[Magdalen] Council vs. Convention

[Grace Cangialosi]

Hi, Susan!
I'm here at Council, and I look forward to seeing you later today!

I've been told that this particular resolution is likely to be contentious. That floored me, but you never know with Council!

The one on the Boy Scouts will surely be..,

> On Jan 22, 2015, at 10:51 PM, Suzie Buchanan <buchanan.suzie at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I am really glad that the Diocese of Virginia will probably change the name
> of its annual diocesan gathering from "Council" to "Convention" tomorrow.
> 
> After having left the Diocese of VA for New Hampshire 12 years ago, I
> discovered that most other dioceses (pronounce that however you'd like)
> call their gathering a convention.  I had become an Episcopalian in
> Virginia, went to seminary there, ordained there and served my first 8
> years as a priest there.  It's all I knew.
> 
> Now that I'm back, I've had a few friends in NH ask about the name, so I
> did some research, and discovered that in Virginia, as in everywhere in the
> Episcopal Church, it was known as a Convention . . . until the Civil War.
> The dioceses that were part of the Confederacy adopted the name Council for
> their annual meeting (reasons are not spelled out in historical records,
> but it seems as if this was one way of distinguishing themselves from the
> North).  The best historical conjectures seem to agree that after the war,
> the diocese kept the name as a way of appeasing those who still were not
> truly reconciled with being part of the *United* States.
> 
> There are currently 8 dioceses who use the term "Council" - 7 of them in
> the former Confederate States, plus Nebraska.  Of the 7 in the south, all
> the others had gone back to using Convention at some point, and then back
> to Council.  Only Virginia seems to have believed itself to have
> consistently used the term "Council" since 1862.  Except . . . research has
> just turned up this month that this diocese may have used the term
> Convention for one year's meeting in the 1950s.
> 
> The resolution we are voting on tomorrow is set forth in the spirit of
> repentence for the racism in our history.  I think it's an important vote,
> and I'll be glad to change the name!  Once I figured out why our gathering
> was called a Council, I was a bit sorry to have to explain it to my friends
> in New Hampshire.  I didn't know at that point that this move was already
> afoot in this diocese to make this change.  I am glad it is coming.
> 
> Susan