A RESOLUTION urging a review of the requirement that a person be baptised before receiving holy communion has split bishops from other members of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States.

Members of the Convention’s Prayer Book, liturgy and music committees met online last week to discuss the resolution calling for a review of the canon requiring baptism before communion.

Resolution D002 called for a review of the “underlying biblical, theological and liturgical issues, history and practical impact of Canon 1.17.7 which reads ‘no upbaptized person shall be eligible to receive Holy Communion in this Church’”.

Committee members had last month heard testimonies on the resolution, which included the suggestion that the canon should redrafted from “no unbaptized person shall be eligible” to “all baptized persons are eligible”.

If approved by both deputies and bishops, the resolution would have gone forward to the 81st General Convention next month, in Kentucky.

Deputies — clergy and lay delegates of the Convention — voted for the resolution, but the three bishops present voted against it. Legislative committees such as this one include parallel committees of deputies and bishops which meet together to discuss, but vote separately.

The Bishop of Fond du Lac, the Rt Revd Matthew Gunter, recommended that the committee take no action on the resolution — in effect, killing it off — and all three bishops backed this recommendation, although deputies voted against it.

The three bishops also voted against the Prayer Book Committee’s recommendation to adopt inclusive and non-ableist language.