Human Affairs Resolutions Approved By Council
Episcopal News Service. February 22, 1979 [79046]
Greenwich, Conn. -- The Executive Council of the Episcopal Church threw strong support behind two Lambeth Conference resolutions on war and violence and on human rights, but failed to support a national church conference call for governmental policy impact statements on family life.
The decennial meeting of Anglican bishops this past summer at Canterbury, England had passed two extensive resolutions decrying war as "incompatible with the teaching and example of our Lord Jesus Christ" and declaring the matter of human rights and dignity of "capital and universal importance."
Each was endorsed by the Council and commended to the Church. Bishop Donald Parsons of Quincy, protesting what he termed highly inaccurate and inappropriate language, voted against the resolution on war and violence.
Both resolutions urge deep re-examination of Christian attitudes about war, violence and human rights and call for support for the human rights struggle and the efforts to overcome the use of force in all elements of human life.
Results of the Episcopal Church's November 1978 Family Life Conference in Denver were presented to the Council through the Church in Society Committee. The resolutions which were presented originated with the conference's sponsoring group, the National Commission on Social and Specialized Ministries. One resolution was offered by the committee to the Council for endorsement and the other for information.
The first resolution, presented for endorsement, called on Council to continue to help address and identify issues of family life, asked that Church policies at all levels be formed with careful consideration for their effect on families, and asked that dioceses establish family life commissions. The committee did not recommend that Council staff and financial resources be provided for "this priority concern" as the commission's resolution had requested.
Members of the conference and the commission had looked on both the call for the family impact statements and the establishment of staff and funding as keys to the Church response, but the Council's committee appeared to feel that new staff and program money could not be built into the proposal without specific General Convention endorsement.
A second resolution failed in committee and was reported out to Council only for information. It was a commission resolution to Convention specifically calling for impact statements by governing agencies.
The resolution endorsed by the Council resolves that "every program and policy of this Church at the national, diocesan and local level be formed with a conscious concern for the effect on family life." It makes no mention of federal, state or local legislative policy.
Three stockholder resolutions were debated and approved with a number of dissenting votes. All authorized the treasurer to vote Church stock in support of resolutions sponsored by other groups.
The first was passed 19-9 after a motion by Council member the Rev. Canon Edward Morgan of Connecticut attempting to amend it to instruct the treasurer to abstain failed. The resolution asks Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co. to establish a corporate policy of denying future credit to Chile or any of the Chilean government agencies "until the Chilean government restores full participation in the democratic process for all Chileans."
Morgan felt that the concern should be for human rights rather than democratic process and that the Church should abstain while communicating to the bank the church's concern for the bank's support of the military dictatorship.
The second and third resolutions were directed at alleged redlining practices of Manufacturers Hanover and employment practices of the Columbia Broadcasting System. Both met vigorous dissent on the grounds that they did not represent steps in which the Church needed to be involved.
The dissent was led by Council member Joseph Hargrove of Shreveport, La., who held that redlining and employment discrimination were both monitored by federal and state authorities and that it should be necessary for the "Christian Church to vote against management only for an absolutely compelling reason."
The Rev. Paul Washington of Philadelphia replied that government action in both fields was far too slow and that "corporations won't act until the people show concern."
Both resolutions passed with some dissenting voices heard.
Resolved, that the Executive Council hereby endorses the following resolution concerning "War and Violence" passed at the recent Lambeth Conference, and commends it to each of the members of this branch of the Anglican Communion:
- Affirming again the statement of the Lambeth Conference of 1930 and 1968 (Resolution 8(a)) that "war as a method of settling international disputes is incompatible with the teaching and example of our Lord Jesus Christ", the Conference expresses its deep grief at the great suffering being endured in many parts of the world because of violence and oppression. We further declare that the use of the modern technology of war is the most striking example of corporate sin and the prostitution of God's gifts.
- We recognise that violence has many faces. There are some countries where the prevailing social order is so brutal, exploiting the poor for the sake of the privileged and trampling on people's human rights that it must be termed "violent". There are others where a social order that appears relatively benevolent nevertheless exacts a high price in human misery from some sections of the population. There is the use of armed force by governments, employed or held in threat against other nations or even against their own citizens. There is the world-wide misdirection of scarce resources to armaments rather than human need. There is the military action of victims of oppression who despair in achieving social justice by any other means. There is the mindless violence that erupts in some countries with what seems to be increasing frequency, to say nothing of organized crime and terrorism, and the resorting to violence as a form of entertainment on films and television.
- Jesus, through his death and resurrection, has already
won the victory over all evil. He made evident that
self-giving love, obedience to the way of the Cross,
is the way to reconciliation in all relationships
and conflicts. Therefore the use of violence is
ultimately contradictory to the Gospel. Yet we
acknowledge that Christians in the past have differed in their understanding of limits to the rightful
use of force in human affairs, and that questions
of national relationships and social justice are
often complex ones. But in the face of the mounting
incidence of violence today and its acceptance as a
normal element in human affairs, we condemn the
subjection, intimidation and manipulation of people
by the use of violence and the threat of violence
and call Christian people everywhere:
- a. to re-examine as a matter of urgency their own attitude towards, and their complicity with, violence in its many forms;
- b. to take with the utmost seriousness the questions which the teaching of Jesus places against violence in human relationships and the use of armed force by those who would follow him, and the example of redemptive love which the Cross holds before all people;
- c. to engage themselves in non-violent action for justice and peace and to support others so engaged, recognising that such action will be controversial and may be personally very costly;
- d. to commit themselves to informed, disciplined prayer not only for all victims of violence, especially for those who suffer for their obedience to the Man of the Cross, but also for those who inflict violence on others;
- e. to protest in whatever way possible at the escalation of the sale of armaments of war by the producing nations to the developing and dependent nations, and to support with every effort all international proposals and conferences designed to place limitations on, or arrange reductions in, the armaments of war of the nations of the world.
Resolved, that the Executive Council hereby endorses the following resolution concerning "Human Rights" passed at the recent Lambeth Conference, and commends it to each of the members of this branch of the Anglican Communion:
The Conference regards the matter of human rights and dignity of capital and universal importance. We send forth the following message as expressing our convictions in Christ for the human family world-wide.
We deplore and condemn the evils of racism and tribalism, economic exploitation and social injustices, torture, detention without trial and the taking of human lives as contrary to the teaching and example of our Lord in the Gospel. Man is made in the image of God and must not be exploited. In many parts of the world these evils are so rampant that they deter the development of a humane society. Therefore,
- We call on all governments to uphold human dignity; to defend human rights, including the exercise of freedom of speech, movement and worship, in accordance with the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights; the rights to be housed, freedom to work, the right to eat, the right to be educated; and to give human value and worth precedence over social and ethnic demarcations, regardless of sex, creed or status;
- We thank God for those faithful Christians who individually and collectively witness to their faith and conviction in the face of persecution, torture and martyrdom; and for those who work for and advocate human rights and peace among all peoples; and we assure them of our prayers, as in penitence and hope we long to see the whole Church manifesting in its common life a genuine alternative to the acquisitiveness and division which surround it, and indeed penetrate it;
- we pledge our support for those organizations and agencies which have taken positive stands on human rights; and those which assist with refugee problems;
- we urge all Anglicans to seek positive ways of educating themselves about the liberation struggle of peoples in many parts of the world;
- we urge all Anglicans to seek positive ways of educating themselves about the liberation struggle of peoples in many parts of the world;
- finally we appeal to all Christians to lend their support to those who struggle for human freedom and who press forward in some places at great personal and corporate risk; we should not abandon them even if the struggle becomes violent. We are reminded that the ministry of the Church is to reveal the love of God by faithful proclamation of his Word, by sacrificial service, and by fervent prayers for his rule on earth.