Coalition 14 Looks to the Future
Episcopal News Service. March 16, 1989 [89052]
Dick Snyder, Editor of The Desert Church, Diocese of Nevada
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (DPS, Mar. 16) -- Coalition 14 (C-14), one of the Episcopal Church's most innovative organizations enabling ministry, especially among American Indian and Alaskan Native people, is still going strong. C-14 recently (February 20-23) held their annual board meeting at the Franciscan Retreat Center in Scottsdale, Arizona, making key decisions for the months ahead and, despite the tensions that arise at the meetings of any group actively involved in committed ministry, arriving at the end of the meeting in solidarity. The Scottsdale meeting involved weighing grant requests that had come to C-14 and allocating $1.4 million in Episcopal Church funds and developing revised goals and bylaws for the group. Last year's annual meeting had set this year's meeting the task of revising goals and bylaws to reflect the changing nature of the coalition.
The C-14 board consists of the diocesan bishop or his representative and two other representatives from each of the 16 member dioceses (Alaska, Arizona, Eastern Oregon, Eau Claire, Idaho, Montana, Navajoland, Nevada, North Dakota, Northern Michigan, Rio Grande, San Joaquin, South Dakota, Utah, Western Kansas, and Wyoming).
Of the 16 member dioceses, eight receive some amount of aid from the Episcopal Church [nationally] through coalition grants. Most of the Church's ministry among American Indians and Alaskan Natives is conducted in four C-14 dioceses: South Dakota, North Dakota, Navajoland, and Alaska. Together, these four dioceses received almost 80 per cent of the $1.4 million allocated to the coalition by the Episcopal Church.
The board considered requests for funds totaling $1,469,554 from dioceses already receiving grants. Charles Bailly of North Dakota, chair of the coalition's budget and review committee, noted that the total requested was around $55,000 more than the amount available from the national Church.
In addition, there were three new requests for grants totaling $92,000. Those were for a cluster ministry program in Montana, an Hispanic and Asian ministry program in San Joaquin, and a regional ministry program in Western Kansas. Bailly said the requests were "well documented" and "exciting new missionary trusts," but could not be granted because of the lack of sufficient funds.
Priscilla Bell of Montana asked during the budget hearing how the coalition planned to fund next year's budget since, in her words, "You can't meet your budget now."
Next year's budget will be impacted by additional costs in North Dakota and Navajoland. Both of these dioceses are without bishops now but will be electing bishops in 1989 and will need additional funds for their salaries.
Coalition members agreed to seek additional funding from the national Church to meet the needs of the member dioceses.
Bishop Craig Anderson of South Dakota, who had requested $600,000 and was cut back to $564,000, said the cut in his budget was "critical" and asked that funds be restored. He noted that when he became Bishop of South Dakota, he developed a five-year plan that was approved by the coalition. This [1989] would be the final year of the plan, which called for restoring several of the clergy positions in the diocese that had been eliminated in previous years.
Bishop Ci Jones of Montana noted that problems with deficit spending in South Dakota had been dealt with. He added that C-14 would have to rethink its basic policy of developing financially independent dioceses, since that concept is, in Jones's words, "dead wrong" in light of increasing numbers of requests for aid each year.
The budget crunch was relieved in part through a grant to the coalition from the Diocese of Utah. Bishop George Bates, noting that Utah was formerly an aided diocese, pledged $50,000 annually for each of the next three years. In addition, Bishop William Wantland of Eau Claire said that his diocese had established a $100,000 trust fund and that interest from it would be available through a grant program for C-14 dioceses.
The new goals and bylaws generally reflect the founding purposes of the coalition. The five goals consist of extending the ministries of Christ among member dioceses; assisting with rural issues; encouraging stewardship of human, financial, and environmental resources; encouraging leadership training; and renewing the commitment to Indian ministry.
George Masuda, retired Bishop of North Dakota and C-14's first president, called the new goals and bylaws "fine-tuning" of earlier documents. He noted that reports indicate that the development and maintenance of trust among the member dioceses "is still a problem." Part of this problem, it was established, could be due to the election of new bishops and new C-14 board members, many of whom met for the first time at the February meeting.
One speaker characterized the coalition as a "journey from dependence to independence, and now, maybe, to interdependence." Bishop John Ashby of Western Kansas, new chairman of C-14, said the coalition "has perhaps shifted attention, but is still a coalition of people doing the work of our Lord." Ashby succeeded Bishop George Harris of Alaska, who presided at the Scottsdale meeting.
Jim Eckels of Utah was reelected secretary and Chris Telfer of Eastern Oregon was elected comptroller.
There were also election to C-14's executive board. Bishop Wantland, Paul Sherry of Alaska, Gary Young of Eastern Oregon, Randy Reinertz of South Dakota, and Quentin Kolb of Utah were elected in Scottsdale. Robert Two Bulls of South Dakota is the holdover member of the board.
C-14 was formed in the early 1970s, by 14 of the Church's small, rural, and aided dioceses (which were then called Missionary Districts). In addition to being the vehicle to distribute a block grant from the national Church, the coalition was also committed to developing new forms of ministry and to ministry among Indian people. Prior to the coalition, each Missionary District bishop traveled to the Episcopal Church Center in New York City individually, and the one with "the best pocketfull of stories about the Wild West came back with a pocketfull of money," recalled George Masuda.