Ministry, Liturgical Concerns Explored
Episcopal News Service. October 15, 1981 [81269]
SAN DIEGO -- The bishops of the Episcopal Church heard a preliminary report which said that "the guiding principle for financial planning for theological education for ministry is the overall responsibility of every member."
Bishop Robert B. Appleyard of Pittsburgh, chairman of the finance committee of the Board for Theological Education, told the Church's 162 bishops, meeting here Oct. 2-9, that the board is considering a plan to be presented to the General Convention next year. The plan would ask each congregation to contribute 1 percent of its net disposable income for the support of one or more of the accredited seminaries of its choice. According to the proposal which is being developed, the funds would be collected and forwarded to the diocese to disperse according to the designations.
Chairman of the Board for Theological Education, Bishop John B. Coburn of Massachusetts, reported that the voluntary system for seminary support -- approved by the 1976 Convention -- had not succeeded. The 1979 Convention asked the board, the Council of Deans, the Executive Council and others to study the needs of the accredited institutions and to recommend to the 1982 Convention "a comprehensive plan for the funding of these institutions."
Bishop Robert M. Anderson of Minnesota, chairman of the board's case committee, said that "to continue the present system of funding will guarantee the weakening of the seminaries." In fact, he said, the Episcopal Church "has no system at all" for supporting its seminaries.
Bishop J. Brooke Mosley, assistant bishop in Pennsylvania, raised the issue of the number of accredited seminaries, reminding the bishops that a study about a decade ago recommended the combining of such institutions into four centers.
Coburn said that that suggestion had been strongly resisted by the seminaries and by the Church at large. He said that while the present board feels there are too many seminaries, they do not feel it is the role of the board to bring the institutions together or to reduce the number.
On another resolution relating to theological education -- calling for data on the quality of the academic training of the seminaries -- Bishop C. FitzSimons Allison, Coadjutor of South Carolina, spoke to the bishops about the deficiencies in "the quality of rigor and academic respectability" of the Episcopal Church's accredited seminaries.
Allison, who is a former seminary professor, pointed out that the Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Lutherans and Roman Catholics, among the major church bodies, exceed the Episcopal Church in the quality of seminary training.
On a recent test administered by the General Board of Examining Chaplains, Allison said, 40 percent of the students indicated that the account of Paul's conversion experience on the road to Damascus was recorded in Ephesians, while 41 percent of the students on a test said the reference to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was found in Leviticus.
One seminary, he reported, has no required courses on preaching, while another institution has no required courses at all.
He blamed some of this poor academic quality on the fact that students come to the seminaries poorly prepared. Also, he said, the introduction of field courses and electives into the academic curriculum -- "good programs which help train people for ministry" -- has cut down on the number of more academic credits. "A big price is being paid here," he commented, "and I'm not sure we as bishops are prepared to pay that price."
The need for more money is a symptom of deeper needs, he feels.
Bishop William B. Spofford, chairman of the General Board of Examining Chaplains, said that his group is doing the best it can, "given our resources," but that he did not see any canonical authorization for the board to evaluate the seminaries.
Coburn said the Board for Theological Education feels that it is not the function of the Episcopal Church to evaluate the seminaries. That, he said, is the responsibility of the Association of Theological Schools. He strongly endorsed the idea of the "academic accountability" of the seminaries.
Anderson, who said he is involved with three seminaries, said, in response to Allison's remarks, "I felt, quite frankly, that was a broad-based attack on the seminaries.... A lot of the statements need discussion and would have to be backed up."
Further, he said, "I want to be a voice that says right now before we go launching an attack on all the seminaries and assume these things, that there is an awful lot of excellence in our seminaries."
In the end, the bishops defeated by a vote of 55 to 48 the resolution which would have asked the General Board of Examining Chaplains to report to the bishops and the Church on its findings from the examinations.
The bishops heard a report on the progress the Standing Commission on Church Music is making in its mandate to recommend the texts for a revised hymnal to the 1982 General Convention. Ray Glover, who is the general editor of the project, assured the bishops that "despite rumors to the contrary, it is impossible for anyone to say with assurance that 'this text' or 'that text' will -- or will not -- be included."
The commission will complete its report in late January next year and in late spring all bishops, deputies and reader consultants will receive the report containing the proposed new texts.
Glover said that the new edition of the 1940 book, The Hymnal, "will be ideally suited to serve our church in the demanding years ahead."
He described the new edition as strongly liturgical, theologically orthodox, strongly pastoral, ecumenical, practical and prophetic.
Another liturgical matter was the approval of a resolution concerning the question of whether a person being received from another church body needs to be confirmed or simply received. The following resolution was approved: "Resolved, that the House of Bishops meeting in San Diego, 6 October 1981, believes that it is not the intention of the 1979 Prayer Book to permit a Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States to receive a person without the laying on of hands who has not already received the laying on of hands by a bishop of recognized apostolic order."
The House's Theology Committee made a brief report on its study of the question of whether the Filioque clause should be retained in the Nicene Creed. In the Creed as used in some of the Western Churches, the Holy Spirit is said to proceed "from the Father and the Son" (in Latin, filioque), though in the original version he is said to proceed "from the Father" only. The Episcopal Church declined to delete the clause when the 1979 Book of Common Prayer was authorized.
The Orthodox Churches do not use the Filioque clause and the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops in 1978 suggested that member churches consider restoring the original form of the Creed.
Bishop William G. Weinhauer of Western North Carolina, chairman of the Theology Committee, said that group is making four recommendations on this issue to the Convention's Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations: (1) since the clause was not in the original Creed of A.D. 451, "there is sufficient cause to drop the phrase"; (2) if the text should be restored to its A.D. 451 form, it should not be done "without the authority of an Ecumenical Council and without due regard for catholic consent"; (3) whatever action the Episcopal Church takes to restore the text to its original form "should not be taken unilaterally but in concert with the rest of the Anglican Communion and hopefully with the collaboration of other Western Christian Churches"; and (4) "as Anglicans and the Orthodox become more understanding of and sensitive to one another through common prayer and action, we might come to a deeper appreciation of each other's spirituality."
The Standing Committee on Ecumenical Relations will meet in February to prepare its report for the September 5-15 meeting of the General Convention.