The General Convention of The Episcopal Church

The General Convention of the Episcopal Church

The General Convention is the governing body of The Episcopal Church. Every three years it meets as a bicameral legislature that includes the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops, composed of deputies and bishops from each diocese.

The Executive Council serves as the governing body of The Episcopal Church between sessions of the General Convention, charged specifically with executing the program and policies adopted by the General Convention. They also serve as the board for the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America (commonly referred to as the DFMS) and for the Executive Office of the General Convention.

The General Convention also includes Interim Bodies (various commissions, committees, task forces, agencies and boards) which meet between the triennial sessions to accomplish ongoing work and tasks set in the triennial sessions.

For further information, please see the about pages on this website and the information from the GCO database linked in the Governance menu item above.

The 80th General Convention took place in Baltimore, MD July 8 – 11 2022. The 81st General Convention will meet in Louisville, KY June 23 – 28, 2024. Additional information will be posted to our “81st General Convention” menu as it becomes available.

Legislative Information for GC81

2024 vbinder

Once resolutions are filed data will be available on the current (2024) vbinder at https://vbinder.net. Also look at the 81st General Convention link in our site menu for additional information related to the upcoming meeting of the General Convention.

Authoritative Source for Legislative information from Past General Convention Meetings

Journal of the General Convention

The authoritative source for legislative information for each past General Convention meeting is the Journal of the General Convention. This includes the resolutions within the house minutes, makeup of the houses, election results, adopted budget, and the registrar information and recorder information for the triennium. The current Journal can be found on the publications menu of this site or at the link above. Past journals can be found on the journals page in the digital archives section of the website of the Episcopal Church Archives. In addition the text of concurred resolutions from past General Conventions, taken from the Journals, can be found at the Acts of Convention, on the website of the Episcopal Church Archives.

Resolutions from GC80

2022 vbinder

For convenience in looking up GC80’s resolutions in preparation for the 81st General Convention, the virtual binder from 2022 will be temporarily available until fourth quarter 2024. You can find the 2022 vbinder data at https://2022.vbinder.net.

Here are some other Episcopal Church websites you might be looking for:

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