Executive Council Enthusiastically Endorses Policy on Environment at Portland Meeting
Episcopal News Service. April 29, 1991 [91098]
The Executive Council of the Episcopal Church, meeting in Portland, Maine, April 23-26, enthusiastically endorsed an environmental policy statement and plan for implementation -- and sent it on to this summer's General Convention with hopes it will stir new commitment to the issue throughout the church.
While environmental issues are very complex, "our goal was not to tell the church how to respond, but to engage each other and our government on the issues," said David Beers, a council member who served as chief author of the ad hoc committee report.
The committee was asked by the council last January to prepare a policy and plan for the church's involvement in environmental concerns. The committee drew on a report from the Presiding Bishop's Consultation on the Environment (see ENS, Dec. 12, 1990), and sought a theologically based, integrated approach to the issues.
Beers said it was "enormously difficult" to integrate environmental issues with broader peace and justice issues. He told the council that the committee "steadfastly rejected" pressure to compete with other issues for priority on the church's agenda.
Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning expressed his hope that "this church will come out of General Convention with a renewed commitment to the environment." He noted that there is "a great deal of passion around the issue" but observed that environment must be seen in relation to other issues, "as part of a whole."
In his address from the chair, Browning said that the church is "beginning to gear our programmatic response to the environmental crisis in a way that is consistent with the overall World Council of Churches' theme of Justice, Peace, and the Integrity of Creation." He added that "the environment, economic justice, and sustainable development will be a more focused, higher profile theme in the coming triennium."
The council also voted to establish a trust fund "for the education of young people through scholarships awarded and administered by the three historically black colleges (St. Augustine's, St. Paul's, and Voorhees), a Hispanic college (St. Augustine's in Chicago), the Episcopal Council for Indian Ministries, and the Episcopal Asiamerican Ministries."
The fund was established as a witness to the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in the wake of the church's decision to hold the General Convention in Phoenix after Arizona voters rejected a paid holiday to honor the slain civil-rights leader last November.
During a lively discussion, council members questioned the wisdom of not announcing a specific goal for the fund. Some members worried about aiming too high and running the risk of failure. Others, like Bishop John MacNaughton of West Texas, worried about aiming too low. He said that it was time to show how serious the church is about racism and "put our money where our mouth is -- or admit that we are not serious enough" to raise a substantial fund for scholarships. He predicted that "there will be more response in the church than we think."
About $100,000 in seed money for the fund will come from exhibit hall rentals at the General Convention, and gifts will be sought from dioceses. An anonymous donor recently contributed a gift of $40,000, according to Bishop Furman Stough, deputy for the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief.
Turning its attention to international affairs, the Executive Council passed a resolution stating that it "considers the persecution of Palestinians in Kuwait, the plight of Kurdish refugees fleeing into Turkey and Iran, and the [persecution of] Shiites in southern Iraq to be an enormous human tragedy deserving the prayers of the church and the humanitarian assistance of the entire international community."
The council commended the efforts of the PB's Fund and Episcopal Migration Ministries in their support of relief efforts and for "identifying opportunities for this church to participate actively in the reconstruction and rehabilitation work to be done in the region in the wake of the war and its consequent upheavals."
In a related resolution, the council voted to encourage the Bush administration "to pursue with renewed determination the search for a comprehensive and just peace in the Middle East." The council also endorsed the call issued by the recent meeting of Anglican primates for the United Nations to assume administration of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and "to facilitate humane policies for the people of the Occupied Territories until there is a settlement of the Palestinian/Israeli issue." The council supported an international peace conference under UN auspices.
"We are all involved in a global economy that is blurring national boundaries," Sir Paul Reeves told the council in reporting on his first few months as the Anglican Communion's representative to the United Nations. Reeves, former primate of the Anglican Church of New Zealand and also former governor-general, said his mandate is "to monitor as well as advocate" on issues. He is concentrating his efforts on the environment, human rights, and indigenous peoples, "knocking on doors" to share the concerns of Anglicans around the world.
Pamela Chinnis, vice-president of the House of Deputies and a member of the Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), reported that the ACC is facing serious financial problems, leading to some reservations about future international gatherings. Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey has decided, however, that the ACC should still meet in January 1993 in South Africa and that the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops, scheduled for 1998, should go ahead "if at all possible."
Representatives of the Anglican Church of Canada have met regularly with the Executive Council and offered their own perspective on the agenda. In his remarks, Michael Ingham, ecumenical officer for the church, applauded the Episcopal Church's position on the Gulf War. He said it was "courageous indeed" to oppose the war in the face of such strong nationalism, but said "the position has been validated by events. Your spiritual, moral, theological instincts were correct." The council quickly and enthusiastically voted to continue the exchange of observers.
In other actions, the council
- decided to ask the General Convention to seek a national policy on sexual assault and harassment
- applauded an award from Project Equality for the church's efforts to achieve equal employment opportunity at the Episcopal Church Center
- heard Bishop Douglas Theuner (New Hampshire) of the Standing Commission on AIDS talk about worldwide response to the Episcopal Church's leadership on the issue
- heard Rob Trowbridge, publisher of Yankee magazine and member of the board of the PB's Fund, give a progress report on a special appeal for the fund.
In his closing remarks, the presiding bishop offered his "simple and profound thanks" to council members who will leave after the General Convention and said that they had made a significant impact on the church during their tenure. In a moving response, outgoing council member Joyce McConnell of Seattle expressed her deep appreciation to the presiding bishop for the "grace, enormous patience under pressure, real inclusiveness, listening ability, and wisdom you have shown in keeping us all together."