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Venture in Mission Training Session Held

Episcopal News Service. October 20, 1977 [77335]

Salome Breck

DENVER, Colo. -- Mission, and ministry to the needs of people, has always been a major goal for the Episcopal Church. However mission requires not only dedication, but funding.

"Venture in Mission," called "the most inspiring yet practical program the Church has undertaken in years," is now ready to be presented for the second time toThe story of why, how, and when the Church will begin to take this monumental step in faith will be carried out to 91 dioceses by a group of men and women who met in Denver for training, Sept. 19-22. the dioceses.

They came in faith. They left, 39 convinced and enthusiastic Episcopalians. They will go in pairs with the message that Venture in Mission is a program now ready to benefit both the national Church and the participating dioceses.

Briefly, this is the story of Venture. It began with the General Conventions of 1970 and 1973 which called for some kind of capital funds drive. This was envisioned as a program which should renew the Church, giving it faith and focus as well as providing money with which to carry out its work.

At the General Convention in 1976 the plea for a Venture program became more specific: "We call upon members of this Church to join together to work and pray and give for the goals of Venture in Mission."

And so the Venture began. At that convention a support group, "The committee of Two Hundred," volunteered.

An executive committee was developed, and Bishop Harold Gosnell, recently retired Bishop of West Texas, and Lueta (Mrs. Seaton) Bailey, were put in charge of training sessions.

Last spring, 92 of the 93 dioceses of the American Church -- plus the Navajoland Episcopal Church -- were visited. Diocesan leaders were asked to list their own major goals. Results were tabulated, then collated by a committee appointed from the dioceses, and led by Mrs. Bailey and Bishop Gosnell.

Naturally there were many duplications of goals in this enormous list of projected diocesan programs. These were grouped into major areas, then subdivided.

Diocesan reports from those meetings also showed a need for tremendous flexibility in the final draft of Venture in Mission. Some dioceses had felt such a need for capital funds that they had proceeded with their own money-raising drives, and would join Venture on a national level only. Other dioceses had been waiting for the Venture program to join with a diocesan effort. Still others wanted their own campaigns.

When the collating committee completed its work it had grouped the priority list into 17 broad categories. The screening committee then reworked the list. As it now stands there are five major divisions, with many subdivisions.

These are the major goals of the Church as the majority of Episcopalians see them, simply listed, and not in any order of priority. Three-page reports from the jurisdictions visited yield this information:

  • The Church wants to center its effort on aiding its educational institutions enriching its congregational life
  • developing and supporting more special ministries (such as chaplain services)
  • seeing the world as a community; and providing more help for social concerns.

The program was endorsed by the recent meeting of Executive Council. The men and women who would make the visitations to dioceses met in Denver with Lueta Bailey, Bishop Gosnell and Margaret Andersen from the Department of Communication at the Episcopal Church's headquarters, New York.

The entire program was thoroughly studied, questions were asked and answered. The complicated scheduling of diocesan visits was completed, and the visitors are now meeting with diocesan groups.

Of the Denver meeting Lueta Bailey said, "I am exhilarated! The enthusiasm this group showed, right from the start, shows we are on the right track. They have caught the Venture spirit."

Bishop Gosnell said he saw "lots of commitment here. If these people can carry out to our dioceses the spirit they have shown, it can mean a miracle of new life for our Church."

Polly Keller, wife of the Bishop of Arkansas and a member of the team said, "I am very enthusiastic, and I haven't always felt this way about the Venture program. But having helped make the visits in the spring, I can see the fruits of this. The Church is finally facing the need to 'put its money where its mouth is."'

Ed Freeland, assistant to the Bishop of Alabama, believes we "now have an opportunity to move forward unified" after "all the fuss and trauma the Church has been facing.

Jan Duncan is from another part of the country, Pennsylvania. "I think it is a super plan," said Jan. "It's a way to channel all the energy which has been with us, all the time. "

Dean Allen Bartlett of Christ Church Cathedral, Louisville, Kentucky, sees the benefit of Venture in Mission in the very fact of participation. "Of course we need more money to work with," he explained, "but the fact that we are working together is the real thrust."

Jane (Mrs. Gordon II) Auchincloss of Millbrook, New York, said she was "one of the members of the Committee of Two Hundred. And at Convention I had many misgivings, but I had pledged myself to be useful. Now I am seeing Venture as a real enabling program."

"I think this is the most exciting thing the Church has done," said the Rev. Thomas Carson of Greenville, South Carolina, who is a member of Venture's executive committee. "I anticipate great response. "

Aileen (Mrs. Ernest E.) Rucker of Lynchburg, Virginia, on the General Division of Women's work for six years sees Venture as "a wonderful opportunity for the Church. I just hope I can impart my enthusiasm to others as I go out to visit dioceses."

The Rev. Henry Burton of Lincoln, Nebraska, sees Venture in Mission as "the result of insight given the national Church at General Convention."

The Rev. Canon Jack Knight of Colorado was a member of the Collation Committee as well as the visitation team. "The important thing being shown here is an actual demonstration in credibility. We asked the Church what it thought of the Venture program and what was reported back to us is now directing the focus of the campaign. "

Another Colorado team member, John Carson, III, of Littleton, is chairman of the Program, Budget and Finance Committee for General Convention, and has been a member of that committee for several years.

"I've seen the invisible cap on the giving of this church, which never exceeds $13 million," he said. "This is hardly adequate to maintain existing programs, much less enable the implementation of new programs. Hopefully Venture in Mission will unite the whole Church and open our minds and our hearts -- and our check books!"

Roger Ewing of Kansas City said, "All we will be doing is to present an opportunity, which we see as magnificent!"

The Rev. Hunsdon Cary, Jr., of Palm Beach, Florida, also called Venture and opportunity -- "The greatest to ever hit the Church!"

On hearing of the success of the Denver meeting, Presiding Bishop John M. Allin called to give the visitation team members a special greeting:

"I am rejoicing to hear of the very real sense of commitment all of you have brought to this training session. May it be very contagious and spread throughout the Church.

"My prayer from the outset has been that we would get the Episcopal Church -- every member of it -- to realize that Venture in Mission is the one thing that we all share.

"It is not a program -- it is the program. It is not some person's program or the Presiding Bishop's program. It is the Lord's program... and He is empowering us to share in it.

"It is essential that the message you are going to carry help the people you visit to understand that you are not asking them to do something for an abstract called 'the national Church'. We are trying to move and empower mission everywhere... there is something for all of us to do....I give thanks that you are responding, and people are beginning to sense this enthusiasm.... The vision is coming clear, and I thank you."

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