Update of Long-Range Planning Process Heard
Episcopal News Service. November 20, 1980 [80416]
Greenwich, Conn. -- The Executive Council of the Episcopal Church, at its Nov. 12-14 meeting at Seabury House here, received an update report on its long-range planning process and accepted a revised time schedule for the next two years.
Presiding Bishop John M. Allin led off the report with a reminder that the resolution of General Convention in 1979 setting in motion the process did not call for "a long range plan for the church by a special planning group or committee. The call," he said, "is for a working system within the organization of this church to enable the General Convention more effectively to make policy decisions with long-range capabilities and effectiveness."
Bishop Allin and Dr. Charles R. Lawrence, President of the House of Deputies, were assigned the responsibility for directing the process which will lead to a report to each meeting of the triennial Convention, beginning at New Orleans in 1982. The Convention resolution calls for a report "on matters having to do with long-range policy for the Church."
A summary of the results of an issue-expectation survey of dioceses and other organizational units of the Church was presented to the Council. Replies from 24 of the 95 dioceses and 30 other units have been received, according to the Rev. Richard Gary, staff officer for National Mission Strategy.
Some of the diocesan trends identified in the survey -- with the number of citations -- are: evangelism and renewal (15), urban mission concerns (7), changing leadership roles (11), economic problems (15), and racial and ethnic tensions (7).
Adjustments were necessary in the time schedule for the process, Gary told the Council, because "We need more time to absorb what has been said (by the respondents in the survey), to gather other responses, and to reflect more deeply on our situation as church and society."