June 20, 2001

The following is a true copy of a Resolution adopted by the Executive Council at its meeting on June 8 - 11, 2001, in Salt Lake City, Utah, at which a quorum was present and voting.

Resolved, that the Executive Council commit ourselves, and call upon all members of the Church, to strengthen efforts to abolish the death penalty, and at the same time find the sensitive capacity to stand with the friends and families of murder victims as they struggle to redeem this tragedy in their lives, and it is further

Resolved, that just as we commit ourselves to work vigorously in this effort as we go back to our communities, we call upon the Episcopal Church to pursue and work vigorously for an immediate moratorium and the subsequent abolition of the death penalty in all states and the federal system.

Explanation:

We, the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church, meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah, June 2001, when the whole nation is intensely focused on the execution of Timothy McVeigh, and on the issue of capital punishment, call for a nationwide moratorium on the death penalty.

The Episcopal Church in the United States of America has long opposed capital punishment, and at the most recent General Convention (2000) reaffirmed the Church’s opposition to the death penalty. In our baptismal covenant, we respect the dignity of every human being, and commit ourselves to strive for justice and peace among all people. The Church will continue to decry the revenge of state-sanctioned homicides. We abhor the racism and economic injustices evident in our criminal justice system

The Rev. Rosemari G. Sullivan

Secretary of the Executive Council and the Domestic

and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant

Episcopal Church in the United States of America