Modeste to Produce Permanent Report on GCSP
Diocesan Press Service. December 13, 1973 [73266]
GREENWICH, Conn. -- Leon Modeste, director of the Episcopal Church's General Convention Special Program (GCSP), which will be phased out on December 31, 1973, has been given a six months' contract to produce "a permanent record of the six critical years " of the GCSP in the Episcopal Church's life, according to an announcement by the Executive Council's executive vice president, the Rt. Rev. Roger Blanchard.
"I have done this," he said, "because I believe that he is the best person to do this job."
Mr. Modeste became director of the GCSP at the time of its establishment by the Episcopal Church's General Convention in Seattle, Wash., in 1967. Since that time, the GCSP has administered grants totaling $7.5 million to some 300 community action groups. The program was established to reflect the Episcopal Church's concern for the poor and powerless and for racial and ethnic minorities, in response to Presiding Bishop John E. Hines' call for such a program at the 1967 Convention.
The General Convention, meeting recently in Louisville, Ky., established a new staff section to coordinate the church's program and grant concerns for racial and ethnic minorities. The new section, to be known as Mission Service and Strategy, will coordinate the program and administrative grants currently managed by the GCSP, the National Committee on Indian Work, the National Commission on Hispanic Affairs, and new work to be undertaken with Black Episcopalians and Asian Episcopalians.
Following Convention, the members of the GCSP staff were informed of their termination on December 31. In addition to Mr. Modeste, four associates and four secretaries were notified of their termination.
The contract between Mr. Modeste and the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society will extend for six months, beginning January 1, 1974. Dr. Charles Willie of Syracuse University and a member of the Executive Council, has agreed to be Mr. Modeste's consultant adviser. Dr. Willie is also vice president of the House of Deputies, one of the two houses of the General Convention.
The expenses for Mr. Modeste's task, Bishop Blanchard said, will be paid from a $100, 000 fund allocated for the transition period between the election and installation of a new Presiding Bishop. The Rt. Rev. John M. Allin of Mississippi is the Presiding Bishop- elect and will take office on June 1, 1974.
Bishop Wilburn C. Campbell of West Virginia said that while he thinks "it would be helpful to evaluate " the GCSP and to have a permanent record of "the magnificent parts of GCSP, " he is not convinced "that Leon Modeste is the best person to do it. " He said he felt that "an objective person " who had not been so closely associated with the GCSP would be "much more qualified" to evaluate the program.
Earlier in the Council meeting, Presiding Bishop John E. Hines in his message, expressed his "personal gratitude to Mr. Leon Modeste and to the highly trained professional staff which developed the General Convention Special Program and -- with it -- moved onto the scene of desperate human need among the powerless and the poor. "
Bishop Hines noted that the GCSP was launched ."amid a general ignorance, apathy and suspicion on the part of major segments of the Church." Sometimes, he said, "the program's thrust for liberation early brought into tension -- and occasionally open conflict -- the claims of Episcopal authority, and the claims of human needs regardless of diocesan boundaries."
The program, he said, "often exposed the ever-present festering sore of racism in practically every area of the life of the Church and the life of this nation. "
Though the program did not obliterate the evils of racism and paternalism, Bishop Hines said, and was hardly "able to make a dent in their persistent intractability, " it "did help some poor and despairing people to understand that somebody cared -- cared without wanting to exploit their misery. And it did light a brief candle in the gloom of the violent sixties. "
"I owe Mr. Modeste, and those who worked with him, very, very, much, " he said. "And so does the Episcopal Church. Whatever the shortcomings, and whatever the future, the General Convention Special Program under Leon Modeste can credit itself with being ' a moment in the conscience of men. '"
The Council adopted a resolution which expressed "the gratitude of the Episcopal Church to Mr. Modeste and his staff for enabling the Church to see itself anew as ' an institutional organism that lives in the world, and whose aim is to spend herself in mission."'