Diocesan Convention on Jan. 30 quickly passed four resolutions addressing issues of human trafficking, clergy pay equity, the terms and responsibilities of the diocesan trustees, and prayers for use on Memorial Day and Veterans Day. (See full text of resolutions at http://www.dioceseofnewark.org/am/article_765.shtml.)

The first resolution, submitted by members of the Women’s Commission, urged all congregations to address the evil of human trafficking during Lent using resources available at the Bishop Anand Resource Center. Earlier in the day, the Rev. Maylin Biggadike addressed the issue during the commission’s annual convention breakfast. Biggadike recently participated in an Anglican United Nations Office-sponsored consultation in Hong Kong on human trafficking.

“It’s very much an evil in the United States and right here in the state of New Jersey,” commission member Marge Christie told the convention. “You need to call it to the attention of your congregations.”

Also sponsored by the Women’s Commission, the resolution called “Studying the Stained-Glass Ceiling” requested a survey of diocesan congregations and search committees “related to deployment patterns and compensation packages offered to clergy, paying particular attention to differences by gender,” with findings to be reported to the 2011 convention.

“It’s reported that, in the regular marketplace, women make anywhere from 69 to 82 cents for every dollar that a man makes. We suspect that this discrepancy exists also in the church,” said the Rev. Elizabeth Kaeton, commission member. The study will generate information “so that we can make some important decisions for ourselves as congregations in [the] search process as well as congregations that have clergy so that we can do the justice of God.”

“As a father of a daughter and a son,” said Deputy Bert Jones of Christ Church, East Orange, “I rise in support of this resolution. I believe it is full time for us to start looking at ways … we can start to raise the bar so that women have the same sense of security in the workplace and anyplace else.”

The trustees resolution established five-year instead of life terms for trustees of the Episcopal Fund and diocesan properties and expanded the number of trustees from nine to 12. The bishop now becomes an ex officio member with voice and vote.

“The rational for this change is that the diocese over the last year has been engaged in a reorganization and restructuring that seeks to align all of the diocese’s senior bodies along with our diocesan mission,” said Chancellor Diane Sammons. “We felt it was appropriate for the trustees to come in line with the other senior bodies and have term limits.”

The trustees will continue managing the diocese’s investment funds and core properties but no longer be responsible for maintaining and managing diocesan mission-church property.

Asked how the property transfer would occur, Canon to the Ordinary Gregory Jacobs said, “The process that we contemplate is that representatives of the trustees, Diocesan Council, Standing Committee and the Bishop’s Office will meet shortly after this convention to discuss the process and procedures for the orderly transfer of all rights and title and responsibility for maintenance of the properties.”

The convention also approved a resolution asking the Commission on Liturgy and Music to prepare eucharistic and Daily Office propers for Memorial Day and Veterans Day and to disseminate them for trial use. The resolution also asks that “appropriate observances” of the days be “encouraged and approved in all parishes and worship venues” in the diocese.

“It was a surprise to me to learn how many active service members and veterans there are in New Jersey and in the Diocese of Newark,” said the Rev. Robert Solon Jr., who submitted the resolution. “They need our support.” The Book of Common Prayer doesn’t include material specifically for those days, he noted.