear Bishop Love,

Thank you for posting your convention address in a timely fashion. Your address to the convention was helpful to me in fashioning this letter. It hit on some of the concerns I have, the first being the convention dates.

In your address you clearly pointed out the meaning of Pentecost and you recognized the Day of Pentecost as one of the seven principal feast days of the Church, often regarded as the birthday of the Church. You then stated “Holding Convention on Pentecost Weekend presents a number of unique challenges back in our home parishes for which I am very much aware, and yet in many ways I can't think of a better time for representatives from the entire Diocese to come together as the Body of Christ. It is my most sincere hope and prayer, that before we leave here this weekend, the Lord will once again pour out His Holy Spirit mightily upon each of us gathered here at Camp of the Woods as well as the rest of the Body gathered in Christ's name throughout the Diocese. May we too be empowered through the Holy Spirit to be faithful witnesses to the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our local communities and throughout the world in this generation”.

I am pleased to note that you are aware that many parishes in the diocese had no clergy at all. Some conducted Morning Prayer with lay readers. For the sake of the several hundred conventioneers most of the other 15,000 or so souls in this Diocese could not celebrate the Eucharist on one of the seven principal feast days of the Church.

If ever there had been a time to change the date and place of the convention, it was this year. You had the constitutional authority to do that.

From the Constitution of the Diocese of Albany:

ARTICLE I

There shall be a Convention of the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Albany each year. The Bishop, with the consent of the Standing Committee, or, in case of a vacancy in the Episcopate, the Standing Committee, shall appoint the place and time.

Article I continues:

The presence of 30 of the Clergy entitled to vote and Deputies representing 25 Churches shall constitute a quorum which shall be necessary for the transaction of business.

This is my second concern, the constituted quorum.

I will be interested to read about the attendance at the convention in general, the number of parishes represented, and the number of clergy in attendance.

It seems that with 120 parishes and summer chapels and several hundred clergy in residence, including deacons, that 30 clergy and 25 Churches being a quorum as stated in the constitution, while legal, is not advisable. I suggest that a constitutional change to reflect the higher numbers is in order.

Canon Charles King indicated to me this past year that he was working on procedures for the convention. This was in reference to his erroneous ruling on Robert's Rules of Order he issued at the previous convention where he ruled that I was out of order for reasons he claimed were in Robert Rules. There was no text in Robert's Rules that supported his interpretation. I was out of order for other reasons in Robert's Rules. Whatever happened to Canon King's recommendations? Were you aware of them?

Sincerely,

Joseph M. Liotta