Executive Council considers archives relocation, Liberian partnership, Anglican Consultative Council

By Mary Frances Schjonberg, April 22, 2009

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[Episcopal News Service -- Portland, Maine] The Episcopal Church's Executive Council April 22 allowed the Archives of the Episcopal Church to borrow up to $10 million for the site of a new home.

During council's three-day meeting here, the last of the 2007-2009 triennium, the members also approved a new covenant partnership between the Episcopal Church and the Episcopal Church in Liberia.

The Portland, Maine meeting took place in the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of Maine. Council was due to hear about the mission and ministry of the diocese and of Province I on the evening of April 22.

On the closing day, council members also heard their colleague the Rev. Ian Douglas say that, ahead of the May 1 beginning of the 14th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council, he and the Episcopal Church's other two representatives (Executive Council member Josephine Hicks and Diocese of New York Bishop Suffragan Catherine Roskam) "believe we're well-prepared to represent the mind and voice of the Executive Council, and by extension the Episcopal Church, when we get to Jamaica next week."

Douglas, Hicks and Roskam spent two hours with the Executive Council's International Concerns Committee April 20 "looking at the possible questions, discussions and topics" that may come before the ACC meeting.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said during a concluding news conference that that conversation as well as more informal ones during the course of the meeting all helped to inform the ACC delegation.

At the ACC's last meeting in Nottingham, England in June 2005, the Episcopal Church and Anglican Church of Canada representatives had voluntarily withdrawn themselves from the meeting and attended only as observers following a request from the primates. In Jamaica, those representatives will attend as full participants on the ACC.

More information about the ACC meeting is available here.

Archives relocation project takes next step
The archives' plan calls for borrowing up to $10 million to finance the purchase price and closing costs for the last vacant block in downtown Austin, Texas. Money for a new archives building on the site must still be raised. Meanwhile, the council and the Archives Strategy Committee envision paying for the cost of the land purchase with revenue currently earned from the parking lot that now occupies the property.

Council member Kim Byham told his colleagues that he would abstain from voting on the resolution because he objected to the decision to keep the archives located within the Diocese of Texas, which he said "steadfastly over many years refused to contribute to the work of the church." Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and Episcopal Church Treasurer Kurt Barnes noted that the diocese annually gives seven percent of its operating income to the wider church, which is 14 percent less than the Episcopal Church asks of its dioceses.

Tom Gossen, a council member who is also a member of the Archives Strategy Committee, told the council that keeping the archives in Texas would be a way to "raise the visibility of the greater Episcopal Church" in the diocese.

More information about the relocation project is available here.

Liberian partnership aims at self-sufficiency
The Liberian diocese had approved the covenant agreement, which pledges each entity to mutual ministry and interdependence, at its convention in February. The agreement envisions the Liberian diocese's continued movement toward self-sufficiency by way of an annual reduction over 20 years in the financial subsidy from the Episcopal Church.

"Even though the financial support to be provided to the Episcopal Church of Liberia will decline over time, the spirit of partnership and mutual mission will continue to bind these two churches to each other," the explanation attached to the enabling resolution (INC064) said.

A cover letter conveying the agreement from the Liberian diocese to the Episcopal Church said that it "represents our dreams for a continuing mutual relationship" between the two churches and "endorses and supports the special relationship between our churches and reaffirms our need for each other as members of the body of Christ."

More information about the mission and ministry of the church in Liberia and its relationship with the U.S.-based Episcopal Church is available here.

Support for reorganizing dioceses
Council also commended "the work of all those involved in supporting the efforts by dioceses to exercise their pastoral and fiduciary responsibilities in regard to the ownership of properties and funds." By way of Resolution A&F097, council also agreed to make available up to $110,000 to the Diocese of Quincy (Illinois) "and other similarly situated dioceses" for clergy salaries and other expenses.

The Executive Council previously authorized draws of up to $500,000 in 2008 and up to $700,000 in 2009 to fund similar work in the dioceses of Fort Worth (Texas), Pittsburgh and San Joaquin (California), according to the resolution's explanation. The undistributed appreciation in nine specific trust funds established to support the missionary work or mission work of the Episcopal Church totaled an estimated $1.2 million as of March 31, the explanation said, adding that the undistributed appreciation has been depleted by nearly $3 million since the end of 2007 due to withdrawals to support dioceses in reorganization and market declines.

Growth in community
Both Jefferts Schori and House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson said during their closing remarks and a subsequent news conference that the Executive Council had grown during the triennium.

Jefferts Schori told the council that she was "exceedingly grateful" for the ways the council "has grown and developed over three years and put up with a tyro in the chair," using a Latin-rooted term for a beginner or young soldier. (Jefferts Schori was elected Presiding Bishop in 2006.)

"I have learned a lot this triennium," she added. "I think we will begin the next triennium in a stronger place in terms of relationship, in terms of understanding how this body functions, and I give thanks for your part in that."

She noted that the terms of half of the council members end with this meeting and told those departing members that she looks forward "to ways in which you will continue to bless the mission of this church."

Anderson told the council that despite the members' concern that their reduced meeting schedule this triennium made it harder to create a community, "community happened anyway" through God's grace. The Executive Council's budget was cut from the 2004-2006 triennium, requiring it to hold three-day gatherings for most of its meetings instead of the previous triennium's four-day gatherings.

During the news conference, Anderson said "it's been an eventful triennium" and that "it took some time" for the council members to discern each other's gifts. "I think that we've made some great strides as a council in responding to the needs of the church … and we've maintained a good focus on mission," she said.

A summary of all resolutions passed during the Portland meeting follows.

Administration and Finance (A&F)
Adopt a records retention and management policy and direct that Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society (DMFS) employees follow the policy and procedures (A&F096).

Commend the work of all those involved in supporting the efforts by dioceses to exercise their pastoral and fiduciary responsibilities in regard to the ownership of properties and funds, make available to the Diocese of Quincy "and other similarly situated dioceses" for clergy salaries and other expenses up to $110,000 of undistributed accumulated income and appreciation in calendar year 2009 from one or more of nine specific trust funds established to support the missionary work or mission work of the Episcopal Church (A&F097).

Approve nominations to the investment committee for three-year term of Walter. W. Buckley Jr., Ken Dengler, Lillian Shackleford Murray and Dennis Sullivan (A&F098).

Approve dissolution of the relationship between St. Luke's International Medical Centre, Tokyo, Japan and DFMS, referred to as the American Council of St. Luke's; direct DFMS to release the funds held in custody for the American Council to the Board of St. Luke’s International Hospital and College of Nursing and approve that the name American Council of St. Luke’s be used to represent future relationships between St. Luke’s Medical Centre and American medical institutions (A&F099).

Request the presiding officers appoint a task force to examine the role, purpose and function of the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church in relationship to the Archives of the Episcopal Church and report its initial findings at the next meeting of the Council (A&F100).

Designate as a tax-deductible housing allowance for 2009 those allowances requested and presented by clergy employees of DFMS (A&F101).

Authorize treasurer to utilize DFMS's line of credit to purchase Block 87 in Austin, Texas, for a purchase price and related closing costs not to exceed $10 million with the revenue generated from the parking lot now on the site offset payments on the loan; to hire a parking-lot management firm; and authorize the Episcopal Archives Strategy Committee continue until the committee or its successor body is established prior to the first meeting of the Executive Council following the 76th General Convention (A&F102).

Congregations in Ministry (CIM)
Allow any remaining Constable Funds from the Small Church Best Practices, the Province IX/Haiti EYE Funds, and Empowering Women Advocates to fund the Official Youth Presence at General Convention 2009 (CIM042).

International Concerns (INC)
Recognize a new Companion Diocese Relationship between the dioceses of Lexington and Haiti for a period ending on February 28, 2013, unless extended or terminated by mutual consent (INC060).

Recognize a new Companion Diocese Relationship between the dioceses of Southeast Florida and the Dominican Republic until terminated by mutual consent (INC061).

Recognize a new Companion Diocese Relationship between the dioceses of Southeast Florida and Antananarivo in the Church of the Province of the Indian Ocean until terminated by mutual consent (INC062).

Recognize a new three-partner Companion Diocese Relationship between the dioceses of El Camino Real, Gloucester in the Church of England, and Western Tanganyika in the Anglican Church of Tanzania for a period ending on December 31, 2013, unless extended or terminated by mutual consent (INC063).

Approve covenant between the Episcopal Church of Liberia (ECL) and DFMS (INC064).

Forward to the 76th General Convention a resolution titled "Commendation of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines' Mission Cooperation in the Americas" (INC065).

Forward to the 76th General Convention a resolution that would have the convention expresses its gratitude for the Mutual Responsibility in Mission Conference (MRMC) in Costa Rica, commend the resulting communiqué "as a vision to inform the Episcopal Church’s cooperation in mission with sisters and brothers in the Americas," urge the Joint Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council and the Primates Meeting to support and encourage ongoing regional gatherings of Anglican churches in the Americas and request the inclusion of $7,000 in the Episcopal Church's 2010-2012 for the next such gathering (INC066).

Request more information on a proposed Anglican International Center for Theological Education in order to have "greater clarity" about the program envisioned by the dioceses and provinces of Latin America and the Caribbean (INC067).

Accept Resolution 3 from the 13th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council that would change the ACC's charitable status under British law and as stated in the ACC's constitution (INC068).

National Concerns (NAC)
Review Jubilee programs (NAC046).

Call upon U.S. Department of Defense to ensure that the sacramental needs of Lutherans and Episcopalians are met by providing a minimum of one weekly celebration of the Eucharist under an officially ordained person recognized by the two churches (NAC047).

Express appreciation for the service to the Episcopal Church of Maureen Shea, director of the Office of Government Relations, ahead of her planned retirement in September (NAC049).

The Executive Council carries out the programs and policies adopted by the General Convention, according to Canon I.4 (1)(a). The Council is composed of 38 members, 20 of whom (four bishops, four priests or deacons and 12 lay people) are elected by General Convention and 18 (one clergy and one lay) by provincial synods, plus the Presiding Bishop and the President of the House of Deputies.

-- The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is Episcopal Life Media national correspondent.

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