Browning Attends Farm, Oil Crisis Conference
Episcopal News Service. October 23, 1986 [86229]
Stephen Weston, Diocese of Dallas
IRVING, Texas (DPS, Oct. 23) -- Economists, oil executives, real estate developers and bishops from dioceses in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma assessed the economic impact of farm failure and oil boom/bust with the Most Rev. Edmond L. Browning here Oct. 10. The depressed economic climate and the Church's involvement in human suffering elicited expressions of desperation, cautious optimism and hope from the twenty persons who met with the Presiding Bishop at the Quality Inn.
As he sought perspective in the aftermath of a collapsed oil economy and depressed farm market, Browning said he was aware that many communicants of the Episcopal Church were directly affected, and that many others were indirectly woven into the pattern of foreclosure and misery. "I would like to hear your response to this growing concern and to have your advice and counsel on an appropriate national agenda and strategy," he told representatives of seven dioceses.
Jim Cochran, senior operations officer for Texas Commerce Bank Shares, Houston, began an economic appraisal of oil and gas markets by suggesting that, while the crisis was severe in Louisiana and less so in Texas, "the United States as a whole will continue to perform fairly well into 1987-1988." He said continued expansion buying, beginning with the Christmas season of 1982, had not run its course in Texas. Consumer spending for durable goods, which, according to Cochran, carries the U.S. economy, was up 20 per cent in 1986, especially in commodities such as boats, houses and home furnishings.
In oil and gas, large producers in all three states were currently experiencing a 12-month period of adjustment to $13 a barrel for crude, resulting in a period of what Cochran called "human and corporate pain" as prices are scaled down. He said the economic situation would "get better gradually in 1987-1988, at a very low rate of creep," and suggested that it would take a dramatic structural event to "pop" oil prices above $20 a barrel.
Not until such increase occurred, he said, would the oil market return to a healthy state. Conditions in the "oil patch," especially in the Midland-Odessa area, reflected in the overall state job growth rate in 1987, a 1.1 to 1.5 percentage increase. From 1976-1985, Texas grew 4 percent in the Job market each year, with the national average at 2.3 percent.
In Oklahoma and Louisiana, where dependency on the oil and gas industry is more visible, job loss is alarming. State economies are facing complicated financial restructuring. In Oklahoma, the largest banking system has failed, and there is commercial over-building, with vacancy rates running as high as 20 per cent. "More houses are on the market," said Bishop Gerald N. McAllister, "and many people are walking away from loans they cannot afford to service. I don't think we have seen the bottom in any of the major sectors. A lot of people are going under. There comes a point when you decide, 'I can't hang on.' "He said he expected 12 more months of a downhill economic picture.
The Rev. Claude Paine, rector of St. Mark's Church, Houston and the personal representative of Bishop Maurice M. Benitez, said the depressed state of the Houston economy has encouraged an initiative begun by Benitez that addresses conditions surrounding unemployment. Paine described the program as a way of helping people respond to jobs available. "Tom Hall, a management consultant, helps people face the trauma, despair and disillusionment of being unemployed by showing how to make a resume and how to interview for a job." He said the approach was based on the importance of self-worth, countering the popular myth that "without the job, we are nobody." Seminars in four Houston locations have helped 150 people find new work so far. "The response to unemployment has lifted depression and given hope," Paine said. "People are looking up, hanging on. Mutual support groups are being developed."
Frank Holt, from the Diocese of Dallas, echoed the positive approach to deprivation by saying, "Bad news is often old news. There are a lot more people who are hurt, and many of my friends who have problems. I feel confident that as individuals we have bottomed out; but I also realize we have to survive with new trade, with cottage industries. There are so many unmet needs." Holt asked for continued support from the national church and said that new church growth might occur in this period of economic instability through increased volunteer recruitment and training for ministry.
It was the opinion of several participants that with rapid, negative change, people are looking for a stabilizing force in the Church. However, the institution is also undergoing changes, which are often unsettling. McAllister said, "Symbolic action is needed from the national church office in depressed areas." He said agricultural hot lines have been established and resources made available in many places, thanks to the concern of Farm Aid and the efforts of entertainers like Willie Nelson. "Help," McAllister said, "has to be focused, galvanized and mobilized."
In the Diocese of West Texas, Bishop Coadjutor John H. MacNaughton said internal resources and a shared cultural and educational background help concentrate human assistance. "We have a hard problem in the Rio Grande Valley," he said. "Tens of thousands of Hispanics are coming across the Rio Grande." He referred to the Sanctuary Movement and asked, "What do we do in regard for the Christian conscience?" Emphasizing the necessity for positive response, he said, "If you 'gloom-and-doom' long enough, people are going to believe you. Attitude has a lot to do with it."
McNaughton suggested that at every level, the national church might deal with the Hispanic question in consultation with people on the scene, especially in the Rio Grande Valley. "Talk with us first," he said, emphasizing that solutions to pressing need are often found in the experience of front-line specialists.
Summarizing what he had heard, the Presiding Bishop said it was evident that people with imagination "are present in different areas of the Church's ministry, and that success stories in the face of human suffering must be shared. The principle," said Browning, "is to check out the assumptions and change the images people have."
McAllister responded: "The clergy," he said, "are dealing with these problems as not being all negative." He said that when the Church is content, "the bottom line looks good, and we don't see the pain. In the brokeness, pain and hurt, maybe this is the best of all times, when we open some eyes, see a lot of beautiful things happening and begin to do things right at hand."