wfn.org | Deputies approve recommendation to

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July 17, 1997
Episcopal News Service
Jim Solheim, Director
212-922-5385
ens@ecunet.org

ENSGC-02-06

Deputies approve recommendation to allow benefits for domestic partners

By Jan Nunley

PHILADELPHIA (July 17, 1997) - Dioceses may have the option of including domestic partners in their health insurance packages if a resolution passed by the House of Deputies today is adopted by the House of Bishops.

The resolution (C024) passed by six votes in the lay order and by nine votes in the clergy order after a short debate. 

The vote was taken by lay and clergy orders. In the lay order, 63 diocesan deputations favored the proposal, 32 opposed it, and 17 deputations were split. Clergy deputations voted 66 in favor, 26 opposed, with 21 split. 

Each deputation can have up to four lay and four clergy deputies.  A majority of a deputation's members in an order must vote yes for an affirmative vote.  A split vote is counted as a no vote.

Proposed by the Diocese of El Camino Real (California), the resolution followed a request by the diocese  to include domestic partners in its medical insurance coverage from the Episcopal Church Clergy and Employees' Medical Trust. The Medical Trust declined to provide the coverage until authorized by General Convention to do so.

Deputy Carlson Gerdau of Chicago, chair of the deputies' Church Pension Fund committee, reported the Medical Trust is "losing dioceses who will not be covered by them because they do not offer" domestic partnership coverage.  He said the coverage is not mandatory and is "revenue-neutral." 

During debate, deputy Woody Mann Jr. of the Diocese of Texas questioned the proposal's definition of "domestic partnership." "We might have four domestic partners under the same household, is that correct?" Mann asked. 

Montana deputy Ralph Spence Jr. echoed Mann, reading a letter he had already presented to the cognate Committee on the Church Pension Fund. "Would this include individuals who have access to marriage but decide not to marry?" Spence asked. "If the church later decides to recognize same-sex unions, then should benefits be restricted to those who are married by the church, or have same-sex unions blessed by the church?"

The Rev. David Jones of El Camino Real replied that Alan Blanchard, president of the Church Pension Fund, had reassured the committee "there are common definitions" of domestic partnership within the insurance industry which the pension fund would follow. 

While the issue of same-sex partnerships was in the forefront of the debate, several deputies referred to the need for health insurance to cover other kinds of domestic situations. 

"It's not necessarily a gay issue," argued the Rev. Donor Macneice of the Diocese of Hawaii. The state of Hawaii this month passed a Reciprocal Beneficiary Act granting benefits to domestic partners - including siblings or friends living together.

The Hon. James Bradberry of the Diocese of Southern Virginia cited the example of widows or widowers who may wish not to jeopardize benefits from a deceased spouse by remarrying. 

Other speakers reminded the deputies of previous votes on similar issues. "Three years ago we did call on governments and businesses to extend coverage of this sort to domestic partners," said deputy Kim Byham of the Diocese of Newark, "and we're simply saying that we should practice what we preach." 

The Anglican Church of Canada approved a similar resolution at its Council of General Synod last year.

In other action today, the deputies:

* concurred with the bishops on two amendments to the church's constitution. One amendment (D028) slightly altered constitutional language related to the amendment process itself; the other (A003) limits the number of suffragan bishops in a diocese to two. With the deputies' concurrence, the amendments now become part of the church's constitution. The 1994 General Convention initially approved the measures;

* adopted a resolution (A193) permitting the president of the House of Deputies to appoint a chancellor to the president as an advisor;

* approved funds for a consultation on the impact of HIV/AIDS on communities of color (A046);

* continued support for Jubilee Centers (A043); and

* designated the decade from 1997-2007 as "The Decade of Remembrance, Recognition and Reconciliation," an outreach to Native Peoples (A035).

The House of Deputies also adopted resolutions:

* approving an appropriation of $60,000 to develop new ministries and church communities in Europe, where indigenous congregations and ministries are emerging;

* expressing its continuing concern for the suffering and hardships affecting L'Eglise Episcopal du Rwanda;

* approving funding of three historically black colleges, in the amount of $1.5 million per year for the 1998-2000 triennium;

* rejecting funding a study of whether membership and giving increase when a congregation incorporates active ecological concern into its program;

* adopting a special rule of order to allow discussion of the three resolutions relating to the Concordat of Agreement at 12:15 p.m.; and

* adopting an appropriation of $48,750 for the Standing Commission on Constitution and Canons for the next triennium.

The deputies concurred with the House of Bishops in: 

* supporting the work of Bishop Belo of East Timor;

* authorizing a study on theology of work, with specific reference to the implications of downsizing, re-engineering, automation, etc.; and

* amending the canons to require bishops to report the vote tallies for each ballot of the Presiding Bishop election when the name of the person elected is announced.

- The Rev. Jan Nunley is communications officer in the Diocese of Rhode Island.  Walt Gordon contributed to this story.