October 1997

General Convention: AIDS Healing Service Brings Grace to Whole Church

PHILADELPHIA, PA — July 22: Weary Convention-goers walked the several blocks between the Convention Center and St. Luke and the Epiphany after the legislative sessions and arrived to hear the gentle strains of “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say” on the organ. Worshipers sat quietly, soaking up the sense of peace and calm that is often a rare commodity during Convention.

The service was organized by the National Episcopal AIDS Coalition and the Diocese of Pennsylvania’s AIDS Task Force.

Dr. Pamela Chinnis, President of the House of Deputies and Presiding Bishop-elect Frank Griswold, read the scripture readings. All of the candidates for Presiding Bishop were invited to participate. Last-minute-regrets were received from Bishop Bob Rowley, who was injured in a fall earlier in the day. Bishops Griswold, Richard Shimpfky, and Herbert Thompson took part, joining in blessing the oil and the laying on of hands and anointing at prayer stations throughout the sanctuary.

A poignant moment came when Thompson, after all at his prayer station had received prayer and anointing, joined Griswold’s group—which included Chinnis, Jesse Milan, Jr., president of NEAC, NEAC Board member The Rev. William Frampton—and asked for anointing by the Presiding Bishop-elect and prayers from the group. Griswold in turn asked Thompson for anointing, and two men who only a day before had been cast as adversaries by election observers became conduits of grace for each other.

Near the end of the service, two new panels for the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt were blessed by the Presiding Bishop-elect. The panels honored two priests and life partners, The Rev. Wayne Hansen and The Rev. Donald Melvin of Indianapolis, IN. “Both of these men I knew well, both of them I ordained; one of them was alive at the last General Convention in Indianapolis,” Bishop Griswold said before asking God to “bless these additions to an ever-growing quilt of love and remembrance.”

Hansen and Melvin are especially remembered by NEAC through their bequest received earlier this year, which was used to fund the “AIDS and the Cure of Souls” seminar last year at the Washington National Cathedral.