Presiding Bishop on the State of the Church
Diocesan Press Service. December 9, 1971 [97-8]
GREENWICH, Conn. -- "As I sense it, the general spirit of the Church is better all the way around than it was a year ago, better than it was two years ago, better than it was at the Houston General Convention."
This is what the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Rt. Rev. John E. Hines, told the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church at its meeting here December 7-9.
In response to a request from Council member Bishop John M. Burgess of Massachusetts, the Presiding Bishop spoke extemporaneously about the state of the Episcopal Church as he sees it today. He identified several major questions with which the Church has to "grapple" today.
* "The first of these," Bishop Hines said, "is the meaning of mission in today's world for the Church, and underlining it is the question what is the nature of the Church as it faces this mission."
The thrust of legitimate mission, he said, is symbolized by the General Convention Special Program which is beginning to make its impact at the level of the grass roots of the Church, and is being accepted as "a genuine part of the Church's responsibility in Christ."
Bishop Hines said that programs for empowerment and self-determination of the poor and minorities have had a "significant effect on other denominations and churches. Some of them feel that the Episcopal Church has pioneered in this immense and necessary field ."
* On the other hand, Bishop Hines observed, the Episcopal Church seems to be retreating from some of its ecumenical responsibilities. He expressed the hope that a new emphasis on ecumenical responsibilities will re-assure other churches.
* Concerning the new Trial Liturgy worship services, he said that this is the first time that so large a segment of the Church opinion has been concentrated on one concern and has been asked for its reaction.
"When you try things out (with the Prayer Book)," he said, "that's where people are anyway. They are not ipso facto as Christians caught up in the crunch between their social obligations as Christians and their commitments in faith. But they are in Church, a good many of them."
This process of responsible experimentation, he said, can make the worship of God effective in today's world.
* He said he is "heartened by the resurrection of the interest of the young people in the institutional Church." Further, he said, he feels "there is a fair group of young people who had their flyer out into a sort of nothingness," and some of them have found that individualistic movements are not able to minister to their needs "to be involved, and to belong, and to be committed, and to be supported, and also to support."
* The Presiding Bishop said that the financial situation seems to be "stabilizing" in the Episcopal Church.
* Bishop Hines said that he has observed more confidence in the Church at the national level -- including support for the leadership of the Executive Council -- since the Houston General Convention in October, 1970.
"There are many big questions ahead, " he said. "We are still in a very twilight area. I have great difficulty trying to establish yardsticks of criteria by which to gauge progress . . . . I am more optimistic about the ability of the Church to adopt and carry on effective and intelligent ministry than I was two years ago."
The Presiding Bishop said that he does not believe the effectiveness of the Episcopal Church can be measured by "numerical standards" such as money and communicants. " That's not what the world is looking for, " he said. " The world is looking for the integrity of the Church in its commitment to the faith which the Lord gave it . . . . I'm not pessimistic about the life of the Church but I'm not romantic about it either."
Nor does Bishop Hines believe there is any prospect for the Church being part of a "harmonious and so-called peaceful era in its mission, at least not during the time I'll be alive. But I don't find this incompatib1awith the Church's functioning and status in New Testament days or in its most creative times of history since that time. So, that neither alarms me nor depresses me. In many ways, it excites me."
Earlier in the meeting of the Executive Council, Bishop Hines, in his prepared Statement to the Council:
* reported on "interesting and rewarding visits" to the Diocese of Eastern Oregon and the Missionary Diocese of Mexico.
* expressed his "dismay and sorrow" that The Reader's Digest had been "a channel for inaccurate and slanted reporting" on the Program Against Racism of the World Council of Churches, which, he said, "has the earmarks of an incipient organized attack on the whole conciliar movement."