Episcopal Church Approves Funds for Ghetto Organizations, Businesses
Diocesan Press Service. June 5, 1968 [66-1]
GREENWICH, CONN.-- The May meeting of the Episcopal Church's Executive Council was a time of significant response to the cries of the nation's poor and powerless.
Carrying out the directive of the Church's General Convention, the Council, meeting May 21 - 23 at Seabury House, approved over a half million dollars in grants to indigenous community organizations and authorized the withdrawal of up to one million dollars from trust funds for investment in ghetto business enterprises.
The 28 grants which total $553,457 are the largest group of grants to be made to date under the General Convention Special Program (GCSP) which will provide a total of nine million dollars over the next three years to ease the poverty and the racial crisis in America.
They were approved by Council members after lengthy questioning of members of the Screening and Review Committee, a body which includes representatives from the Episcopal Church as well as representatives of the poor. The questions asked for clarification of the methods and procedure of the Screening and Review Committee and for further information about several organizations.
Fielding these questions for the Committee were Mrs. Jose Sanchez of Los Angeles, Calif., and member of the Afro-Mex Coalition, Harold Hart-Nibbrig, also of Los Angeles and a member of the Black Congress, and Leon E. Modeste, director of the GCSP.
The grants will be paid out in quarterly installments, and it was made quite clear by the members of the Screening and Review Committee that if an organization did not abide by the guidelines set by Convention, particularly that no recipient could advocate or engage in violence, further funds would not be forthcoming.
The decision to set aside one million dollars in reserve funds to invest in ghetto business enterprises was based on several months of research and study into the feasability of such a program. The funds will be channeled into ghetto businesses through intermediary organizations which have adequate technical staff, and loans will not be made directly to businesses.
Chairman of the committee which drafted the proposals is Charles F. Bound, vice-president of the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company in New York City and a member of the Executive Council. Dr. Lindley M. Franklin, Jr., treasurer of the Executive Council, is vice-chairman.
The action followed a previous decision by the Council to deposit up to one million dollars in ghetto banks. During the treasurer's report, it was announced that $435, 000 has already been placed on deposit in such banks.
The worldwide scope of the problem of racism and poverty took up a considerable portion of the Council's time.
On Thursday morning the Council voiced its protest over the eviction of the Rt. Rev. Robert Mize from Southwest Africa by the government of the Republic of South Africa, and urged all Episcopalians, and other Christians, to make their protests known to the United Nations, the State Department, and to the South African government.
The American-born Bishop, whose Diocese is Damaraland and Ovamboland, has been notified by the South African government that he will not be permitted to reside or minister within his Diocese after July 26. No reason has been given for this decision. Bishop Mize is now out of the country.
World hunger was also highlighted in the report given by the Committee on the Presiding Bishop' s Fund for World Relief. The Rev. Raymond Maxwell, secretary of the Committee, told Council members that the same self-help they had been talking about in relation to American ghettos was also fundamental to the program of world relief. He also informed the Council of several grants made recently by the Fund for emergencies.
A grant of $5, 000 was made to the Diocese of Chicago for emergency aid in connection with the racial riots in that city. Later, $1,500 of this was returned, as other funds became available.
Grants also were made to the Holy Catholic Church in Japan, to aid in relief after an earthquake in Hokkaido, and to the Diocese of Arkansas, for relief in the wake of severe tornado damage.
Youth, too, was much in evidence at this Council meeting. A presentation was made on Tuesday on the Church's ministry in higher education, and on the panel were two graduate students, John Dillon, who is a Ph.D. candidate at Princeton University, and David Banks, a graduate student at the University of Louisville.
Later, Council members authorized the Presiding Bishop to invite to future Council meetings from two to four persons under 25 to participate in the meetings. They would have a voice but no vote The Council also approved the Episcopal Church's participation nationally in the ecumenical United Ministries in Higher Education, and has recommended like participation by Dioceses and provinces.
Considerable time was spent in reorganizing the Executive Council to enable it to respond more rapidly to national and worldwide issues as they arise and to function more in accordance with a new staff structure which has been adopted for the Council.
The reorganization will allow the Council to be more of a deliberative body in the future with issue-centered rather than business-centered meetings, and to engage in disciplined planning.
An Executive and Finance Committee was created with the power to take final action on much of the Council's routine business, and to report such actions to the Council.
A Long-Range Planning Committee and an Agenda Committee also were created and extensive use will be made of ad hoc committees, designed to study and recommend policies and action on particular concerns and issues.
It was reported to the Council —
--- by the Executive and Finance Committee after their first meeting that approval had been given to the extension of Companion Diocese relationships between the Dioceses of California and Matabeleland, Minnesota and New Guinea, Florida and Trinidad, Rhode Island and Dacca, Rochester and Maseno, and San Joaquin and that part of the Diocese of Matabeleland in Botswana.
--- by the Committee on Women's Work that among other actions it took, it had given $5, 000 to the Poor People's Campaign to feed participants. This gift is from interest on a legacy over which the Committee has control.
The Council also heard a report from the Rt. Rev. John H. Burt on the Inter-religious Symposium for Peace and a 22-day world journey by the United States Inter-religious Committee of Peace during January, which included, as highlights, the symposium in India and a visit to Vienna.
In other action the Council commended the Report of the President's National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders and asked that every appropriate means be used to encourage Dioceses, parishes and other units to study and implement the report's recommendations.
The Council also elected Vine V. Deloria, Jr., a member of the Standing Rock Sioux, to serve the remainder of the term of Walker Taylor, Jr., who has resigned his membership on the Council. Mr. Deloria, at present studying law, is former executive director of the National Congress of American Indians and, at present, a consultant to the Congress on program.