Council Wrestles Anew With "Vision"
Episcopal News Service. June 25, 1987 [87135]
CLEVELAND (DPS, June 25) -- "Yes!" "But....." Over the past two weeks, Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning has heard repeated, enthusiastic endorsements of his leadership and of his call for a compassionate, inclusive Church. At the same time, however, participants in the Under One Roof conference in St. Louis, a Vision conference in New Jersey and, finally, at the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church here, have coupled that endorsement with strong reservations about proposed mission imperatives that are supposed to embody his call.
The combination of trust in Browning's leadership and reservation about the proposed goals was especially evident at the New Jersey gathering -- which brought together about 100 people representing almost every group and province with which Browning has met. Time and again, small groups prefaced their dissatisfaction with the language or purpose of the statements with comments about their strong trust in Browning to lead the Church.
The mission statements themselves -- which appear to be intended for the whole Church as well as for structuring the general Church Program and Budget -- were called wordy, unclear, a "middle step" rather than the embodiment of a vision. The groups encouraged the Presiding Bishop to develop a preamble in addition to refining the statements. At its meeting here, the Council, which has had a major role in shaping the statements, heard reports on these responses, concurred with many of them and tossed them back to the Presiding Bishop's staff -- and a group of seven councillors -- for final revision.
Browning, meanwhile, laid out the still unfinished agenda that the staff and Council must embrace before the General Convention next summer in Michigan.
"My dear friends, there is so much more to do. We may pause to count the achievements but the spiritual and human needs seem, often, to multiply.
"We have a new Prayer Book and Hymnal, but has the quality of our common worship improved?
"We have achieved a high sense of liturgical worship, but have our personal devotions deepened our spiritual lives?
"We have set out to be inclusive, but are we calling more women to be rectors of parishes?
"We have noted the ravages of institutional racism, but have we elected more non-whites to vestries, diocesan conventions and deputies to General Convention?"We have set out to be compassionate, but are we visiting persons with AIDS? Do we care for their families?
"We celebrate and hold dear our Anglican Communion, but do we really listen to the voices from our sisters and brothers in Christ who live in the Third World?
"We point with pride to the Episcopalians in Congress and the Civil Service, to Episcopalians who head international corporations, banks and populate academia, but are we helping them to integrate their religious values into their secular professions? Dare I even suggest that they be enabled to talk with the same ease about the liberating Gospel as the Dow Jones?
"We have talked about a servanthood ministry, but have we called people to service, have we empowered them for ministry and have we provided them with the resources to strengthen their witness?
"'I am among you as one who serves.' Do we take this self-revealing statement of Jesus as our vision for our ministry?"
Guidelines for the revision were embodied in three resolutions that provide:
- "1. That a vision statement to be the foundation for the mission imperatives for the Executive Council be developed by the Presiding Bishop, mindful of the contents of his messages to the Executive Council at the March and June 1987 meetings
- "2. That the Council entrust the Presiding Bishop and the continuation committee to edit and refine the March 31, 1987 mission imperatives for the whole Church, eliminating the priorities
- "3. That the continuation committee work with the Presiding Bishop's staff to review the development of the program and budget particulars, emphasizing the imperatives most appropriate for national Church implementation as reported by Council to the June 1987 meeting."
The work had begun in February, when the Church Center staff went through a preparatory exercise for the Council by trying to cluster some of the nearly 100 separate programs of the national Church under tentative "mission imperatives." These were presented to Council in March. Council members then tried to create their own sets of clusters and imperatives as a first step toward developing a budget proposal and, later, a staffing structure.
Working through much of the three-day session, they were able to develop tentative lists. With staff support from senior mission officer George McGonigle, mission operations executive Barry Menuez and the Rev. John Docker as process officer, they tried to refine the lists and set priorities. In the end, they agreed to finish the process at their next meeting, here, but were once again unable to do so.