2 Episcopal Groups Will Skip Phoenix Convention

With few exceptions, Episcopal Church bodies are following the denomination’s leaders and will attend the 1991 General Convention in Phoenix, despite Arizona’s failure to adopt a state holiday in honor of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

After Arizona’s voters rejected the King holiday in November, a number of church groups and dioceses, including the Los Angeles Diocese, asked that the convention site be moved, and some threatened to boycott the convention.

However, in early January the 2.5-million-member denomination’s executive council decided to reorder the General Convention agenda to focus on issues of racism, quelling much of the objection to meeting in Phoenix.

Now, it appears that only two church-related organizations will boycott the July 11-20 convention--Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., and Episcopal Church Publishing Co., an independent organization that publishes the liberal journal The Witness.

A third group, Episcopal Society for Ministry in Higher Education, will move its annual meeting to Los Angeles to protest the King Day decision.

The Rev. Giles Asbury, Episcopal chaplain at UCLA and president of the Episcopal Society for Ministry in Higher Education, said that the organization will break a 20-year tradition by not having its annual meeting in conjunction with the General Convention.

But Asbury emphasized that the organization does not consider its action a boycott of the convention and plans to have representatives there and to sponsor a booth.

Meanwhile, representatives of the “Consultation,” a coalition of 11 peace and justice-oriented Episcopal organizations, decided to encourage attendance to ensure a strong liberal presence.

Included in the Consultation are some of the most liberal--conservative critics say “radical”--organizations in the church, including: Integrity, the gay and lesbian caucus; Episcopal Peace Fellowship and Episcopal Urban Caucus.