I am a friend of Ellen Cooke. She is a sister in Christ in the Episcopal Church. Because of her sinister acts I am in pain: for her and her family; for our Bishop Browning, who had absolute trust in her; for our national staff with whom she worked closely; for those in the world to whom the mission of the church is directed but are now deprived; and for the Executive Council to whom she was responsible.

I met Ellen in 1986 when she was appointed treasurer of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society (the "national church") by our newly elected Presiding Bishop and the Executive Council. Over the years we have worked together in various roles, including between 1988 and 1994 when I served on the Executive Council. I admire her ability to handle many complex matters simultaneously with thorough attention to detail, along with many other favorable attributes.

The third page at the beginning of my Bible tells me about temptation and the human condition. Each day I pray as our Lord taught about temptations. Very early in my business career, a superior who handled millions of dollars of other people's money, demonstrated his human weakness by embezzling what today would amount to $5 million. After four years of handling large amounts of money with inadequate auditing oversight, he succumbed to the temptation. The lesson to this young business neophyte was clear: Insist upon detailed annual audits by the most competent independent CPAs, operate your business with as fool proof internal accounting procedures as possible, and still be paranoid about those with access to funds.

In the Episcopal Church we are not good financial managers. Every year, it seems, someone I know is caught misappropriating church money - a rector skimming the plate offering or personally using other funds to which he has easy access, a parish treasurer, a deanery officer, someone at the diocesan level, and now at our national level. It is my observation that poor financial management abounds across the Episcopal Church. There is almost universal disregard for our national canon that mandates annual audits for every congregation. I know of no congregation that does one!

Why are we poor financial fiduciaries? To a large part it is trust of other Christians. Although we understand the nature of the human condition and our clergy deal each day with sins and wickedness of all kinds, we still assume complete and unquestionable trust in our money handlers. The problem is even deeper.

William G. Bowen, president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and formerly president of Princeton University, recently addressed part of our problem in an article in the September-October 1994 issue of the Harvard Business Review. Although writing to a general audience, he speaks directly to the governance of the Episcopal Church at all levels with our multitude of commissions, committees, councils, etc. He particularly reflects my experience serving on Executive Council.

Mr. Bowen laments that "well-regarded representatives of the business world ... sometimes seem to have checked their analytical skills and 'toughness' at the door." This is because executives are perceived in a "barbarian image" [sic] by those who work in the nonprofit world. Business people often seek to "soften that image" by a "reluctance to blow the proverbial whistle ..." and in other ways fail to use their talents, including, in my mind, sharing their sense and knowledge of good financial management.

Mr. Bowen quotes our Bishop of Los Angeles, the Rt. Rev. Frederick Borsch, that "some businesspeople are poor board members of nonprofits because they can't stand the slower more collegial pace of decision making." Bishop Borsch is, of course, correct, as far as he goes. Even in the church, business professionals must learn a great deal of patience. But the problem is far deeper.

I am one of Mr. Bowen's barbarians - a business entrepreneur. My Myers-Briggs personality type is a typical ESTP/J. This is the configuration of business leaders. In contrast, it is my observation that the typeology of the overwhelming preponderance of individuals in the governance of the Episcopal Church at national and diocesan levels is either ENFJ or INFJ. This is particularly true of our clergy (including bishops) who have an almost universal NF configuration.

In the present case, in 1991 a "barbarian" on Executive Council commented that a trend in business was to change audit firms every three or four years, and suggested that we do the same. He also suggested that a large national/international CPA firm might be able to provide better service at no increase in cost. The reason businesses change auditors is that financial managers become cozy with the audit staff that appears year after year, and will learn over a few years the particular sampling techniques used by that firm. Therefore, a cozy and observant financial executive learns how to divert funds that go unchecked - and they are tempted and sometimes fall.

The Executive Council did not follow the "barbarian's" suggestion to change auditors. To make matters worse, the council elected as the chair of the finance oversight committee a priest - a wonderful man of God with an outstanding parish ministry background who had provided great visionary leadership at the provincial level, but who had no particular business or financial management experience. He was placed at the head of a committee that oversees a budget of tens of millions of dollars, with assets of hundreds of millions, managed by a large accounting staff.

In this triennium, the council has elected to be head of this financial oversight committee an outstanding bishop with great leadership skills; but like his predecessor, possesses no background in financial management.

If the reports I have are correct, Ellen Cooke did wrong. There is no doubt about it. But as a member of the Executive Council at the time much of this was happening, I, too, must share the responsibility for allowing this human being to be tempted. I knew from my background that we should change audit firms; that our CPAs should have a national/international practice; and that the chair of our financial oversight committee should be a business professional who would see to it that the tough questions would be asked of all of those handling and accounting for our money. But as one perceived in the image of a "barbarian," I sat quietly. To many of my colleagues on that council, God's peace meant tranquility. I did not challenge those critical decisions.

It is clear to me, after years of service at all levels of this church, until we allow our "barbarian" brothers and sisters better opportunities to contribute openly their analytical and financial skills, and their acute vision, we will continue to have the failures we have just witnessed. Good people handling God's money will continue to be tempted, and like Adam, some will fall. o