ECIM Contends Executive Council Restructure Proposal Is 'Abandonment'
Episcopal News Service. April 7, 1994 [94072]
On their way to San Jose in mid-March, members of the Episcopal Council on Indian Ministries (ECIM) pondered the imminent demise of the fledgling, four-year-old Indian organization in light of the Executive Council's recommendation that would merge four ethnic commissions into a single new entity.
Before they left San Jose, ECIM members hurled a lance into the sand and challenged the Executive Council to rethink its restructuring recommendations for coping with a projected budget shortfall in 1995.
Labeling the Executive Council proposals as "another chapter in an old history of Indian affairs," members of ECIM voted unanimously to endorse the "San Jose Declaration" and circulate it widely, contending that the ECIM must "be continued as an essential part of any restructuring as a model for the whole church."
Characterizing the Executive Council's proposal to the General Convention as "a termination/abrogation/abandonment move," the ECIM cited the church's historical commitment to Indians against what it contended were neglible savings -- the cost for three full meetings of ECIM in 1993 totaled $18,800.
"Twenty-five years ago, we demanded 'more real involvement' in a clarion call issued by the Sioux author, Dr. Vine Deloria, Jr., who was then a member of Executive Council," said Bishop Steven Charleston of Alaska, a Choctaw Indian. "Now we see recommendations which translate into 'no real commitment," he said, characterizing the Executive Council's proposal.
"We are told to throw a way a quarter of a century of effort to develop ECIM," Charleston added. "We followed the primate's instruction to create a 'self-determining' body accountable internally and externally for carrying out the work begun with the first permanent English settlement on these shores, 387 years ago. We see abandonment of this new entity [ECIM] within four short years," he charged.
The declaration contended that "ECIM is already accomplishing the kind of operations the current restructuring proposals are hoping to do in the future...We are now modeling and living the goals that the church has set for the next triennium."
"Multicultural settings usually swallow up Native peoples as readily as Europeans historically have," said the Rev. Martin Brokenleg of South Dakota. Combining Indian work with other ethnic communities would "reflect a competition that is spiritually spurned in Native societies," he added.
The ECIM also contended that the Executive Council's proposal disregarded the recommendations of the 1993 Partners in Mission Consultation (PIM) for "an action plan which endows the Native Americans with the freedom and authority to organize and manage their own affairs, including training within the life of the church."
In addition, the ECIM has called for a special meeting in early August "to focus on survival and growth strategies for American Indians/Alaska Natives in light of the ongoing crisis in the structure of the Episcopal Church."
Suggesting that the Episcopal Church was paying more attention to indigenous peoples around the globe than to racial and ethnic minorities in the United States, ECIM decided to begin a feasibility study on a separate Native autonomous province.
"We see others, like the Philippines and Province 9, moving toward autonomy," said Ginny Doctor, chair of ECIM. "We see continued fiscal support from the Episcopal Church. In fact, we note that the Philippine Episcopal Church has an $800,000 allocation for 1994. We've talked for several years about a nongeographic Native diocese or dioceses. Perhaps we need now to explore the potential of an autonomous province," she said.
ECIM designated Charleston to draft a concept paper on an autonomous indigenous or Native province within the structure of the Anglican Communion, with ECIM member Bishop William Wantland of Eau Claire.