Day 4 of General Convention 81: Along with electing and confirming a new presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church (Sean Rowe), we also affirmed the goal of full communion with the United Methodist Church (A049); accepted an agreement of full communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Bavaria (A037); commended closer relations with the Presbyterian Church USA (A042); and approved practical guidelines for interreligious relations (A038), Episcopal-Jewish relations (A039), and Christian-Muslim relations (A040). All of this was accomplished just a few blocks away from a square named after one of the greatest ecumenical leaders of the 20th century, Thomas Merton, who was quoted by the PB elect in his opening address and who was a friend to Anglicans, Episcopalians, and Methodists. Merton said, “My dear brothers [and sisters and siblings], we are already one. But we imagine that we are not. And what we have to recover is our original unity.” Today we passed resolutions that work toward recovering that original unity.
Also, after passionate and thoughtful debate and prayer, we passed resolutions on Israel and Palestine. We affirmed that the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas was an indefensible act of terrorism; that Israel’s counterinsurgency in Gaza has exhibited a reckless disregard for the civilian population; that the current government in Israel, in effectively ruling out a Palestinian state, continues to pursue an apartheid policy against the Palestinian people; and that for all the people of Israel and Palestine to enjoy freedom, peace, justice, and national self-determination, there must be a Palestinian state, coexisting with the Jewish State of Israel (D013). This resolution has not yet been fully adopted by the House of Bishops, who are not unanimously on board with the use of the word “apartheid.” We also passed a resolution that calls the Presiding Bishop to set aside a specific day of fasting, prayer, and mourning for the lives lost in Israel and Palestine, including urgent prayers that the conflict not end in genocide (D056).
We passed a resolution that expands our understanding of the Book of Common Prayer to include “liturgical forms and other texts authorized by the General Convention” (A072). The 1979 Prayer Book is not being revised or replaced. The physical prayer book itself will remain on pew shelves and will serve as the root source of all other liturgies, which, after they have been authorized by GC, do not need to be bound within a physical book to be considered part of “The Book of Common Prayer.” Liturgical texts on people’s tablets and smartphones will now be part of “The Book of Common Prayer.”
And finally, we directed the Executive Council to study clergy mandatory retirement at age 72 (D032).
DANIEL DeFOREST LONDON 
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