Executive Council offers continued aid to Haiti, San Joaquin
Episcopal News Service -- Linthicum Heights. June 18, 2010 [061810-03]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
The Episcopal Church's Executive Council June 18 allocated $246,000 in seed money to begin work on its earlier challenge to the wider church to raise $10 million to help rebuild the Diocese of Haiti.
Council members also called, via Resolution FFM025, for a steering committee "to flesh out the particular steps necessary" to start raising that money.
In addition, the council agreed to offer two loans to the reorganizing Diocese of San Joaquin for use "in its protection of diocesan properties and continuing operations." Money available for loan will include $500,000 for legal actions, drawable at any time through 2012, and $350,000 for operations, drawable during calendar year 2011.
Those decisions and others were made on the final day of council's three-day meeting at the Conference Center at the Maritime Institute just outside Baltimore in the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland. Council heard about the mission and ministry of the diocese on the evening of June 17.
In a message to the church issued near the end of the meeting, the council said that San Joaquin Provisional Bishop Jerry Lamb's June 16 presentation started "a thread of conversation that reoccurred frequently in the course of the meeting.
"That is the fact that the reorganizing dioceses, like the Episcopal Church and indeed, the Anglican Communion, are dealing with what happens when the marginalized move to the center, and those formerly in the center are moved toward the margins," council said. "How does that change the formerly marginalized? Equally important, how does that change the diocese, the church, the communion? This dynamic informed much of the business of the committee work that took up the entire day on [June 16] as committees dealt with issues ranging from a request for continued financial support for the dioceses of San Joaquin and Haiti to a discussion of the oil spill in the Gulf to responses to the proposed Anglican Covenant and the immigration law in Arizona."
The council also asked Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and President of the House of Deputies Bonnie Anderson to shorten the 77th General Convention in 2012 to eight days as a cost-savings measure. The change means the convention will have three fewer hours of legislative time and 6.5 fewer hours for committee time, Governance and Administration for Mission committee chair Gay Jennings told the council.
While some council members expressed concern about the pace of an eight-day convention and the loss of time at convention to network and renew acquaintances, Terry Starr, council member from the Diocese of North Dakota, said that his diocese will only send two lay deputies and two clergy deputies to the next convention because it cannot pay for a full eight-member deputation, along with alternates. North Dakota has had to lay off staff, he said.
"Convention is too long [and] way, way, way too expensive," he said, adding that while the fellowship of convention is important, "we want to get the work done and get home so we can get the work done at home."
The council said in its message that "finding a healthy balance between responsible stewardship of money and human resources while carrying out the directives of General Convention and all the many other needs that arise between General Conventions is the ongoing challenge and joy of all Executive Councils. Add to that the increasingly interesting developments in the Anglican Communion and you have the makings of an intense three-day meeting."
The council's final day began with a one-hour conversation with the Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon, Anglican Communion secretary general. Details of that conversation are here.
In its message to the church, the council said the questions asked of Kearon "made clear our commitment to being an inclusive church while also deeply committed to classic Anglicanism and deepening our relationship with our sisters and brothers across the Communion."
Also during the meeting
During its final meeting day, the council:
- Elected Diocese of Connecticut Bishop Ian Douglas the episcopal member of the church's Anglican Consultative Councildelegation. Douglas will succeed Diocese of New York Bishop Suffragan Catherine Roskam, whose term ended after the May 2009 ACC meeting.
The election had been delayed during the council's February meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, so that Douglas could be considered for the seat. Douglas, who resigned from Executive Council at the end of the Omaha meeting because of his pending consecration, attended the first ACC meeting of his three-meeting term in May 2009 as the church's clerical representative.
Council then elected their colleague the Rev. Gay Jennings of the Diocese of Ohio to serve out the remainder of Douglas' term as the church's ACC clerical member.
- Approved and commended to the church for consideration and use an Anglican Covenantstudy guide and urged those who use the guide to respond to council within the time frame set in the guide. The guide is due to be posted online soon and Anderson told ENS that she will be sending it directly to diocesan deputations.
- Passed two resolutions about Arizona's new immigration law. Resolution A&N012 put the council on record as saying that the language, intent and enforcement of Arizona Statute Senate Bill 1070 "poses a challenge to our fundamental Christian responsibility to respect the dignity of every human being." The council directed its secretary to inform the governor of Arizona, the majority leaders of the state's legislative houses and the congressional delegation from Arizona about the resolution. The resolution also reiterated the church's call for comprehensive federal immigration reform plan that safeguards family unity, provides a reasonable pathway to legal residency, enforces labor rights for all workers, and provides for due process and humanitarian treatment in all immigration proceedings and detention. Finally, the resolution called for proportional and humane enforcement of national borders and immigration law.
Resolution A&N014 notes that there are various forms of "thoughtful engagement" that many Episcopalians have taken to stand in solidarity with those affected by Arizona Statute SB 1070 and those working to overturn it. The council urged Episcopalians to support those who are affected by the statute and work for comprehensive immigration reform, including becoming informed on immigration issues, developing and strengthening local partnerships, visiting border communities or engaging in economic boycotts.
The Executive Council carries out the programs and policies adopted by the General Convention, according toCanon I.4 (1)(a). The council is composed of 38 members, 20 of whom (four bishops, four priests or deacons and 12 lay people) are elected by General Convention and 18 (one clergy and one lay) by provincial synods for six-year terms, plus the Presiding Bishop and the President of the House of Deputies.
Coverage of council's first day in Linthicum Heights is available here, here and here. Council spent its second day meeting in committees.