Church's Mission is Focus for Executive Council's October Meeting
Episcopal News Service. October 3, 2005 [100305-1]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
The Episcopal Church's mission will be foremost on the agenda during the Executive Council's meeting October 7-10 in Las Vegas.
The meeting will "really look at who we have been, and who we as the church need to be in the future," said the Very Rev. George Werner, president of the House of Deputies, and Council vice chair.
The council's responsibility to oversee the ministry and mission of the church between meetings of General Convention must "reflect to the church and to the rest of the world our serious commitment to the challenges brought on by current events and by systemic issues," Werner said.
With the approach of General Convention's triennial meeting in June, Werner said now is an appropriate time to ask whether the way the church operates "is the most effective way to do the mission of the church."
The church's mission, as described through its budget, will be part of this analysis at the October meeting because the council gets its first look at the next triennium's draft budget.
Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, who chairs the council, said that the members will be called upon, as always, to look at the budget not just as a set of numbers but as the embodiment of a theology of mission.
While there are many givens in the budget, Griswold said, each program must be looked in terms of "what does the program have to do with being a healing presence in the world" and being agents of reconciliation.
Reconciliation within the Episcopal Church should involve efforts such as finding ways to bring the various elements of the church together and finding better ways to include younger voices in the work of the church, Griswold said. There is also reconciling work to be done within the Anglican Communion, he said.
In both arenas, reconciliation will make for more effective witness and ministry in the world, Griswold said. He emphasized the importance, for instance, of continuing financial support to the Anglican Communion given the current tension in the Communion.
"It's all the more important when there are strains to stay at the table," he said, adding that strained relationships impact not only the church but also the world. The Episcopal Church ought to be able to show that, even though people may disagree with it, the church is still willing to stand with them to minister to those who are suffering in the world, Griswold said.
Werner said he would like to find ways to provide seed money to help expand the ministry of dioceses, congregations and church institutions. For example, Werner said, the people of Province IX, composed chiefly of Latin American dioceses, "do so much with so little. How can we get them more?"
Having a mission-driven budget has been 10 years in the making, Werner said, but there needs to be a new sense of urgency to the process.
The Episcopal Church has developed a system of committees, commission, agencies and boards what has wrestled "sometimes brilliantly" for the past 30 years with questions ranging from liturgy and ministry to world mission, he said. Now, the council and the church must ask the perennial question of whether the church has struck the right balance between internal programming and ministry to the world, and between immediate needs and bigger issues of change.
The needs of the world, Werner said, are not just material. The devastation on the Gulf Coast brought to a head a "deep anger" that the church needs to help repair, Werner said. He said "clearly there are people who are hungry for Jesus and that is what I believe our purpose is."
In one sense, the Executive Council's decision to hold its meetings in various locations is a form of witness to the Christian life, Griswold said. While the council gets to experience the Episcopal Church in its many contexts, local people who may not know much about the Episcopal Church get a chance to hear Episcopalians singing hymns and praying together.
Griswold said people often comment to him about the "thoughtful and polite" presence Episcopal organizations bring to a hotel or resort. He said such meetings bring a "counter-cultural presence" to entertainment and vacation centers such as Las Vegas.
October's meeting is being held at the Las Vegas Alexis Park Resort and Villas, one of the few resorts with no gaming facilities.
The Diocese of Nevada will be meeting during the weekend in its annual convention, chaired by Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. Griswold will fly from Las Vegas to Reno to preach at the convention's Eucharist on Sunday, October 9.
Meanwhile, the council will worship on Sunday at Christ Church in Las Vegas. Bishop Suffragan Catherine Roskam of New York will preside, and Werner will preach.
A dinner with various members of the diocese is planned for Sunday evening.
Among the agenda items for the council's October meeting are:
* A report on socially responsible investing (see related ENS story to follow October 3, and report text).
* A report from the church's delegation to the last meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council. At that meeting, the delegation had observer status and presented a report on its actions at General Convention 2003.
* A report from Episcopal Relief and Development President Robert Radtke on ERD's efforts to help the Gulf Coast dioceses hit by this season's hurricanes.
* A report from the Task Force on Employment Policies and Practices in the Episcopal Church. The task force's report says that the church needs to see itself as an institution that employs thousands of people and has a "duty to treat its personnel fairly and equitably."
* A request from the Task Force on Unfunded General Convention Resolutions, New Mission Initiatives, and Extra-Budgetary Requests, that the council recommend to the Program, Budget and Finance committee that it warn in its General Convention budget presentation that resolutions passed with funding requests or implications that are not included in the triennial budget will not be considered by Executive Council once that General Convention has ended. The task force also proposes a set of priorities for dealing with triennial budget surpluses.
* A report from the HIV/AIDS Committee, which tells the council that "the response of the Episcopal Church has lost impetus because of a national perception that the HIV crisis has passed or moved into the realm of a 'chronic disease.' " The committee urges the church to re-commit to the Baptismal Covenant's call to seek and serve Christ in all people.
* A report from the Standing Commission on Episcopal Church Communication, which is modeling on-line commission work, endorsing the Office of Communication's new designation of province-based communication specialists, and proposing technology-based ideas for simplifying the work of General Convention.