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Mike Shea

Mention the General Convention, the Diocesan Commission on Constitution and Canons, or the Standing Committee of the Diocese, and you're likely to get a blank stare from most parishioners. The very mention conjures up a vision of graying , bespectacled men arguing obscure issues of little interest to anyone. It just doesn't seem terribly relevant in today's high-pressure world.

Ask Henry Lewis about it and likely your view will change.

Henry Lewis is a renowned legal scholar who has been a member of the Chapel of the Cross for more than 50 years. He served 25 years, including several as Chairman of the Diocesan Commission on Constitution and Canons and another quarter century as a member of the Standing Committee of the Diocese. His list of achievements in representing his church and this diocese reads like a "Who's Who" entry.

Lewis is quick to remind us that this is an "Episcopal church, not a congregational church, that there is a governing hierarchy, and church lay leaders are part of that administration." He points out, "the General Convention of the Episcopal Church consists of both a House of Bishops and a House of Clerical and Lay Deputies."

And that's where decisions are made on how the church is governed and administered. "You legislate," he says. "Just like in the Congress of the United States, you make laws for the Church."

And many decisions made by these conventions have real impact.

Two issues Lewis was involved in are particularly memorable to him and have become part of our everyday church life.

"I'll never forget it," he recalls. "I was a member of the convention that made the final decision to admit women to the priesthood. I was trying to represent the Diocese of North Carolina along with my fellow delegates from this diocese. We all knew what was coming but by no means had it been decided. And it was by no means clear what the Diocese of North Carolina, the people of this diocese, wanted."

"Similarly," he says, "I was at the convention that adopted the last hymn book. I thought they made a lot of silly changes and I voted against it."

On the issue of whether you vote your own conscience or try to vote the view of those whom you represent, Lewis doesn't hesitate. "You know one thing," he says. "You were elected because you were trusted by the people of the diocese. Otherwise they presumably wouldn't elect you. I had expressed myself, as was my responsibility, in various ways before the convention. I hadn't taken an ironclad view of what I was going to do. I wanted to hear it all. I wanted to see, I wanted to study, and that's what I did."

Lewis says, "It's not all that complicated. You are a representative, but not a representative to take a poll on everything; you are a representative to do the best you know how."

Lewis refutes the charge that the meetings and conventions are dull, stodgy affairs. He says, "It's very interesting. You get to know people from all over the country, you learn something about what the Church is doing, and big decisions are made." And you don't have to be a lawyer to be involved. He says, "I just happened to be an old, worn out lawyer."

Many would argue that description of Henry Lewis. His experience in the Episcopal Church legislative bodies led to his being called to teach Episcopal polity several terms at the Duke Divinity School.

His own record of accomplishments fills pages. Henry Lewis appears the true Renaissance Man: a Harvard Law School graduate, an Army Captain in World War II, a distinguished authority on state tax law, director of the UNC Institute of Government, Vice President of the University of North Carolina System, business executive, art and rare book collector, and historian and writer on his native North Carolina and Virginia border region.

Not surprisingly, Lewis does not describe himself as retired. Of his career and work for the Church, he modestly says, "I did what I could. And I hope I'm not through."

Luckily for the Chapel of the Cross and for the Diocese, there are no signs that Henry Lewis is through.

© 2002: Chapel of the Cross