Just in time for spring deanery convocations, the Commission on Ministry has released a report on restoring the voting rights of deacons at diocesan convention.

The 2008 diocesan convention directed to commission to study the matter and issue findings for clergy and lay delegates to consider. The report, while outlining the history on deacons’ voting rights in this diocese, stopped short of offering an opinion, saying it was “unable to reach a common mind” on the issue. Instead, it offers three options for voting priests and lay delegates to consider:

• Doing nothing,
• Restoring voting rights only to active, canonically resident deacons under the age of 72; or
• Allowing a group of deacons to be elected to “hold the deacons vote” at convention.

Download the report by clicking here.

A decade of debate
The topic -- which wasn't even on the convention agenda -- created the most discussion at last October's convention.

The canons were altered during former Bishop John Lipscomb’s episcopate in 1999, to put to rest fears that the large number of deacons in this diocese, combined with priests, could vote in a bloc to defeat any resolution lay delegates would oppose. Lipscomb also thought that deacons, in their unique role as servants in the church, could operate above diocesan politics if they did not vote.

If voting right would be restored, the actual number of deacons who would likely be able to cast ballots is small, according to the diocese’s canon to the ordinary, the Rev. Michael Durning. Of the 80 deacons on the rolls, only about half are active. Of those, seven are canonically resident in other dioceses, which would make them ineligible, leaving “about 33 people who would be qualified to vote,” he said.

The subject came up at the Oct. 18 convention in Bradenton as the convention was approving major revisions of diocesan canons. The revisions, two years in the making, clarify language, reorganize sections for easier reference and update sections to conform to recent changes in the national church’s canons.
As discussion on the 55-page document opened, the Rev. John Hiers of Church of the Ascension in Clearwater, rose to offer an amendment, adding the words “or deacons” in one paragraph, allowing deacons to be able to vote at convention.

“When our deacons were laypersons, they had [the] vote. And up until the time of Bishop Lipscomb, many of our deacons had votes,” Hiers said. “I am simply asking that we restore what has been a part of history in our diocese for many years. We do not have three or four deacons in every parish, the deacons are not going to vote as a bloc. I don’t think we have any worries of past history.”

The Rev. Bob Wagenseil, of Calvary Church in Indian Rocks Beach, agreed. “This is not just an issue of legal precedent, as much as, in my opinion, it is an issue of truth and of justice.”

However, the Rev. Tara McGraw, rector of St. Paul’s in Naples, said amending such a large document so quickly is dangerous. “Legal documents are very complicated things,” she said, explaining that to make changes to one paragraph without looking at how it will affect other related sections of the canons would be ill-advised. “If you don’t do it, what you get is an inconsistent document that has conflicts within itself … when we go to use it, it doesn’t work right,” she said. “I ask you to please be patient with the process. Let the committee consider this question in a proper way.”

Tom Hark, a lay delegate from Holy Trinity in Clearwater, was not convinced. “I’ve seen us make deacons second-class citizens of our congregations,” he said. He dismissed the notion that deacons could form a formidable voting bloc because of the small number who would be eligible to vote. “Let us — with two words in this streamlined document — that which was taken in fear, let us restore in joy.”

The debate was rendered moot after Bishop Smith, after consulting with his parliamentarian and chancellor, ruled Hiers’ amendment out of order. The revised canons, as presented, were handily approved by voice vote.

Immediately after the vote, the Rev. Sharon Lewis, rector of Church of the Holy Spirit in Osprey, offered a motion to direct the Commission on Ministry to study the issue and submit a report and recommendation to deanery convocations in the spring of 2009. It passed overwhelmingly.

The spring deanery convocation schedule is as follows. All meetings start at 7 p.m.:

• March 24, Fort Myers Deanery, at St. Hilary’s, Fort Myers.
• March 26, Tampa Deanery, at St. Mark’s, Tampa.
• March 31, St. Petersburg/Clearwater deaneries, at St. John’s Clearwater.
• April 2, Venice/Manasota deaneries, at St. Boniface, Sarasota.
• May 1, Naples Deanery, St. Monica’s, Naples.