Episcopalians pick five strategic goals for future
Episcopal News Service. November 5, 2009 [110509-02]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
A recently completed survey shows Episcopalians think the church ought to focus on youth and young adults, evangelism and elements of congregational life in the coming years.
The survey was conducted by a strategic planning committee that the Episcopal Church's Executive Council established in January to draft a 10-year strategic vision.
That vision is expected to identify and track the missional, financial, societal, cultural and other challenges and opportunities facing the church, and then recommend a course of action along with a timeline, evaluation tools and a proposal about how to gather the resources needed to achieve the vision. The plan will also contribute to the development of an overall communication strategy for the Episcopal Church, according to a news release from the Office of Public Affairs.
The work is also related to Resolution A061, approved during the July 7-18 meeting of General Convention in Anaheim, California, which calls for an annually updated 10-year strategic plan. The convention included $150,000 in the 2010-2012 budget to cover costs.
The Strategic Planning Committee has established a website, which includes a link to the complete results of the survey.
The results of the survey were shared with Executive Council at its October meeting in Memphis, Tennessee, and posted online Nov. 5. The Rev. Canon Timothy Anderson, a council member from the Diocese of Nebraska and committee chairperson, told his colleagues in October that a draft of the plan was being written. The committee's new website says the plan will be posted there in January 2010. The council is next scheduled to meeting Feb. 19-21 in Omaha, Nebraska.
Invitations to participate in the survey were released in mid-June through the Office of Public Affairs to church media, web site postings and various listserv groups, such as diocesan communicators, bishops, dioceses, and religious media, to promote additional responders. General Convention participants were encouraged to take the survey online at the Episcopal Church Center booth in the exhibit hall. The survey was also available in a print format.
Close to 6,700 clergy and laity responded. Of that total, 5,222 respondents were lay people. Of the 1,475 ordained respondents 42 were bishops, 1,249 priests, and 184 deacons. About 70% of the respondents were more than 50 years old; no more than 15% were under 40. The survey was available in English, Spanish, French and Mandarin Chinese.
Survey respondents were asked to "imagine the year as 2019, and [that] the Episcopal Church is even more vital and thriving than it is today" and then rank a list of 11 goals in order of their importance in reaching that vision.
The five areas called "very important" by a clear majority of respondents were, in descending order: reaching youth and young adults; evangelism/proclaiming the good news of Christ; worship, music and liturgy; leadership; and strengthening congregations.
The six least important areas, in descending order were: multicultural inclusion; advocacy and social justice; stewardship; clarity of denominational mission; planting new churches and communities of faith; and church administration, coordination and structure.
When people were asked "how much effort" needed to be given to each of a list of various efforts or strategies to reach the goals, a majority said that "great effort" should be devoted to "focusing on God’s mission as the centerpiece of our church" and "expanding efforts to reach younger generations."
Included in the survey report is a sample of what the news release calls respondents' "revealing, frank and informative" comments. Among those comments were:
- "Remember that the Episcopal Church historically has been tolerant of a broad range of opinion within the faith, conservative and liberal, and any strategic plan should ensure that all remain welcome."
- "Find ways to articulate the uniqueness of the Episcopal Church as one Christian denomination that is truly welcoming to all and truly motivated to strive for justice and peace among all people and to respect the dignity of every human being."
- "Our future is with the young people, people who don't have the baggage of the last 30 years of inter-Anglican fights, and who are post-modern enough to understand post-liberal and post-conservative."
- "Where I live the majority population is Hispanic. If the Episcopal Church is to survive, we need to reach out to the Hispanic community. Coming together will involve flexibility on the part of all."
During the Executive Council's January meeting in Stockton, California, then-council member Ted Mollegen, who is a member of the committee and had been advocating such a process during his term on the council, said strategic planning is "an urgent need" for the church.
The explanation that accompanied Resolution CIM 40, which the council passed in January to create the process, said: "We are at a watershed moment in the Episcopal Church and do not want to lose this moment. It is a time that we have the opportunity to become the truly multicultural church about which we dream and we seem poised as a denomination to effectively reach the 'spiritual but not religious' in new ways, but it will require nimbleness to adapt to our rapidly changing social context. We must be focused and intentional to do so. And we don't have a year to wait."
Members of the Strategic Planning Committee, in addition to Anderson and Mollegen, are: bishop and council member David Alvarez, (Diocese of Puerto Rico, committee convener); House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson (ex-officio); the Rev. Paige Blair (Diocese of San Diego); J. Richard Briscoe (Diocese of West Tennessee, vice-chairperson); Jack Finlaw (Diocese of Colorado); the Rev. Canon Anthony Guillen (Latino/Hispanic Ministries program officer); Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori (ex-officio); the Rev. Christopher Johnson (Jubilee Ministries, social justice and poverty alleviation program officer); council member Bryan Krislock (Diocese of Spokane); Sarah Lawton (Diocese of California); and the Rev. Suzanne Watson (Diocese of El Camino Real, committee secretary).