The Provincial Coordinators of the Provincial Leadership Conference are sponsoring a series of four webinars to help bishops and deputies prepare for decision making at GC 2018. Each webinar will provide opportunities to explore issues and resolutions coming before the Convention. Presenters were selected because of their work in the topic areas and/or because they have been part of GC resolution development.

This month's presenters will focus on Structure, Provinces, Title IV, and Church Wide Leadership. Our presenters include: 

Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde is the spiritual leader of The Episcopal Diocese of Washington. She also serves as the chair and president of the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation, which oversees the ministries of the Washington National Cathedral and three Cathedral schools. A passionate believer in the mission and ministry of the Episcopal Church, Bishop Budde is committed to the revitalization and growth of the congregations and core ministries of the diocese. Her priority is to develop and strengthen collaborative models of ministry to meet the needs of a changing world. She earned a B.A. in history at the University of Rochester. She earned both her Masters in Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees from Virginia Theological Seminary.

Polly Gertz, will be serving her 8th General Convention this summer. She has been Vice Chancellor of her Diocese for nearly thirty years. Currently, Polly serves on the Executive Council, where she serves on the Joint Standing Committee on Governance and Administration for Mission, and Chairs the Standing Commission on Structure, Governance, Constitution & Canons. She is also Chair of the Commission's subcommittee that is developing the Title IV training website which is slated to be launched at General Convention. This summer she has been tapped to Chair the Legislative Committee on Churchwide Leadership.

Thom Peters is a member of the Task Force for the Study of Provinces and was a Lay Deputy to General Convention in 2015 from the Episcopal Church in Connecticut.  He has been an active lay leader in the Episcopal Church most of his life, including as Senior Warden, President of the Diocesan Standing Committee, and as a member of search committees for rectors and bishops. He is on the faculty at Hopkins School in New Haven, serving as a History and Philosophy teacher as well as the school's Archivist.

The Rev. Molly F. James holds a PhD in Theology from the University of Exeter (UK). She holds a Master’s of Divinity from Yale Divinity School and Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Tufts University. She was ordained in 2005 and has served as a hospital chaplain and a parish priest. She currently serves on the Bishops’ Staff for The Episcopal Church in Connecticut as the Dean of Formation. In addition to her work in CT, Molly serves on the Standing Commission on Structure, Governance, Constitution and Canons. She will be a deputy to General Convention in 2018, chairing the Legislative Committee on Ministry. Molly is currently a board member and previous co-chair of Young Clergy Women International (an ecumenical organization of clergy women under 40), and serves as a board member for the Society of Scholar Priests. Molly and her husband Reade (a mechanical engineer) live in West Hartford, CT with their two children, Katherine and Halsted.

Scott Haight is an attorney in private practice in a firm of 6 attorneys in Dyersburg, TN. He is the single parent to nine children, now adults, although two still reside with him.  He has served on the vestry of two parishes for three separate terms, serving as Junior Warden and Senior Warden.  He currently is serving as a Lay Eucharistic Minister and Lay Reader in his parish. He is active in The Diocese of West Tennessee, currently serving on Bishop and Council and also the Search Committee for the 4^th Bishop of the Diocese.  Mr. Haight is a Lay Deputy to the 2018 General Convention, where he will serve as the Secretary of Legislative Committee 16, Churchwide Leadership, and is a member of the interim Task Force on Church Leadership & Compensation created by the 2015 General Convention. 

Ellen Bruckner,  the Province VI Coordinator, will facilitate these presentation.  

In preparation, you may want to look at the 2018 General Convention Blue Book and proposed resolutions.