Seeking Transparency

Watching meetings can be boring viewing, but they're often informative

As my parish and other bodies with which I am involved know, I view meetings as a necessary evil. I often reference Dr. Thomas Sowell, a ninety-four year old national treasure whom I hope lives many more years to dispense his wisdom, who apparently shares my outlook.

Despair, Inc., purveyors of the world’s best demotivational posters (think of the cheesy faux-inspirational posters seen in schools, doctor’s offices, and the walls of toxic bosses and then imagine that they said what people are really thinking), puts it even more bluntly.

Don’t get me wrong, some meetings are necessary and as a Churchman I attend the Diocesan Synod and General Council of my church as I am able. I view it as part of my duty, and in the case of General Council it provides an opportunity to catch up with folks I don’t get to see that often. Kind of an old home week, if you will.

Despite my general view of meetings as a necessary evil, I have long enjoyed watching legislative meetings done well. I was eight years old when C-SPAN began airing gavel-to-gavel coverage of the proceedings of the United States House of Representatives. While I didn’t sit there watching in rapt attention on a daily basis I would occasionally tune in and see what was going on . Some eight years later C-SPAN2 launched airing the proceedings of the United States Senate gavel-to-gavel.

The eighties and early nineties were heady days. Rep. Robert “B-1 Bob” Dornan (R-CA 38, 46) could often be counted on for colorful speeches on the floor as well as special orders in the evening when he would address a largely empty chamber but, more importantly, reach a nationwide audience. Late in the evening of Saturday, 3 October 1992 Sinead O’Connor made news by ripping up a picture of Pope John Paul II. I didn’t catch it because I was watching Congressman Dornan inveigh against the avoidance of Vietnam service by then-candidate Bill Clinton. During his speech Dornan made several references to the cloakroom and so I called the Capitol switchboard when he went off of the floor and asked to be transferred to the Republican Cloakroom, whereupon I asked to speak to Congressman Dornan. The hour was late and he was tired but a twenty-two year old got to visit with the Congressman over the phone for several minutes that night and I was moved at how accessible at least one member of Congress was.

When controversy swirled around the nomination of Clarence Thomas and the accusations that arose from Anita Hill I cut class at Georgia Military College and parked myself in front of a dayroom television set and watched him being questioned. After a long day’s viewing I was convinced and remain convinced that he wasn’t guilty and I have remained an admirer of his.

In much the same way, I often watch the livestreams of church bodies to see what’s going on and how issues are being addressed. I have not been a member of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church for more than a quarter-century but tuned in to parts of their General Synod to see what was going on. I have never been a Southern Baptist, but was able to watch their Convention as well. Next week I’ll follow the Presbyterian Church in America to see what my friends there are up to. I can follow the Church of England’s General Synod and in years that they meet can watch the proceedings of the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Methodist Church, and The Episcopal Church.

Most of the time the discussions are fairly dull, but every now and then, such as three years ago when the Rev’d Dr. O. Palmer Robertson conclusively carried the debate on Side-B Homosexuality at the PCA General Assembly, there are discussions that are dramatic to watch and extremely informative. In any case, it is good for church members to be able to see the inner workings of their churches.

The Province to which I belong, the Anglican Church in North America, formerly livestreamed the meetings of their Provincial Council, for a few years using the services of Anglican TV and later doing so in-house. I watched it as I was able and it provided transparency for how the Province was doing business. For some reason we’ve gotten away from that. When the Provincial Council met this week even the information packet was password protected and there was no livestream (friends of mine who were there messaged me some of what was going on).

It’s unlikely that I’ll be converted to enjoying meetings but I hope that in the future the ACNA will move toward modeling something closer to The Episcopal Church whence we came rather than a secretive and largely scripted meeting with minimal input.