Executive Council Approves Use of Church Funds
Diocesan Press Service. December 13, 1968 [72-3]
GREENWICH, Conn. -- The Executive Council of the Episcopal Church at its quarterly meeting December 10 to 12 approved a series of resolutions on the use of Church funds and their investment or deposit in banks and companies doing business in southern Africa nations.
In other actions the Executive Council:
Approved 27 grants totaling $440,520 to community organizations under the General Convention Special Program.
Spent almost a full day discussing the Diocesan visitations made during the month of November by members of the Council.
Voted not to reconsider its action in boycotting the city of Chicago as a site for Executive Council meetings.
Authorized the use of an additional one million dollars for investment in ghetto businesses.
The action on the investment of Church funds in southern Africa banks and businesses took the form of three resolutions. The first, which would apply to business establishments in the nations of South Africa, South West Africa, Rhodesia, Angola and Mozambique, established criteria by which the positive involvement by businesses and banks in southern Africa nations would be judged.
The criteria included such considerations as: Education of Africans, development of family life, labor-management relations, integration of Africans into higher levels of leadership, equalization of wage scales, pension provisions, social security, medical benefits, breaking down of the pass law system and other restrictions.
A second resolution aimed at banks extending credits to the government of South Africa where apartheid is the official policy was debated at length before being passed. It directed the Council's Executive and Finance Committee to consult with the banks in which the Church has deposits or investments and which are members of the consortium of banks extending credit to the government of South Africa.
The resolution said that unless the Executive and Finance Committee concludes that the involvement of the said banks is positive in promoting the welfare and education of the people as outlined in the first resolution "the Treasurer be directed to terminate the Council's involvement with such banks within a reasonable time."
A third resolution directed the Episcopal Committee on Trust Funds to examine its investments and take similar action. It was asked to report to the Executive Council. Two members of the Council, Charles M. Crump, of Memphis, Tenn., and Prime F. Osborn, of Jacksonville, Fla., asked that their votes against the second resolution be recorded.
Mr. Crump said that "I am opposed to this, as I am opposed to other boycotts. I voted against the Chicago resolution for the same reasons that I am against this one. There will be no real gain. The boycott of South Africa is also a boycott of our banks." He had voted for the first resolution.
The Hon. Emmett Harmon, Council member from Liberia, in the debate on the second resolution described himself as "the only African in the House." He said he favored the passage of the resolution.
"When we take such positive actions it speaks all over the world," he declared.
The three resolutions were presented by Mrs. Edith Bornn, Council member from the Virgin Islands.
The presentation of the General Convention Special Program and its Screening and Review Committee was made by the Rev. Canon St. Julian A. Simpkins, Jr., of Rochester, N.Y., a member of the Committee.
One of the grants for $7, 000 will be used to help finance the distribution of a documentary film produced by American Documentary Films, Inc. Entitled "Huey," the film was produced in cooperation with the Black Panther Party and tells the story of Huey Newton, Black Panther leader.
Mrs. Cyrus M. Higley, Council member from Norwich, N.Y., also a member of the Screening and Review Committee, described the film as "disturbing" but com mended it for showing to Church audiences.
Canon Simpkins said the picture showed "the stark reality of things that black people face in the ghettos of the United States."
"I have never seen," he said, "a more accurate documentation of what black people face in the ghetto today. White people just don't know."
Two Southern Bishops, the Rt. Rev. Albert R. Stuart, of Georgia, and the Rt. Rev. George M. Murray, of Alabama, expressed approval of self-help projects in their Dioceses which have been funded by the General Convention Special Program.
Bishop Murray in the discussion of the grants raised the question of "who we are supposed to support. " Is it, he asked, a question of choice between "black militant organizations who want nothing to do with the white community or groups with which we can work for change and reconciliation and in which there can be local Episcopal Church involvement."
Leon E. Modeste, director of the General Convention Special Program, to whom the question was directed, indicated that the Church would have to seek to assist both types of groups.
Mr. Modeste also was questioned about a $4,000 grant to the Ocean Hill-Brownsville school board, New York City. He said the grant had been made to help the local school district tell its side of the story in a school decentralization dispute with the organized teachers of the New York school system. He said the board had no funds available for public relations purposes to present their story to the public.
Several speakers, including Bishop Stuart and Mr. Modeste, said that the General Convention Special Program seemed to be creating in many areas an interest in the Episcopal Church on the part of many persons who have been assisted through the Special Program.
From 10 a.m. until nearly 5 p.m. on Wednesday, December 11, members of the Council discussed what they had learned in visiting 82 Dioceses.
After hearing a report which enumerated the concerns expressed by Diocesan groups, the Council members shared their experiences and sought to define the significance of what they had heard.
Running throughout comments by members was a recognition that there is a division in the Church, a "cleavage" which was described as "theological."
Mr. Osborn said part of the Church believes the Church should be "activist" and others believe "the Church should convert individuals who can then act."
Others expressed the opinion that the question of division between the Executive Council and the local Churches was a matter of "better communications."
The Rt. Rev. Stephen Bayne, Council first vice president, said he did not believe that it was "a P.R. problem."
"The Church is being over-communicated," he said. "It's really a question of how they can communicate with us.
He urged the establishment of better and more open relationships with the Bishops and Dioceses and Executive Council.
A proposal for a visitation to be made to all Dioceses in the Spring of 1969 was referred to the Council's Executive and Finance Committee for a report at the February meeting of the Council.
Responding to official requests from the Dioceses of Quincy and Springfield, the Council took up the question of whether or not to reconsider the action taken in September which called for a one-year boycott of the city of Chicago for Council-sponsored meetings.
By a vote of 40 to 3 Council members decided not to reconsider its action. Three members favoring reconsideration asked that their votes be recorded: the Rt. Rev. George M. Murray, Bishop Coadjutor of Alabama; the Rt. Rev. Russell T. Rauscher, Bishop of Nebraska and Mr. Osborn.
In commenting on the action the Rt. Rev. G. Francis Burrill, Bishop of Chicago, who voted against reconsideration, said that "no good can come from further debate. We should close ranks and get on with the Church's business." He had voted against the boycott in September, although he conceded the resolution had "good motivation. "
The one million dollars authorized for investment in ghetto enterprises will come from Council undesignated trust funds and will bring to two million dollars the money made available for such purposes. The Council heard from Charles Bound, New York banker, who reported that nearly a million dollars has already been invested under the program -- either as deposits in ghetto banks or as funds made available to "umbrella" organizations which aid community groups in establishing their own businesses.
He said the Executive Council had recently invested $20,000 in a Harlem foundry which is owned and operated by ghetto entrepreneurs and provides employment for around 40 residents of the Harlem area.
Other highlights of the Executive Council meeting included:
--- A statement by the Presiding Bishop who reported that around $170, 000 has been received in the Biafra Hunger Appeal. He described it as a rewarding response by the Church. He contrasted this with the indifference and '"even hostility" that some members of the Church have shown toward the General Convention Special Program.
--- The approval of a special order of business on American Indians for the February meeting to be presented by Indians. The Council directed that money be made available in the 1969 budget for a conference of American Indian and Eskimo clergy and laity. It asked for the establishment of a National Advisory Committee of American Indian Churchmen and for an adequate program for the development of an indigenous ministry.
--- The establishment of a Committee on World Hunger. The committee is to develop a long-range strategy calling the whole Church to prayer and action in a program on behalf of the hungry and poverty stricken in the United States and throughout the world. It would include education, setting of new priorities, greater extra-budgetary giving, family planning, legislation and cooperation with other Churches and secular agencies.
--- The election of the Rev. Rustin Kimsey, vicar of St. Stephen's Church, Baker, Ore., to succeed the Very Rev. William B. Spofford, Jr., recently elected Missionary Bishop of Eastern Oregon. The Rt. Rev. Russell T. Rauscher, Bishop of Nebraska, attended his first meeting of the Council as a representative of Province VI.
--- The approval of the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief as the national objective of the 1970 Church School Missionary Offering.
--- Passage of memorials honoring the late Spencer Miller, Jr., and the late Rev. Vesper O. Ward, S.T.D. Mr. Miller served as a Consultant on Industrial Relations for fourteen years to the staff of Executive Council. Dr. Ward was editor in chief of the Church's Teaching Series.