Council Deals with Church in Society Issues
Episcopal News Service. May 18, 1978 [78148]
GREENWICH, Conn. -- Civil disobedience and abortion rights dominated debate as the 41-member Executive Council of the Episcopal Church acted on issues ranging from condemnation of rightist extremism to opposition of lobbying disclosure acts.
The issues came out of the report of the Council's Standing Committee on Church in Society, chaired by Suffragan Bishop Quintin E. Primo of Chicago, during the May meeting at the Church's national conference center, Seabury House, here.
The civil disobedience question was raised through a letter from the Rev. and Mrs. Howard Lull of St. John's Episcopal Church in Franklin, N.C. The Lulls had asked the Church to join other denominations in supporting those who conscientiously object to paying taxes used to support military budgets.
On the recommendation of the committee, the Council authorized the secretary, the Rev. James R. Gundrum, to inform the Lulls that the Church shares their concern about war and the arms buildup and will be actively represented at the United Nations Conference on Disarmament which is underway from May 23 to June 28. The statement to the Lulls will also cite the 1964 General Convention resolution "On Christian Obedience" which holds that, under extraordinary circumstances and "severe restraint," the Church "recognizes the right of all persons, for reasons of informed conscience, to disobey such laws," provided the disobedience is peaceful and the participants willing to accept the civil penalties.
That resolution passed the House of Bishops but was defeated by the lay order in the House of Deputies division on the issue.
The Very Rev. Urban T. Holmes, Council member from Tennessee, urged the Council not "to take these people too lightly." He urged that the secretary's letter convey the full pastoral concern of the Council for the Lull's action.
The Council also passed a resolution authorizing participation in the United Nations disarmament conference which had been mentioned in the letter to the Lulls and requested the prayers of the Church "for wisdom for the participants in the conference and for its success."
Four Episcopal Church Center staff officers -- the Revs. Alfred Johnson, public affairs; Winston Ching, Asian ministries; and Samir Habiby, Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief; and the Rt. Rev. Charles L. Burgreen, Suffragan Bishop for the Armed Forces -- will take part in the conference.
The subject of the Church's participation in the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights was again raised; this time through requests from Episcopal Churchwomen in the Diocese of Washington and the Episcopal Women's Caucus that the Council commit the Church to membership in the Coalition.
The resolution which the committee sent to the floor cited in part a 1967 General Convention resolution (which was reaffirmed in 1976) that held abortion to be permissable under severely circumscribed conditions and "with the advice and counsel of a priest of this Church, and, where appropriate, Penance...."
The resolution presented by Dr. Paul Neuhauser, Council member from Iowa, went on to assert that the "position of the Coalition seems to advocate an unconditional right to abortion." The committee felt that this was incompatible with the position of General Convention and the original resolution urged the petitioners be notified of that stand.
Council member George Guernsey called the proposal a "putdown and a travesty" just to tell the petitioners to go back "and study what General Convention said." He was joined in opposition by Council members Leona Bryant of the Virgin Islands and the Rev. Paul Washington of Philadelphia.
The Rt. Rev. William H. Folwell, Bishop of Central Florida, proposed an amendment that would inform the petitioners that the Coalition stand was inconsistent with that of General Convention and that for that reason, their request could not be granted. This was accepted by the committee and adopted by a Council voice vote with Guernsey, Bryant and Washington being joined in dissent by the Rev. Canon Edward Morgan of Connecticut.
Four resolutions which had come from the National Council of Churches were debated with two -- calling on Church people to resist the apparent growth of neo-Nazism and the Ku Klux Klan -- winning strong Council approval.
The other two were resolutions by which the Council disassociated itself from pending NCCC statements on Indian Affairs and energy policies because these were both issues that were under current Council study. Both resolutions -- which repeat the assertion that the NCCC "speaks to but not for its individual member denominations" -- were passed by the Council.
The Council also threw its support behind a resolution condemning legislation which is before Congress that would force churches to disclose all time and money spent in so-called "lobbying" activities in a way that might damage church-state relations and would be awkward to administer.
Dr. Neuhauser told the Council that the proposal had been drawn by the committee as an alternative to one from the NCCC and that if such laws were to pass, the time Council spent in debating a stockholder resolution would have to be valued monetarily. As passed by Council, the resolution is limited to protection of a Church's non-commercial enterprises.
At the request of the committee, Council also passed a resolution deploring alleged genocide in Cambodia and asking President Carter and United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young to press for full investigation of those allegations by the United Nations.