North Carolina Community Grants Discussed by Council
Diocesan Press Service. February 19, 1975 [75073]
GREENWICH, Conn. -- The Executive Council of the Episcopal Church, at its February 18-19 meeting, spent some time discussing misunderstandings about three black community grants in the Diocese of North Carolina.
Reporting for the Ministry Committee to the Council, chairman George Guernsey of St. Louis, Mo., said that no official request for discussion had come from the diocese but that it was proper for the three grants approved by the Community Action and Human Development (CAHD) Commission to be discussed.
CAHD is one of five units in Mission Service and Strategy ( MS & S), which is the coordinated grant and program section for ethnic and racial minorities. Bishop Richard B. Martin, executive for ministries, is head of MS & S, and the staff of CAHD are Howard Quander and the Rev. Earl Neil.
The first grant, to Sound and Print, a community group that operates a radio station in Warrenton, N.C., was protested by Bishop Thomas A. Fraser of North Carolina because he had not received a field appraisal in advance of CAHD approval for funding, as required by the General Convention guidelines.
Mr. Guernsey conceded that "the Bishop of North Carolina is technically absolutely correct" in saying that "one particular procedural matter was not followed." He said that the CAHD did not realize that this was a Convention-approved requirement. "Because of lack of staff," Mr. Guernsey said, "all of the field appraisals were not automatically referred in all cases."
On November 6, 1974, he said, the CAHD approved funding the project in the amount of $35, 000, with $20, 000 to be sent immediately, the field appraisal having been done in October. The CAHD assumed, Mr. Guernsey said, that Bishop Fraser had no objection since no opposition had been filed within the required 30 days. "The problem was," he said, "that Bishop Fraser had not received the field appraisal, so he didn't think the 30 days had expired. "
Bishop Fraser "has dropped his opposition" to the grant, he reported, since the field appraisal has now been received.
The second North Carolina grant was to the North Carolina Federation of Child Development Centers, Whitakers, N.C. Two applications had been submitted by the Centers, one for $6,000 for student interns, and another for $40,000 for general program funding.
Meeting on November 6, 1974, the CAHD approved the $6,000 grant only, according to Mr. Guernsey, because the commission "had indications the money was available from other sources " for the $40,000 request.
In response to Bishop Fraser's request, a field appraisal was submitted to him. The bishop's complaint to the CAHD, Mr. Guernsey said, was that he wondered why the second grant to the Centers was not made since he had approved it.
Bishop Fraser's objection voiced about the third grant -- to the Joseph Waddell Free Ambulance Service, Winston-Salem, N.C. -- was that he had read about the funding by CAHD in the press before he received a field appraisal.
Mr. Guernsey said the grant of $5,000 had been made at the November meeting of CAHD, subject to "favorable field appraisal" and the approval of the bishop, because that was the last meeting of the committee during the 1974 fiscal year.
Bishop Fraser wrote to CAHD, Mr. Guernsey said, to complain that he had read about the funding in the January issue of The Episcopalian at which time "he had not seen the appraisal and had not given his approval. "
The field appraisal was sent to Bishop Fraser at the end of January and receipt of it in the bishop's office was acknowledged a short while later.
Mr. Guernsey said the funding of this project "has been held in limbo" since the company had account for only $25, 000 of a previous grant of $35,000. The new grant could not be paid, he said, until the previous one was accounted for, according to the guidelines. The accounting for the last $10, 000 has just now been received, he said.
Presiding Bishop John M. Allin said, "For the sake of communication and for the sake of staff I want to add for the record the fact that the Bishop of North Carolina's communication with Bishop Martin and with me was received in my office with both Mr. Quander and Mr. Neil. Our response was totally positive. "
He said that he and the staff had informed Bishop Fraser, "You shall have future field appraisals. We fully recognize your procedure and know there must be an effort to comply with it. "
In support of the MS & S and CAHD staff, Bishop Allin said "the response has been total and the effort has been total, and I really think that there needs to be some of that reporting by the Bishop of North Carolina in North Carolina. "
The Council voted to table a resolution introduced by Philip Masquelette of Houston, Tex., expressing the Council's "regrets to the bishops, standing committee and people of North Carolina for the failure of the CAHD and Executive Council staff to follow guidelines and procedures for the approval of CAHD grants since October, 1974, in the Diocese of North Carolina. "
After the resolution was tabled, Mr. Masquelette asked that his negative vote be recorded, together with a statement expressing his "regret" that a Council member "would find it necessary to resort to the parliamentary device of a motion to table on a matter of importance to this Council which has not had an extended discussion."
He said that he felt "that this Council would be served better in the future " if "persons of varying points of view " could be heard.
The Rev. Robert R. Parks of New York City asked whether any member of the Council had not had opportunity to be heard. "I personally felt I had heard all I needed to hear and wanted to hear, " he said.
But, he added, "the assumption that will accompany this statement is that many people were suppressed by parliamentary procedure."
Only the Rev. William Powell of Stillwater, Okla., responded, saying he had wanted to ask if anyone had written to express regret "for our failure to comply" with the field appraisal procedure.
Mrs. Seaton Bailey of Griffin, Ga., said that when she recently attended the North Carolina diocesan convention in Winston-Salem she "said this" and had "pointed out that it was a perfectly legitimate mistake on our part and we were sorry. "
The Rev. John S. Spong of Richmond, Va., who introduced the motion to table the resolution, said he had heard what members of Council and staff had said, and "I didn't want to get in the position of having to vote against apologizing. That's a bad position to get into and the best thing to do is to table it. "
Bishop Allin said, "I'm ready to respond and apologize anytime. On the other hand, I share a life in this fellowship, and in this case we have made it right down the line that we wanted to respond in every way. Now, I think there's a responsibility on the other side that gives us a chance to do that, " he added.
"At no point -- let the record be clear -- have we said, 'You can't have (the grant).' We have said, 'Of course we're going to give it to you,' and everybody has cooperated. Now, I don't think that calls for an apology. I just want to be clear before somebody apologizes for me and for staff, because we're trying, and I don't know if you can do any more than that. "