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 81st General Convention met in Louisville, KY June 23 – 28, 2024. Please view our “Recent General Conventions” page for additional information. The 82nd General Convention is scheduled to meet in Phoenix, Arizona in 2027.
The Journal of the 81st General Convention is now available
Journal of the 81st General Convention (pdf)
The Journal includes the resolutions within the house minutes, makeup of the houses, election results, adopted budget, the registrar and recorder information for the triennium, and other information such as House of Bishops interim meeting minutes. The Journal is also the authoritative source for legislative information for each past General Convention meeting. The Archives digital store of concurred resolutions, called the Acts of Convention is produced with resolution information obtained from the Journal. Journals for past meetings of the General Convention are available at the Archives of The Episcopal Church, on their journals page.
The 2024 Constitution and Canons and Rules of Order are now available
2024 Constitution Canons and Rules of Order (link)
The 2024 version of the Constitution and Canons together with the Rules of Order is now available in an online version for free. It is available at the link above in a version with marginalia, and a version without marginalia (for copying and pasting). A free downloadable pdf file and a link for purchasing a print version will be available some time in January. (Por favor, utilice la versión en español de la página de la Constitución y los Cánones para ver las versiones en español.)
A Summary of Actions of the 81st General Convention and the Resolution Text report
A Summary of Actions of the 81st General Convention
Resolutions of the 81st General Convention
The Summary of Actions includes a summary table of the resolutions with their final action as known July 24th, 2024, as well as information on elections and appointments of the 81st General Convention. The resolutions report includes full final text of all resolutions with various metadata such as proposer, endorsers, and assigned legislative committee. This data is as of July 24th 2024. The data will be further checked and certified for the Journal of the 81st General Convention.
Information about recent meetings of the General Convention
Information about recent general conventions, including the 81st General Convention that took place in Louisville, Kentucky June 23 – 28 2024, can be found at the Recent General Conventions page of this website. For videos of the event please visit the Media Hub provided by DFMS communications.
Here are some other Episcopal Church websites you might be looking for:
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