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Executive Council Grapples with Issues on the Agenda of Upcoming General Convention

Episcopal News Service. February 13, 1997 [97-1686]

(ENS) The agenda of the Episcopal Church's Executive Council meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio, January 27-30 was crowded with items directly related to decisions facing this summer's General Convention in Philadelphia -- money, church structure, program priorities and sexuality.

The council was in friendly territory. The Diocese of Southern Ohio has "a tradition of strong commitment to the national church, giving more than has been asked in financial support," as Bishop Herbert Thompson, Jr., said in his welcome.

In their opening addresses, Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning and Pamela P. Chinnis, president of the House of Deputies, quickly set the tone for the meeting in a complementary appeal for a new way to struggle with the potentially divisive issues facing the church.

In a nation and a church where civility is under attack, Chinnis drew attention to the connection between civility and consensus, expressing a fear that "the civility that depended on shared experiences, interests and assumptions is stretched to the breaking point -- and we feel very threatened."

Warfare or collaboration?

Chinnis warned, "If we go to Philadelphia expecting a showdown with winners and losers, we'll certainly get one, and it will be a colossal folly resulting from a great shared delusion, a consensus of fear." As a result, she said, "we will short-circuit the legislative process and undermine the peace and unity of the church."

Chinnis invited council members to consider redefining the legislative process not as "civilized warfare" but rather as "collaborative exploration.... Suppose we suspend our convictions long enough to listen for new clues about the path ahead, allowing for some new consensus that might embrace our present contradictions." That kind of legislative process could be "the venue of the Holy Spirit's action within the church," she said. "Let us struggle to recover the civility of the pure in heart, knowing it is essential to our souls and to the life of the church."

Reconciliation or division?

In his address from the chair, Browning said that the Councils of Advice serving him and Chinnis met recently to "talk about how the mind of the church could be expressed in the most creative, healthy possible way through our legislative process." Working with the assumptions that "we honor the legislative process and trust the working of the Spirit" and that "our General Convention is more than a legislative body," participants moved to "a heightened sense of positive expectation about our convention and a feeling that the decisions made there will be made carefully and faithfully."

Browning pointed to "some polarization" around the "tough issues" facing the convention and even some misguided expectation that "one clear answer will emerge." The real question for Christians, he argued, is "Do you choose reconciliation or division?"

The church confronts three opportunities to make that choice, he said, on issues of "our understanding of stewardship, of our sense of the role of the church in our national life, and of our efforts against racism."

A vision of partnership

Too many church members "have yet to capture a vision of the partnership we are called to at all levels in the life of the church" and that is affecting funding for the church's mission, Browning said. He chided those dioceses that are withholding funds "as a way of making a political statement." He said that they are guilty of "poor stewardship based on flawed theology," arguing that "Christian giving is not a sign of approval but a mark of love" and "withholding funds as a form of protest is contrary to our received understanding of what it means to live in a covenant community, a community where reconciliation is the way, not division."

Browning expressed "deep thanks for those in our church who have shown an unwavering commitment to peace and justice issues" because "without a quest for love, peace, justice and reconciliation, God's people will sorely suffer."

He called the "sin of racism... the ultimate division" and said that first reports on the church-wide dialogues on racism are encouraging. "No matter what else we do within the life of our church, no matter how much we try to reflect the covenant community, no matter how many positive choices we make, as long as we are victims of our own racism everything else we do is tainted."

Tightening the budget

Introducing the report of the council's administration and finance committee, Bishop Don Wimberly of Lexington said that the committee will recommend to General Convention's committee on program, budget and finance a unified budget that includes a change in the funding formula from a graduated one to a flat 20 percent of diocesan income.

The dioceses now paying more than 20 percent may be asked to continue that level of support to aid dioceses that will not be able to make the adjustment to a higher level immediately.

Treasurer Steven Duggan presented a proposed budget of $120.6 million for the 1997-2000 triennium. To achieve balance, the budget calls for several cost-cutting measures: increased payout from the church's endowment, elimination of a subsidy for Episcopal Migrations Ministries, closure of the church's Philadelphia office, cuts in support for program, and other "efficiencies" on contracted services, the travel budget and the pension plan offered to lay church center employees.

Since the Episcopal Church Center operates in an "empowering mode" to assist mission at the local level, Duggan said that it is "destructive" to keep money at the local level as a protest, ignoring the "partnership." He also expressed his frustration with a budget that leaves so little room for the church's "worthy and vital mission activities."

The proposed budget does not "take into account any new directions from General Convention or a new presiding bishop," he warned. The presiding bishop also noted that some of the Blue Book reports for General Convention call for additional funds that "could change this budget quite quickly."

No flexibility in program budget

"So much of the budget is already fixed that planning and flexibility is limited," Diane Porter, senior executive for program, told a program committee meeting. The only new initiative possible in the program area, she reported, is an expanded communications effort developed in response to diocesan visitations. Staff will be added to the Sherrill Resource Center at the church center in New York and a new office of interpretation and public relations created, she said. "We have more stories than we can manage to tell and we need to place them," she said. "We need to be more pro-active in telling our story." Bishop Sam Hulsey of Northwest Texas agreed with the initiative. "If those stories aren't told, we will get weaker and weaker," he said.

The program committee introduced a resolution on "Common Beliefs on Relationships and Appropriate Sexual Behavior." After council discussion and several drafts, the resolution was passed unanimously as a council statement and shaped into a resolution for action by General Convention. The resolution was introduced by Ralph Spence, Jr., of Montana who argued that a strong statement could be "helpful and unifying."

While acknowledging that the church's discussion on sexuality has revealed "increased ambiguity and tension," the statement said that it was "the church's responsibility to offer the values and guidance that enable individuals to avoid or heal relationships which are exploitative and hurtful and to seek and create relationships which are life-giving and grace filled."

Structure recommendations discussed

Betty Gilmore of Texas, who chairs the Structure Commission, summarized the recommendations the commission will introduce to General Convention. The mandate of the commission had been enlarged since the 1994 General Convention asked for a review of the effectiveness of the church's organizational structure. She praised the 12 "diverse but committed, focused individuals" on the commission and said that it was "nothing less than a miracle" that they were able to agree on the full report. "There were no winners or losers in our consensus report," she said.

Members discussed the recommendations in small groups, and responded to the committee with comments, especially on the proposals for more accountability in the role of Executive Council and the creation of a new staff position for an executive director to serve both the presiding bishop and the council.

A case study in healing

Council members joined diocesan leaders at Church of the Advent in Cincinnati, a parish still recovering from a painful split when the former rector and half of its members left in the spring of 1994 to begin a new non-denominational church.

After Evensong, dinner and a humorous if slightly irreverent race through the history of the diocese by the drama group, "Friends of the Groom," the council gathered for reports by lay leaders of Advent who held the parish together.

According to Dr. John Saccarelli, one of the reasons cited for the departure of the former rector was that the Episcopal Church had become "idolatrous" and had failed to discipline those who were deviating from Scripture and church doctrine.

Stockton Wulsin, the only vestry member who stayed, described his "lonely decision" and how deeply his family was affected. In a marked departure from the bitter animosity that accompanies most other separations by unhappy congregations, Bishop Thompson presided over a special service of "divorce" and invited other parishes in the diocese to send "ambassadors" to Advent on the first Sunday after the split. "Something new was born, a new sense of hope," said Wulsin in describing the slow healing process. "It's amazing what God has done," said the Rev. Angelo Puopolo, Jr., who stepped in to serve as priest-in-charge and is now the rector. "We were cracked -- but the light of God shines through the cracks."

A time of transition

During the final plenary, Suzanne Lawson, an observer from the Anglican Church of Canada, said that she sensed a "prevailing concern about transition" in the time leading up to General Convention, and a certain "ambivalence" during the meeting. "It seems that engagement in the issues is becoming more difficult," she said. And listening to the pain at Advent Church only "pointed to the harsh realities of transition," she added.

Lawson observed that most members seemed to realize that the complexion of the council will change as new people are elected at General Convention. But the vital question, she contended, is "How does the Episcopal Church exert its leadership in this obvious time of transition?"

In other action the council:
  • heard a progress report from Bishop Cal Scofield of Southeast Florida, co-chair of the Joint Nominating Committee for a new presiding bishop;
  • passed a resolution objecting to advertising of alcohol on television;
  • passed a resolution introduced by John McCann of Lexington calling for a mediation effort on issues of sexual misconduct;
  • expressed support for the up-coming Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation National Summit;
  • shared excitement over the new possibilities for mission if both the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America pass the Concordat of Agreement on full communion.
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