Executive Council Meets in Boise, Receives Windsor Report
Episcopal News Service. November 8, 2004 [110804-3]
Jan Nunley
The Executive Council, meeting in Boise, Idaho, October 31 - November 4, called on Episcopalians at all levels of the church to read and discuss the Windsor Report on communion and share their reflections with bishops and members of the council.
"It is especially important that people in all orders of ministry contribute to the church's reflection—lay persons as well as deacons, priests and bishops," the council said in a statement released November 4. "The consultations of the coming months are just the beginning of our church's reception of the Windsor Report, for the principal response should be made by the 2006 General Convention."
In his opening reflections at the meeting, Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold reminded the council that the Windsor Report should be taken as "a process, not an immediate series of responses" and noted that "some have unfortunately taken as a total response" his first reaction to the report on the day of its release (October 18). "Responses before February [the Primates' Meeting] are premature," Griswold said. "It is important that urgency not capture us as we reflect on a long process which invites us to consider problematic questions in terms of our Anglican self-understanding."
Griswold expressed "profound gratitude" for the Episcopal Church's "transparency, faithfulness, and focus on mission" in the midst of crisis.
Cultural contexts
The council also heard from Bishop James Tengatenga of Southern Malawi, a member of the Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council and recently appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Reception Reference Group that will monitor the reception of the Windsor Report 2004.
Contrasting American individualism and African communitarianism, Tengatenga said the two styles of thinking form a powerful stumbling block to understanding between the two cultures. America's political and cultural hegemony on the international scene, he said, makes it even more difficult for Africans to face the Episcopal Church's actions with equanimity.
"When the Gospel came to us it came in the cloak of Victorian England, so the Gospel had Victorian baggage with it. But unfortunately, so it seems to us, the canon of the kind of baggage that the Gospel should carry was closed at the Victorian age. So when it comes in contact with the African, Africanness can no longer be admitted into the canon of the baggage of the Gospel—or at least how the Gospel begins to affect and help us interpret, or how our culture and our Africanness began to help us interpret and understand Scripture and theology as well," Tengatenga observed. "And so when the present crisis comes on, and the American church says 'We are doing what we are doing because we are responding to our very cultural context, which requires us to be informed and to interpret Scripture according to culture' -- we say, 'Wait a minute. What makes your culture that important and mine not?'"
"I think the Windsor Report is asking so many things of the American church, some of which are not written -- some of which are simply understood by others who read it; we all read it differently," he concluded. "I don't know what that may be, but the question is, will the American church find a way of responding humbly and responsibly even to the unwritten assumptions that come out as people interpret it?"
Relief work advancing
Idaho Bishop Harry Bainbridge, chair of the board of Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD), reported to the council that the agency's programming for 2005 includes work with the African provinces of West Africa, Sudan, Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Congo, Indian Ocean, Central Africa and Southern Africa, as well as support for the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA). In the Middle East and Asia, he said, ERD is working with the Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Philippines, and in Latin America, with El Salvador, Honduras, Brazil, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
As of October 22, Bainbridge said, Episcopalians have contributed over $6 million to support ERD, up 76% over the same period last year. Income to date in 2004 has already exceeded total income in 2003, with what he called "the typical year end balloon in contributions" yet to come.
Bainbridge said the ER-D board was "concerned" about the recent establishment of the Anglican Relief and Development Fund, a new partnership between the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes (NACDAP), several Anglican provinces in the Global South, and the investment advisory firm Geneva Global.
"We continue to monitor their public statements and their programs. If ARD remains true to its intent as originally stated, to give an alternative vehicle to people who do not want to give through 'Episcopal Church' programs, we applaud their efforts," said Bainbridge. "If, however, as has recently been alleged, people should support ARD because ERD has refused to support work in 'dissenting dioceses,' we will need to take action to correct that impression, which is simply untrue. We have not withheld assistance from anyone. Only one church has turned away our offers of assistance, the Church of Uganda. And we stand ready and anxious to resume our partnership with the Church of Uganda when they feel comfortable working with us."
Bainbridge also announced the retirement of Sandra Swan, president of ERD for the last six years, at a date to be determined late next spring.
Thanks from Canada
At the council's opening session, the general secretary of the Anglican Church of Canada thanked the Episcopal Church for a $250,000 gift after lawsuits initiated by former students in native Indian government schools that church administered bankrupted one Canadian diocese and severely depleted the resources of several others, as well as the national church.
Archdeacon James Boyles said the gift, amounting to $330,000 (CAN), will help the program of 11 Canadian dioceses and the national church, which together spent more than $8.5 million on legal costs on lawsuits in a complex cost-sharing with the federal government.
Boyles said $99,000 of the grant, approved as an extra-budgetary item by Executive Council last February, will be given to local community and church groups for healing programs for indigenous people mainly in the Canadian north. These include programs on suicide prevention, women's recovery and family violence.
He said $88,000 would be used to undergird programs of the national church whose resources were nearly depleted. The remainder will be given to the 11 dioceses for healing and program work with aboriginal peoples that will help the health of the whole church, Boyles said.
He immediately left for Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where the Canadian House of Bishops gathered to prepare a response to the Windsor Report.
Mission funding, Native ministries affirmed
The council approved two significant proposals for extra-budgetary funding for 2005-06. The first, for $60,000, would start a comprehensive plan to seek new mission funding.
"The compelling reasons for moving forward at this time are that the Episcopal Church has an avid and growing sense of mission and that there is no current program for nurturing and encouraging major gifts for mission at the national church level," said council member Tom Gossen.
He said there are Episcopalians who have financial abundance, demonstrated leadership and passion for transforming the world. "We want to invite them into this ministry," he said.
The other request for $450,000 to develop leadership, education and self-esteem among American Indians came from Janine Tinsley-Roe, newly appointed national staff missioner for Native American Ministries.
"Our church has an opportunity to fulfill a long standing promise to the first people of this country," she said. "It is time to put forth the commitment to our native youth and to give back the hope that our elders have hung on to for the past 400 years.
"We are truly a spiritual people," said Tinsley-Roe. "You have a very solid Episcopal base, but you have never given them the tools to become fully involved in this ministry."
Overseas pensions addressed
The council also approved forming a working group of council members and representatives of the Church Pension Fund to address the concern over inadequate pensions for clergy and laity who have worked overseas in US jurisdictions.
Bishop Julio Cesar Holguin of the Dominican Republic, speaking in a committee meeting, said that the significantly lower pay of overseas clergy meant that they are being treated "as second-class clergy." He said the issue involves "discrimination, racism and justice."
Dennis Sullivan, recently appointed president of the Church Pension Group, agreed that that retirement pay is low and noted it is based on low salaries paid. He added "it is difficult to ask a pension plan to alleviate all the problems and injustices of the past."
"How do we go forward?" he asked.
He proposed a small working group to explore ways to immediately alleviate financial pressures of the retirees, and to address the broader question of pay for the clergy. Members of the International Concerns Committee of Council, including Holquin, will serve on the working group with Sullivan and others from CPG.
Study of Middle East investments
The church's plan to study corporate actions involving Israel and the Palestinian Territories was reviewed by the council. The plan calls for a year-long collaborative study of companies that contribute to the infrastructure of Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and of companies that have connections to organizations responsible for violence against Israel, announced Bishop Catherine S. Roskam, suffragan of New York and chair of the council's International Concerns Committee. "No action will be taken without conversation with our Jewish partners at home and abroad," Roskam told the council.
"As a church, we support the State of Israel," explained the Rev. Canon Brian Grieves, director of peace and justice ministries for the Episcopal Church. "Our goal is not to end the state of Israel. Our goal is to create a Palestinian state."
"The question being asked is this—is our church profiting in some way financially at the expense of suffering of the Palestinian people or innocent Israeli citizens?" added Grieves.
The year-long study was proposed by, and will be conducted by the Social Responsibility in Investments Committee. It will involve the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Jerusalem and the Middle East and the Anglican Peace and Justice Network, along with ecumenical and interfaith partners involving the American Jewish community and Palestinian groups.
SRI will also monitor what other church bodies are doing. The Presbyterian Church (USA) took action in July to divest holdings with Israel. Roskam noted that the Episcopal Church has no such plans.
Grieves explained that the church's approach is engagement with companies whose actions are morally questionable. In doing so, the church is consistent with its own policy statements on the Middle East and participation in the wider Anglican Communion.
Budget report holds good news
Treasurer Kurt Barnes told the council that, through August 2004, the Episcopal Church has received signed pledges from 92 dioceses, totaling $26.3 million, and has received indications of support from the remaining dioceses totaling $9 million. Barnes said the figures imply that diocesan pledges for 2004 could total $28 million -- approximately $500,000 more than the February income forecast. He added that the church is receiving funds even from the five dioceses that have indicated zero support. "Including $85,000 of extra-budgetary expenses and the addition of $100,000 to Jubilee grants, net income is favorable relative to budget," he concluded.
The council voted not to charge church agencies housed at the Episcopal Church Center for costs related to the renovation of 815 Second Avenue.
Executive Council also committed itself to undertake the standard eight-hour anti-racism training required of the whole church before the end of 2005.
Additionally, the council approved establishing a position of Translation Services Coordinator at the Episcopal Church Center, to provide and coordinate translations of church documents and news releases from English into Spanish and other languages for publication and posting to the church's web site. The council's Translation Advisory Task Force, chaired by the Rev. Anthony Guillen, put the motion forward.
Four Constable Fund applications were also approved:
* A joint project between the Office for Ministry Development and Ministries with Young People designed to "strengthen theological education, lifelong learning and Christian formation" in the church ($224,000)
* A joint project between Peace and Justice Ministries and the Office of Government Relations for a study delegation to the Middle East involving church leaders and Episcopalians in Congress ($35,000)
* A project of the Anglican and Global Relations cluster seeking to expand and diversify mission education materials and training events ($85,000)
* A project of Episcopal Migration Ministries producing video portraits of Episcopalians in three dioceses whose encounters with refugees have transformed their lives ($57,000).
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