The 81st General Convention of the Episcopal Church comes to an end today after a busy week of worship, resolutions, and conversations. I will make available a summary of all actions of the Convention once it has been assembled. As I mentioned last week, the election of the 28th Presiding Bishop was held on Wednesday. The House of Bishops elected, and the House of Deputies confirmed, The Rt. Rev. Sean Rowe as the Presiding Bishop elect. Bishop Rowe is currently the Bishop of Northwestern Pennsylvania and the Bishop Provisional of Western New York. Bishop Rowe will resign as bishop of these two dioceses and assume the office of Presiding Bishop on November 1. We will get to meet Bishop Rowe when he joins us in Kansas City to ordain and consecrate our new bishop on May 3, 2025.

Looking ahead to July at the Cathedral, I remind you that our offices will be closed next Thursday and Friday, July 4 and 5, for Independence Day. Fr. James and I will begin a book study on July 7 as we discuss Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together. The class will meet July 7, 21, 28, and Aug. 4. July 14 is our second All Parish Breakfast in Founders’ Hall at 9 a.m. On July 20, two ordinations will take place at the Cathedral at 10 a.m. Come join with others from the diocese as Bishop Diane ordains Silas Engstrom and Katherine Mansfield (former Youth Intern at GHTC) to the Sacred Order of Priests.

As we prepare to celebrate our nation’s 248th birthday, we will sing hymn 718, “God of our fathers, whose almighty hand,” as our closing hymn on Sunday. This hymn appears in the last section of the Hymnal 1982 under National Songs. The text was written in 1876 by the Rev. Daniel Crane Roberts, rector of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Brandon, Vermont, to commemorate our nation’s centennial celebration on July 4. The music, National Hymn, was written by George W. Warren in 1892 and wasn’t paired with the text until the celebration of the centennial of the adoption of the United States Constitution on October 8, 1892. Interestingly, we associate this hymn with our own Independence Day, but since it doesn’t refer to a specific nation, it can be used by any freedom-loving people or nation (information from The Hymnal 1982 Companion, Vol. Three B, edited by Raymond F. Glover). Have a safe and happy Fourth of July!

Please continue to pray for one another, for our Cathedral family, our nation, and the world.

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