Charles Crump

Why General Convention is Important

Is General Convention important? Yes, it is important and much more. It is essential! It is the only meeting of The Episcopal Church in which all Dioceses of the Church are represented by Bishops and elected Clerical and Lay Deputies. Decisions which affect the entire membership of the Church are made through the democratic process. Let us consider some of these decisions.

The Episcopal Church is governed by our Constitution and Canons. They are the law of the Church. Canons may be adopted, amended or repealed by concurrent Resolution of the two Houses of General Convention.  Constitutional Amendments shall be proposed first at one regular meeting of the General Convention, be sent to the Secretary of the Convention of every Diocese to be made known to the Diocesan Convention at the next meeting and adopted by the General Convention at its next succeeding regular meeting by the vote of a majority of all Bishops, excluding retired Bishops not present, of the whole number of Bishops entitled to vote in the House of Bishops and by an affirmative vote by orders in the House of Deputies.

General Conventions make decisions which affect the spiritual aspect of the Church because the Book of Common Prayer can be amended only when proposed by one General Convention, made known to every Diocesan Convention and be adopted at the succeeding General Convention by a majority of all Bishops, excluding retired Bishops not present, and by a vote by orders of the House of Deputies.

A very important aspect of General Convention is its authority to control the finances of the Church by adopting the Triennial Budget.

At the 1961 General Convention, meeting in Detroit, my second General Convention, realizing that there were no printed Agenda or printed resolutions to be considered, I introduced the concept of a printed Agenda containing the number, the proponent and the subject matter of each resolution. This has been standard practice at all succeeding General Conventions.

In the Spring of 1967, I was appointed to the Committee on Rules of Order of the House of Deputies and elected Secretary thereof.  I prepared for the Committee a completely amended version of the Rules of Order which embodied all of the attributes of Motions, both with and without precedence, thereby enabling the President to make rulings after only a brief glance at the Rules of Procedure.

Through the years certain fundamental propositions have been established by General Convention. Among these is the Mutual Responsibility and Interdependence principle of the 1967 General Convention.

By action of the General Convention of 1967, the Constitution was amended on First Reading to permit women to serve as Deputies to General Convention. The amendment was approved on Second Reading by the 1970 General Convention.

The long awaited and quite controversial issue of the right of women to be ordained to the priesthood and consecrated as Bishops was finally approved by the 1976 General Convention.

Charles Crump is a 17 time lay deputy to the General Convention of The Episcopal Church and has served as Vice President, parliamentarian, and a member of multiple Legislative Committees.

Charles holds 2 honorary degrees of Doctor of Canon Law from Seabury Western Theological Seminary and Voorhees College,  2 honorary degrees of Doctor of Civil Law from University of the South, Sewanee and St. Augustine’s College, South Carolina and 1 honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from St. Paul’s College, Virginia.     Charles is currently an attorney in Memphis where he has practiced law since 1937.