New Emphasis for Coalition 14 is Mission and Ministry, Not Money
Episcopal News Service. March 21, 1991 [91075]
Dick Snyder
The decision last year to directly fund Indian ministries in the Episcopal Church eliminated the haggling over allocation of dollars at the recent annual gathering of Coalition 14 (C-14) and allowed members of the coalition to focus on mission and ministry.
"I have no idea exactly where we're going," said the newly reelected president of C-14, Bishop John Ashby of Western Kansas, at the conclusion of the meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona. "But we all want to go together. C-14 is alive with new life and new direction -- wondrous and significant changes in the way we do God's work."
Formed in 1970 by 14 dioceses, C-14 has served as a conduit for funds from the national church to rural, aided dioceses. In recent years it had also served as the major financing source for member dioceses involved with Native American ministries.
Last year the coalition agreed to have all funds for Indian ministry channeled through the Episcopal Council on Indian Ministries (ECIM). That means that two-thirds of the $1.4 million formerly received by C-14 will go to ECIM; the balance will go to member dioceses largely for base budget support.
Bishop William Wantland of Eau Claire noted that the coalition was instrumental in the formation of ECIM and "gave Indian people a voice in their own church."
Wantland said that the heritage of C-14 would be passed on to the ECIM with the experience it has accumulated in the past two decades: a credible structure and guidelines for self-support and accountability, and providing a vehicle to speak "with clout" to the national church.
Ashby said that future C-14 meetings probably will include others in the church who are involved with regional, rural, innovative ministries. Meetings may focus on a particular aspect of ministry, he said. At this year's conference, delegates discussed regional, cluster, and ecumenical ministry; training for lay and ordained ministry; nontraditional forms of ordained ministry; environmental issues; development of spirituality; and congregations in transition.
Bishop Rustin Kimsey of the Diocese of Eastern Oregon noted that "our past will help us move into the future." Coalition members "have a belief and hope, a common shared vision in something we call total ministry."
Diocesan members of the coalition are Alaska, Arizona, Eastern Oregon, Eau Claire, Idaho, Montana, Navajoland, Nevada, North Dakota, North Michigan, Rio Grande, San Joaquin, South Dakota, Utah, Western Kansas, and Wyoming.