Council of Advice
The President of the House of Deputies' Council of Advice is comprised of 7 appointed members. The Council meets throughout the triennium in order to provide feedback and consultation regarding the mission and ministry of the President of the House of Deputies.
CANON I.1.1(b) "...The President shall be authorized to appoint an Advisory Council for consultation and advice in the performance of the duties of the office..."
Members of the Council of Advice
Vincent Currie, Jr.
(Central Gulf Coast, Province IV)
Vincent Currie Jr. (Vince) has been diocesan administrator in the diocese of Central Gulf Coast, Pensacola, Florida, since 1981. He is currently on the board of the Church Pension Fund and four of its affiliate companies. He also chairs CREDO Institute Inc.
Vince and his wife Dianne have been married 48 years and have a daughter and son-in-law, a daughter-in-law, and four grandchildren. They are members of Christ Episcopal Church in Pensacola. He is a graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi and the Florida School of Banking; and was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Canon Law from the University of the South, Sewanee.
Vince’s Episcopal Church activities include serving as a deputy to the last twelve General Conventions, including a term as Vice President of the House of Deputies (2000 to 2003). He has been chair of the Joint Standing Commission on Program, Budget & Finance and the Joint Standing Committee to nominate the Presiding Bishop. He also has served on the Executive Council, and on the Council of Advice for four Presidents of the House of Deputies.
Gay Jennings
(Ohio, Province V)
A seven-time deputy to General Convention from the Diocese of Ohio, Gay has served as chair of three legislative committees; Canons, Communications, and World Mission. She was the House of Deputies Press Briefing Officer at two General Conventions. Gay is a member of Joint Standing Committee of Planning and Arrangements for General Convention 2012. She is also the Province V Clerical Representative to Executive Council and chairs the Joint Standing Committee on Governance and Administration.
Gay is the Associate Director of CREDO Institute, Inc. where she oversees faculty and curriculum for CREDO conferences addressing wellness for clergy and lay employees. She also works with collaborative initiatives addressing leadership and wellness in the Episcopal Church and with ecumenical partners. Previous work includes Canon to the Ordinary in the Diocese of Ohio for 17 years, parish ministry and hospital chaplaincy.
Sally Johnson
(Minnesota, Province VI)
Sally served the Diocese of Minnesota as Chancellor and is a six-time General Convention Deputy. She was a member of the Canons Committee five times (Vice-Chair in 2003 and Chair in 2006) and the House of Deputies Rules of Order Committee in 2009. She has been a member of the Standing Commission on Constitution and Canons and several national church task forces. She currently serves as Chancellor to the President of the House of Deputies, Bonnie Anderson.
Jim Naughton
(Washington, Province III)
Jim Naughton is the former canon for communications and advancement for the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, founder of the Web site Episcopal Café and partner in Canticle Communications.
He is frequently quoted in media reports and helps shape the public’s opinion of the Church through the Café, which receives more than 5,500 visits per day. He examined the financial aspects of recent controversies in the Episcopal Church in his article: “Following the Money: Donors and Activists on the Anglican Right.”
A veteran journalist, Jim has worked for The New York Times, The New York Daily News, and The Washington Post. His free-lance writing has appeared in publications and Web sites as disparate as Beliefnet, Slate, ESPN the Magazine and the Guardian. He has written three books, including a novel for young adults and a profile of a Catholic parish at odds with the Vatican.
Byron Rushing
(Massachusetts, Province I)
Byron’s primary ministry is politics. He has served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives since 1983. He came to the House from a work background of community organizing and of Afro-American history. His priorities are human and civil rights, and the development of democracy; local human, economic and housing development; and housing and health care for all. Byron is a member of St. John's, St. James Parish in Roxbury. He has been an elected lay deputy to the General Convention since 1973; he was the chaplain to the House of Deputies at the 1994 Convention. He is a founding member of the Episcopal Urban Caucus and serves on the boards of the Episcopal Network for Economic Justice and of The Episcopal Church Archives. He holds an honorary doctorate from the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, where he is an adjunct faculty.
Steve Smith
(Vermont, Province I)
Steve grew up in northern Indiana and went to school at the University of Michigan (AB Economics) and Harvard (MBA). A career in financial service firms led him to San Francisco, Kansas City, Chatham NJ, and New York City. His last role before (semi) retiring was as executive vice president of the Church Pension Group, where he ran the Church Insurance Companies.
Since retiring, Steve has grown a part-time career as a coach and advisor to non-profit and financial services executives. His spouse, Ed Weissman, is retired college professor, unreconstructed anglophile and librettist. They live three miles up a gravel road in Dorset Vermont with three spaniels and two cats, and worship at St. James in Arlington, a family-sized parish that is Vermont’s oldest.
Volunteer work has always enriched Steve’s life, whether on the school board, as museum trustee, or for our church. In addition to membership on his vestry and several diocesan committees, he has served as treasurer for St. Luke-in-the-Fields (NYC), St. James (Arlington VT), the Diocese of Vermont, and currently for the Province of New England.
Gregory Straub
(Secretary, General Convention)
Gregory Straub was born and grew up in suburban New Jersey, not twenty miles from New York City. Raised a Roman Catholic, he was received into the Episcopal Church while a student at Dickinson College. (His mother’s family was Episcopalian and members of St. Luke’s & St. Matthew’s Church, Brooklyn.) After having been graduated from Philadelphia Divinity School, he served as deacon intern, curate and interim (sequentially) at St. Thomas’ Church, Lancaster, in the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania. Thereafter he served as interim and rector of Emmanuel Church, Chestertown, Maryland, in the Diocese of Easton, where he is still canonically resident. In 2005, the Presiding Bishop and President of the House of Deputies appointed him fourth Executive Officer of the General Convention, and in 2006, he was elected Secretary of the General Convention. When in New York, he attends Grace Church, Broadway. While he is not there often, he is a resident of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In his spare time he travels (by sea, rail and air—in that order of preference) and has been a paid reviewer of cruise ships for cruisecritic.com
