Council Plans Development Strategy
Diocesan Press Service. February 6, 1974 [74036]
GREENWICH, Conn. -- The Executive Council of the Episcopal Church spent almost a full day discussing the direction it would like to see the Church go in the next decade and what resources would be necessary to get it there.
The Council was responding to a resolution sponsored by the Council itself and adopted by the General Convention last fall in Louisville, Ky., which directed the Office of Development "to arrange visits and consultations with representatives of parishes, dioceses, the national church, and others, for the purpose of developing a strategy to release the human and financial resources of the church. " The study is to be completed by February, 1975, for action and implementation by the Council.
The Council adopted several resolutions which set the study in motion.
One resolution called for "the corporate wisdom of the Executive Council members " to consider certain suggested sample questions for the purpose of determining "where this Council is in terms of our answers to the questions," which relate to the future direction of the Episcopal Church's mission.
Also, the Council decided, there should "be a procedure to listen to the world apart from Church groups so that our response can be to that data also."
In November, 1973, following the meeting of General Convention, Oscar C. Carr, Jr., Vice President for Development, called together the development advisory committee, which asked the Presiding Bishop and the President of the House of Deputies to exert challenging leadership; affirmed the available human and financial resources of the Church; and urged clear goals and objectives and a process that would involve the maximum number of people in order to release these resources.
The Standing Committee on Finance/Development in December, 1973, endorsed in principle the report of the advisory committee and asked Mr. Carr to meet with a representative group of bishops to test the preliminary development strategy.
In January, 1974, a design committee, headed by Mr. Carr, met with 10 bishops from various parts of the Church, who discussed the proposal and worked out several possible models.
At the February meeting, the Council and others present discussed the proposed strategy in small groups. In addition to members of the Council, the ad hoc committees included Council staff, members of the press, and officials of the Episcopal Church Foundation.
The Council's action did not commit it to a fund raising campaign, but rather to a study of the Episcopal Church's mission in the future and what human and financial resources will be necessary to accomplish this.
A sub-committee of Finance/Development was formed to continue working on the proposal and to report to the Council at its June meeting. The members of the committee are: Bishop John M. Burgess of Massachusetts; Dr. Charles V. Willie of Syracuse, N.Y.; George T. Guernsey III of St. Louis; the Rev. John S. Spong of Richmond, Va.; Marcus A. Cummings of Cincinnati; Mrs. John S. Jackson, Jr. of Lake Oswego, Ore.; the Rev. Robert R. Parks of New York City; Walker Taylor of Wilmington, N.C.; and Mr. Carr, staff liaison. The committee will meet in mid-March in Washington, D.C.
The text of the resolutions adopted by the Council is as follows:
RESOLVED:
1. We recognize that we are involved in a year of study and data gathering to determine whether or not to launch a Campaign in February of 1975.
2. We believe that the corporate wisdom of the Executive Council members should be given to suggested sample questions and discover where this Council is in terms of our answers to the questions.
3. We believe that in addition to suggested sample procedures there needs to be a procedure to listen to the world apart from Church groups so that our response can be to that data also.
4. We believe a sub-committee of Finance and Development should be appointed to work between now and June to push this process on to the next step.