The Report to the 76th General Convention, commonly referred to as the Blue Book, is in the mail as of May 1st to all bishops, deputies, registered alternate deputies and registrants who have paid to receive all legislative materials to the General Convention of The Episcopal Church. 
General Convention 2009 (GC09) will be held July 8 – 17 at the Anaheim (CA) Convention Center.
The Blue Book, at over 800 pages, contains the reports of the committees, commissions, agencies and boards to the General Convention, as well as some of the hundreds of resolutions that will be considered at the July event. The current list of resolutions is available here.
The Blue Book is available online in a series of PDF documents.
The Episcopal Church’s General Convention, held every three years, is the bicameral governing body of the church. General Convention, the second largest legislative body in the world, is comprised of the House of Bishops, with upwards of 200 members, and the House of Deputies, with clergy and lay representatives from the 110 dioceses, at almost 850 members.
The deputies to attend from the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh are the Rev. Dr. Jim Simons, the Rev. Scott Quinn, the Rev. Dr. Harold T. Lewis, the Rev. Dr. Bruce Robison, Mr. Steve Stagnitta, Mr. David Laughlin, Dr. Joan Gundersen, and Ms. Mary Roehrich. Also scheduled to attend are the Rev. Lou Hays and Ms. Gwen Santiago, the Diocese’s first alternates for clergy and laity, respectively.
Dr. Simons will have a gatekeeper’s role as Chair of the House of Deputies’ Dispatch of Business committee. He is also an appointed member of The President of the House of Deputies’ Council of Advice.
Others members of the Diocese of Pittsburgh’s deputation serving on General Convention legislative committees (as of 5/4/09):
The Rev. Scott Quinn, Church Pension Fund
The Rev. Dr. Harold T. Lewis, World Mission
Mr. Steve Stagnitta, Evangelism
Dr. Joan Gundersen, National and International Concerns
Just more than half of the 847 members of the House of Deputies will serve on the 76th General Convention’s 22 legislative committees, according to a summary of those appointments. Committee-by-committee rosters are available here.
The committees hold hearings and make recommendations about resolutions proposed to the convention by the church’s standing commissions, as well as bishops, deputies, dioceses and provinces.
The Public Affairs Office of The Episcopal Church contributed to this report.
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