GENERAL CONVENTION DEPUTIES VOTE FOR PRAYER BOOK REVISION

The House of Deputies of the Episcopal Church General Convention voted at 12:35 p.m. CDT today to proceed with a "comprehensive revision" of the Book of Common Prayer. It did so by passing Proposed Resolution A068 "Plan for the Revision of the Book of Common Prayer."

The resolution passed by majority vote:

Clerical order     63 yes;     30 no;     17 divided

Lay order            69 yes;     26 no;     15 divided

The resolution must now be approved by the House of Bishops to become final. The resolution would set into motion a process for revising the prayer book through the Standing Committee on Liturgy and Music. As I understand it, the language of the prayer book will be changed to become gender neutral. This will mean, for instance, that marriage liturgy will be equally available for same sex or opposite sex couples. It is to have "inclusive and expansive language."

The Committee is to have a budget of nearly $2m and is to present its revisions at the next General Convention, 2021, for approval.

This is a major victory for marriage equality in the Episcopal Church and is in line with other great reforms: 2003 approval of Robinson, 2012 adoption of same-sex blessings; and 2015 adoption of same-sex marriage.

Today's vote is a setback for the counter-movement to keep the existing alternative liturgies that were separate from the official prayer book. However, there is a competing proposal in the House of Bishops, B012, that would essentially preserve the status quo. The HOB will take up this issue soon, perhaps Monday or Tuesday. It seems to me HOB has three choices: 
1-pass A068 as is. This would finalize it.
2-make revisions to A068 and send back to HOD. Both houses would have to agree on the final resolution.
3-vote down A068, pass their own resolution B012 and send it to HOD.

GC sessions are being live streamed here . For the HOD, click on "Deputies." For the HOB, click on "Bishops."