The General Convention of the Episcopal Church is held every three years to debate and approve new church policy or positions and to approve a budget. The events and affiliated reunions and meeting could draw around 10,000 people to Utah. The nine-day event will be headquartered at the Salt Palace Convention Center.

The Episcopal Church adopts legislation through a bicameral process much like Congress or the Utah Legislature. Its House of Bishops and House of Deputies meet and act separately, but both must concur to adopt proposals forwarded to them by legislative committees.

The House of Bishops includes all bishops of the Episcopal Church, active or retired, and has around 300 members.

The House of Deputies has more than 900 members, who are clergy and lay leaders representing each diocese of the Episcopal Church.

Legislative committee meetings or legislative sessions are scheduled each day beginning June 23. All sessions are open to the public and will be broadcast live on the Web.

The Right Rev. Scott B. Hayashi, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Utah, said the democratic process "really is holy, spiritual work."

"I find it quite moving to see it in action," he said.

Eucharist services will be conducted each day beginning at 9:30 a.m., except for the service on Sunday June 28, which will start at 10 a.m., and the final day's Eucharist, which will start at 8:30 a.m. That service will be led by the new presiding bishop elected during the convention. Utahns are encouraged to attend all worship services.

Four diocesan bishops have been selected as nominees for 27th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church.

They include: Bishop Thomas Breidenthal, 64, Diocese of Southern Ohio; Bishop Michael Curry, 62, Diocese of North Carolina; Bishop Ian Douglas, 56, Diocese of Connecticut; and Bishop Dabney Smith, 61, Diocese of Southwest Florida.

One of the men will succeed Katharine Jefferts Schori, the first woman to be elected the church's presiding bishop. The presiding bishop's term is nine years.

Episcopal bishops will elect the new presiding bishop but their decision must be confirmed by the House of Deputies.

As the Episcopal Church convention is underway, it is possible that the Supreme Court will report its decision on the constitutionality of same-sex marriage bans in Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Michigan, which were upheld by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. The church's two legislative houses are expected to consider language with respect to the availability of the sacramental rite of marriage to different and same-sex couples.

The proposed legislation would preserve the canon or church law provision that clergy may decline to solemnize any given marriage and extends that discretion to include the choice to bless a marriage, according to the report to the church's General Convention or Blue Book.

The convention is also expected to address a proposed resolution that will explore specific ways in which the Anglican Diocese of Cuba and the Episcopal Church in the United States "could collaborate to strengthen international relations and to enable the Church in Cuba to minister to the needs of the Cuban people and to prepare for a time of potential political and social transition in relationship to U.S. foreign policy," the Blue Book states.

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