Eleven Dioceses Gather to Form Global Episcopal Mission Network
Episcopal News Service. May 18, 1995 [95092]
Charlie Rice, Editorial Assistant for the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio
(ENS) Evangelism is the primary work of the church -- and too important to limit to just a Decade of Evangelism, Bishop Herbert Thompson of the Diocese of Southern Ohio told an April mission meeting in Cincinnati.
"I think that the Decade of Evangelism is a dumb idea," Thompson declared to a group of 18 representatives from 11 dioceses who gathered to organize Global Episcopal Mission (GEM) Network. "What are we going to do when the decade is over? It's like having a decade of the Eucharist, or a decade of prayer, or a decade of love."
The GEM Network was founded at last year's General Convention to maintain and enhance missionary efforts by the Episcopal Church in the face of significant budget shortfalls.
The Rev. Canon Patrick Mauney, director of Anglican and Global Relations at the Episcopal Church Center, painted a bleak picture of the recent history of missionary activities.
"In the 1950's, there were 400-plus missionaries in the Episcopal Church," said Mauney, who served as a missionary in Brazil. "In 1985, we had 80-plus appointees -- long-term people -- and about the same number of volunteers. In recent years we have had a steady decrease. Now we have 25 appointees and about the same number of volunteers.
"In 1991 we ran into a brick wall, with significant cuts in staff," Mauney said. "In a little over three years, one-third of the national staff that supports mission work has been cut. Last year, there was a very real possibility that the national church would no longer sponsor any missionaries."
Last summer, when it appeared that missionary funding might be eliminated from the national church budget, Thompson and Bishop Richard Grein of New York gathered more than 40 bishops at General Convention to discuss the future of world mission.
Judy Gillespie of Trinity Church, New York, former executive for world missions of the national church, related that she told the bishops in Indianapolis "that even if we had not had this problem with the budget, we needed something like the GEM Network, and every head nodded. There's a frustration there, as well as at the grass roots level. We need to bridge a gap.
"In the past, the primary sending agencies have been the national church and private mission groups," Gillespie said, such as the South American Mission Society (SAMS). "If GEM works, the primary sending agency will become the dioceses. This allows the diocese to set standards for discernment, training and support of individuals called to missionary work."
Ruth Jones of Southern Ohio, who has served on missionary planning groups for many years, added, "In our diocese, we talked to the Commission on Ministry about doing some of the screening for potential missionaries, and they are very excited about this."
Although General Convention restored limited funding, a letter went out to all bishops of the Episcopal Church to organize the GEM Network to enhance global mission efforts.
One recurring theme during the Cincinnati meeting was the need for mutual dependency and mutual accountability between the people in the pews, the congregations, the dioceses, the national church, independent sending agencies and other parts of the Anglican Communion.
Archdeacon Mike Kendall of the Diocese of New York summed it up, saying: "Mission is an instinct that we all have. GEM is a vehicle to fulfill that instinct -- a network of mutual support between congregations and dioceses."
"GEM will also give us a network for support and advocacy for suffering churches," noted the Rev. Patrick Augustine of the Diocese of Virginia.
Jones, who serves as a member of the GEM steering committee, outlined in a prepared statement the basic purposes of the GEM Network:
- We will work with dioceses to increase awareness of global mission and active participation in the development, sending and receiving of missionaries;
- GEM will exist primarily to enable dioceses to develop their own process for mission sending and receiving:
- All activities will be done collaboratively with the (national church), especially the office of Anglican and Global Relations, the independent missionary societies and the Episcopal Council on Global Mission.
Speaking to the structure of the network, the Rev. Eugene Sutton of the Diocese of New Jersey noted that "GEM will be a membership organization initially made up of dioceses who want to engage their congregations in the expansion of the missionary efforts of the Episcopal Church." Each member diocese will name a primary contact person who is ideally "supported by a global mission committee." Sutton also spoke of plans to convene an annual meeting, elect a governing board, and maintain a small operating staff.
"Our task," said Thompson, "is to remember who we are -- the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Episcopal Church."