Disaster-Preparedness Plans Needed, Executive Council Says
Episcopal News Service. October 10, 2005 [101005-3]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
The Executive Council of the Episcopal Church said during its fall meeting in Las Vegas October 10 that hurricanes Katrina and Rita have demonstrated the need for dioceses and congregations to have disaster plans.
The council's resolution (CIM-039) also recommends that dioceses and congregations "take steps to provide instructions to clergy and other leaders concerning what to do and where to go in the event of a natural disaster or terrorist event."
The council's meeting took place against the backdrop of a major earthquake in Pakistan and landslides and flooding in Central America, as well as the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the United States.
Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold told the council in his closing remarks that the events showed that the "fellowship of Christ's suffering" extends outward around the world and that members of the Episcopal Church are called to live in that context.
Following the close of the council's four-day meeting Griswold said that he was extremely encouraged by all the reports the council heard about the Episcopal Church's efforts to aid the victims of the hurricanes and other disasters.
"We are clearly committed to a long-term effort," he said.
That effort, he said, is not merely one of rebuilding church buildings "but helping to rebuild whole communities, because without the community, the church has no purpose." That rebuilding, he added, must always answer the Gospel's call to build communities that are equitable and that meet the needs of their most vulnerable members.
The council also asked that the Presiding Bishop and the Church Center's management team prepare a new disaster plan for the Church Center at 815 Second Avenue in New York. In addition, the council asked that the staff of the Church Center study whether to create an office of disaster planning for the church.
Force for justice
In a related resolution (NAC-037), the council expressed gratitude to all those people providing disaster relief to the victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the form of prayer, financial assistance and direct service. The resolution notes that such work is rooted in the Baptismal Covenant "and the example of Christ who called on all believers to care for the least among us..."
The resolution also affirms the church's commitment to doing such work, but says that no faith community working alone or with others can meet the needs raised by such disasters without the help of government at all levels.
The resolution calls on the Episcopal Church to be a "force for justice," calling on Episcopalians to engage with their government representatives as they consider their responses to the hurricanes. The resolution says those issues include urging Congress to pass a budget that meets needs without hurting other groups and calling for more money overall to care for the country's most vulnerable residents.
It urges support flexibility for programs such as Medicaid, immigration issues, bankruptcy rules and prevailing-wage waivers to accommodate the unusual circumstances caused by the disaster.
Finally, the resolution urges continued prayers for the victims of the storms and of all forms of injustice, and urges the church to theologically reflect on "issues such as Christ's preferential option for the poor and issues of race and class..."
Regret for complicity in slavery
In other action, the council became one of a number of voices in the Episcopal Church that will ask the 75th General Convention to deal with the church's historic connections to slavery.
While one can always learn more from the study of the history of slavery, said council member John Vanderstar, the National Concerns Committee decided that "it seemed time to quit cutting bait and start fishing."
The council agreed to send to the convention a resolution (NAC-036) declaring slavery to be a sin "and a fundamental betrayal of the humanity of all persons who were involved."
The resolution would have the Episcopal Church express its "most profound regret" that the church "lent the institution of slavery its support and justification based on Scripture... and [that] after slavery was formally abolished, the Episcopal Church continued for at least a century to support de jure and de facto discrimination..."
The resolution would have the church "apologize for its complicity in and the injury done by the institution of slavery and its aftermath" and would direct the Presiding Bishop to call for the church to participate in a "Day of Repentance and Reconciliation."
A companion resolution (NAC-038) calls for the next convention to authorize a study of the complicity of the Episcopal Church in the institution of slavery and "in the subsequent history of segregation and discrimination." The proposed study would also investigate the economic benefits that the church derived from the slavery, and how the church can "as a matter of justice, share those benefits with African American Episcopalians."
The last part of the study would involve "what would essentially be reparations, although some do not want to use that word," said the Rev. Kwasi Thornell of the National Concerns Committee.
"It's insufficient simply to say that [slavery] is no longer a reality," Griswold said in an interview after the close of the meeting.
He said that he believes the country has not acknowledged deeply enough the impact that slavery had in the past and the wounds that people today, both descendants of slaves and others, still carry.
While the council resolution will most certainly be changed and considered along with others that may come before the next convention, Griswold said one outcome of the conversation is already clear.
"It does push us in a direction that will be costly in terms of our psyches and maybe in terms of our immediate resources," he said.
Spectrum of reactions
Following the meeting, Griswold said a high point of the four days of meetings was hearing a report from three members of the Episcopal Church's deputation to the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC). He said that the deputation's report of its experience at the ACC's meeting in June in Nottingham "showed incredible sensitivity to the fact that we are part of a Communion that is incredibly diverse." He said the report also showed the opportunity for Anglicans to have the Anglican Communion reflect the fullness of Christ.
At that meeting, the deputations from the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada did not have normal voice and vote, having chosen to comply with a request from the Communion's primates that they absent themselves from such gatherings until the Lambeth Conference of Communion bishops in 2008. That request was made in the wake of the consecration of openly-gay Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire and the authorization of rites for blessing same-gender unions in the Canadian diocese of New Westminster.
Deputation member Josephine Hicks said during the council presentation on October 8 that Episcopal Church representatives attempted to hear other people's stories "and be sure that they heard ours."
She said that there was "a wide spectrum" of reactions among ACC members to that story. On one end were people who thought the Episcopal Church needed to repent for Robinson's consecration or be removed from the Communion immediately. On the other end were people who said "you had the moral courage to do what we all should be doing," according to Hicks.
In the middle were people who told Hicks and the others that they listened to the Episcopal Church's presentations and pondered what was said. "A lot of people heard some things in our presentation they had never heard before and it got them to thinking," she said.
Discernment praised
Bishop Michael Ingham of the Diocese of New Westminster, the Anglican Church of Canada's partner on the Executive Council, told the council on October 10 that he was troubled in Nottingham by claims that the events in New Hampshire and New Westminster have caused violence and death in other parts of the Communion.
He urged that those claims be taken "with a good deal of caution," adding that the cause of such violence is homophobia and bigotry.
Ingham also said the divisions in the Communion are "really an opportunity to struggle with the meaning of communion." And, he said, that struggle must involve asking questions about what sort of theology of Communion is being articulated in the Communion's actions and statements.
He summarized those questions as "what kind of a Communion is it that says we don't want you at our table but we do want your money; what kind of Communion is it that says send us your check, but not your voice?"
Following the meeting, Griswold praised the council for not rushing to yes or no answers for some of the issues that it faced, but instead being willing to send resolutions back to committees for more discernment.
"We live in such an urgent culture that if we cannot give an immediate answer we feel deficient," he said.
While a quick answer may give what Griswold called "emotional relief," he said, it may not reflect what God is calling us to do.
Summary of resolutions passed by Executive Council