Executive Council Embraces Environmental Issue, Endorses Browning's Gulf Statement
Episcopal News Service. November 8, 1990 [90288]
The potential for a war in the Persian Gulf and the continuing threat to the earth's environment were major items on the agenda of the church's Executive Council meeting in New York, November 2-5.
In what was otherwise a routine meeting, members of the Executive Council responded enthusiastically to the report from the recent Presiding Bishop's Consultation on the Environment and Sustainable Development. In a resolution, the council expressed its appreciation for the consultation's "linkage of the issues of environment and those of economic justice" and asked the presiding bishop to appoint a committee to shape a response for action at the council's January meeting in Georgia.
There is a worldwide consensus on the dimensions of the environmental crisis and a universal response by all segments of society -- except religion, Dean James Morton of New York's Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine told council members. "Where is organized religion on this issue?" asked Morton, a participant in the consultation and an environmental activist on the international level (see ENS 90033).
How can the Episcopal Church, which has shown such prophetic leadership on other issues, be "totally invisible and mute" on what is "essentially a religious issue?" added Morton. "There is an unbelievable opportunity for real leadership by our church on this issue." Morton called for "immediate commitment" by the church, including appointment of a task force, a standing commission on environment, and a national staff position. Morton suggested that the environmental issue could be a "healing" one at next summer's General Convention, where issues of human sexuality are expected to receive a great deal of attention.
"I don't want the 1991 convention to be known only as the convention on sexuality but also for a creation response," said Canon Roswell Moore of California.
Scott Evans, who chairs the subcommittee on environment of the Standing Commission on Human Affairs, which will consider the report at General Convention, joined Morton in urging the church's involvement in the issue. She said there is "grassroots energy building on this issue" and deputies to General Convention will be disappointed to discover that the national church has not provided more leadership. In offering what she said was "a report card" on how the church has handled the issue at the national level, she was very critical about how little attention the issue has received. This was "not your finest hour," she scolded, but added that there is still time to "place this embarrassing performance behind us."
The Executive Committee commended the presiding bishop's October 5 statement on the Persian Gulf crisis (see ENS 90258) and agreed that the crisis should be seen in its "larger historical context," especially the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, "in which we continue to support an independent Palestinian state and security for Israel." The resolution urged President George Bush "not to commit any long-term U.S. military presence in the Middle East beyond the period of this crisis." The council also called on Americans "to reflect on the reasons and motives for our nation's involvement in the crisis, especially our motive for unimpeded access to oil, which feeds our overly consumptive lifestyle. We challenge ourselves and the church to use this moment to rethink our national priorities and our way of life."
The council also expressed its disappointment that a dispute between the President and Congress "led to the failure to enact a civil rights bill this year and to adopt important new provisions to prevent discrimination in employment." It urged passage of a new bill "early in the next session" of Congress.
"I'm excited by how far we have come -- this has great possibilities for the future of the church," the presiding bishop told the council as it considered the next steps in the planning and development process first discussed by the council a year ago.
"We have come to the point where we talk about discerning the church's mission," Canon Robert Tharp of East Tennessee told council members. Tharp, who chairs the Planning and Development Committee, reported on conversations with Episcopal Church Center staff and then invited small groups of council members to "model the discernment process." "The purpose is to get us inside our own faith journeys," observed Bishop Rustin Kimsey of Eastern Oregon, who wrote a discernment statement he shared with the council.
While most reports from the small groups were positive, there was still evidence of impatience and anxiety that the process is being imposed, that its direction is not clear enough yet. "We have spent significant time at four meetings now but without significant progress," one group said. "Why aren't we doing something instead of inventing a process?"
In his introduction to the report of the Administration/Budget/Finance Committee, Vincent Currie of Florida said that "the budget process is working and will continue to improve." In presenting a balanced budget of $44,487,000 -- equal to about two and one-half B-l bombers -- the church's treasurer, Ellen Cooke, warned the council that the church is going to feel the impact of economic uncertainty at all levels. While giving at the local level continues to increase ($11.11 per household per week in 1989), dioceses are receiving less from parishes, she observed. "It's not that total revenues are less. For a variety of reasons we are using them in different ways."
Cooke said the 1991 budget is based on 95 percent of assessments and represents a "minimal increase in expenses."
- Council member Joyce McConnell from Seattle received enthusiastic applause for the report of her "spiritual experience" at last summer's Episcopal Youth Event in Montana. She described it as a time of "a lot of love, a lot of listening, and a lot of sharing through the Holy Spirit... a glimpse into the kingdom and how we are living it."
- Canon Burgess Carr, new director of Episcopal Migration Ministries, reported on the "cruel and tragic stalemate" in Liberia, where half the people are now refugees. He described the suffering he observed on a recent trip to the area, where refugees were unloaded in containers from a ship since they could not walk. He reported that church-related Cuttington College was closed and is being used as a training center by rebel forces led by Charles Taylor.
- The council passed a resolution thanking the presiding bishop for his leadership and his attempts to promote dialogue in the church.
- Michael Ingham, the ecumenical officer for the Anglican Church of Canada, said the presiding bishop's leadership goes beyond the Episcopal Church because "tensions and polarization are not confined to the United States but are common throughout the Anglican Communion." He reminded the council that the Native peoples have never abandoned their way of living in harmony with nature and they can help the rest of us with environmental issues.
In a conversation with the press following the conclusion of the council meeting, Bishop Browning said there is still considerable confusion in the church on the issues of human sexuality. "I still believe that we have the grace to come to some consensus on this issue -- and I have faith in this church and its possibility to find that consensus." Browning repeated his conviction that such a consensus cannot be legislated. "We are looking for God's will in this issue, and no one has a clear handle on that truth." His role as presiding bishop is to encourage dialogue and avoid polarization in the search for consensus. He said he was "willing to take that risk, no matter what my personal opinion" is on the issues of human sexuality.