Cornelia Eaton, a deputy from the Episcopal Church in Navajoland, will serve as chaplain to the House of Deputies during the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, July 5-12, in Indianapolis, IN, Bonnie Anderson, President of the House of Deputies announced.

Eaton will lead the house in daily prayer, and Dr. Jenny Te Paa, principal of Te Rau Kahikatea, College of St. John the Evangelist, Auckland, New Zealand, and the Rev. Dr. Francis Wade, interim dean of Washington National Cathedral (Diocese of Washington), will offer reflections, Anderson said.

The Rev. Julia Huttar Bailey, an experienced church musician and priest-in-charge at St. Michael and All Angels Church in Lincoln Park, MI (Diocese of Michigan), will serve as the house’s song leader.

“Deputies gather in an atmosphere of prayer and call on the guidance of the Holy Spirit,” Anderson said. “I am delighted that these four gifted spiritual leaders have agreed to lead us in deepening our experience of God’s presence as we consider the legislation put before us by the people of our church.”

Eaton, who attends St. Michael’s Church in Upper Fruitland, NM, is a member of the Council of Advice of Bishop David Bailey of Navajoland, serves on the board of the Indigenous Theological Training Institute and is a member of the Executive Council’s Committee on Indigenous Ministries. A postulant for Holy Orders, she studies at the Vancouver School of Theology, Canada.

Te Paa, a member of the World Council of Churches Commission on Ecumenical Theological Education and Ministry Formation, and has served on numerous indigenous, Anglican and ecumenical commissions. She is senior editor of Lifting Women’s’ Voices, a collection of prayers from women and girls in support of the Millennium Development Goals. Her speech on the role of the Episcopal Church in advancing the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Christians in the Anglican Communion was among the most warmly received presentation at the General Convention in 2009.

Wade, a former 12-time deputy from the Diocese of Washington, served as chaplain to the house in 2000 and 2009. He is the author of Jubilee People, Jubilee Lives (a collection of his meditations at General Convention in 2000); Art of Being Together: Common Sense About Life Long Relationships, and Transforming Scripture. The former rector of St. Alban’s Church in Washington, DC, he was co-chair of special committee focusing on Episcopal-Anglican relations at the 2006 General Convention. 

Huttar Bailey, who holds a master’s degree in organ and church music from the University of Michigan, is a former member of the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music, and served, before her ordination, as a musician at St. Clare’s Episcopal Church in Ann Arbor, MI (Diocese of Michigan).

Anderson has invited Dr. Dora Mbuwayesango, the Iris and George Battle Professor of Old Testament and Languages and Dean of Students at Hood Theological Seminary in Salisbury, NC, to be her guest at the convention. Mbuwayesango, a native of Zimbabwe and a member of St. Luke’s Church in Salisbury (Diocese of North Carolina), participated in the joint consultation on the Bible and human sexuality among Episcopalians and African Anglicans in Durban, South Africa in October. She is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature and the Association of Anglican Biblical Scholars.

General Convention 2012 will be held July 5 – 12 at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, IN (Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis).

The Episcopal Church’s General Convention is held every three years, and is the bicameral governing body of the Church. It is composed of the House of Bishops, with upwards of 200 active and retired bishops and the House of Deputies, with clergy and lay representatives elected from the 110 dioceses of the Church, at more than 800 members.

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