A news article summarized the "Common Draft Report" released by the Standing Committee on the Structure of the Church [TLC, July 21]. While the Titanic, read Episcopal Church, sinks, the committee rearranges the deck chairs, read committees.

As a member of the structure committee at the last two General Conventions, the issue of restructuring has been addressed by this committee in the manner much of the membership feared when the proposed resolutions were killed; in 1991 in the House of Deputies, and in 1994 in the House of Bishops. No committee appointed and charged by the current Presiding Bishop and the current president of the House of Deputies can truly address the problems.

We will not have an honest report until the fact that the structure of the church and the provinces and dioceses must be designed and enabled to support the congregations. The resolution presented to both houses in 1994 was framed with this in mind.

What is needed is a redesign of the administrative and episcopal structure of the church that will eliminate the many shortcomings and waste in today's model and give us one to fit the needs of the first 25 years of the next century. The committee has apparently failed to address the real issues - including but by no means limited to the role of the provinces, the elimination of unwanted and wasteful programs, the question of the need or lack thereof of a Washington office, the alleged role of the Episcopal Church in national affairs, the role of the Presiding Bishop and the composition and functions of a support staff.

The Presiding Bishop can no more be released from the primary responsibility for development of policy and strategy, as advocated by this committee, than can a diocesan bishop or a rector. To do this is to abdicate officially the leadership responsibilities and bless the absence of leadership confronting us today.

Edward L. Bale, Jr.

Vadito, N.M.