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Email to FriendExecutive Council opens three-day meeting in Albuquerque
Members continue work on 2010-2012 budget, get update on Church Center reorganization
The meeting began at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Albuquerque on the morning of June 13 with simultaneous meetings of the Council's four standing committees (Administration and Finance, known as A&F; Congregations in Ministry, known as CIM; International Concerns, known as INC; and National Concerns, known as NAC). Council then met in a plenary session in the afternoon.
The committees spent part of their meeting time developing lists of suggested mission priorities for the Episcopal Church as a way to guide the development of a proposed 2010-2012 budget. Those priorities are due to be discussed by the entire Council. Council proposes a triennial budget to the General Convention's Joint Standing Committee on Program, Budget and Finance, which presents a triennial budget for General Convention's approval. The 76th General Convention will meet in July 2009 in Anaheim, California.
Presiding officers address Council
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, during her opening remarks in the afternoon plenary session, outlined her national and international visits since Council's meeting last February. She praised the mission and ministry she found active in the each of the 11 Episcopal Church dioceses she visited. In discussing international concerns, Jefferts Schori repeatedly urged Council members to raise their "advocacy voices" on behalf of the people of the Middle East, the Sudan, the Philippines and Zimbabwe.
Briefly discussing two gatherings of Anglican Communion bishops this summer, Jefferts Schori reminded Council that the 2008 Lambeth Conference of bishops "is not going to be a legislative Lambeth; it's going to be a conversational Lambeth, as was the first Lambeth."
She told Council that Diocese of Colorado Bishop Rob O'Neill will attend the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) to be present with Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem Suheil Dawani during that time. O'Neill, Jefferts Schori said, "is willing to be a voice of reason and answer questions about the Episcopal Church." Dawani had previously called for the conference to be moved, expressing concern that it would "import inter-Anglican conflict" into his diocese.
Jefferts Schori reported that during her recent trip to the Philippines, she visited Bishop Miguel P. Yamoyam, Episcopal Church in the Philippines' provincial secretary, who suffered a stroke October 27, 2007 while attending the Executive Council's meeting in Dearborn, Michigan. Yamoyam, she said, has recovered some movement on the side of his body affected by the stroke but has not recovered his speech. However, due to financial limitations and the fact that he and all Philippines clergy do not have health insurance, Yamoyam has been forced to stop his rehabilitation, Jefferts Schori said.
Council Vice President and House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson also told Council about her ministry and travels since the last meeting. She said she spent the first half of her term focusing on the mission and identity of the Episcopal Church as rooted in the Baptismal Covenant, helping to raise the understanding of the church's polity and shared decision making. She said she also has tried to support "all God's people" and "celebrate the faithfulness of the members of the Body of Christ."
Now, Anderson said, she is building on that foundation to prepare for the 76th General Convention. She outlined some pieces of infrastructure she is putting in place, including a new House of Deputies' president's website, about-to-be-launched deputies communications tools, a public narrative process for the Episcopal Church to use to articulate its identity and mission, and continuing efforts at relationship-building across the church.
Council hears Church Center reorganization update
Chief Operating Officer Linda Watt and the Rev. Canon Brian Grieves, senior director for Mission Centers and Advocacy Center director for the Episcopal Church, outlined the status of the reorganization of Church Center staff which was announced in September 2007 and officially went into effect in April.
Watt said the three regional offices in Los Angeles, Omaha and Seattle are at various stages of operation, with Los Angeles "up and running" and Omaha not far behind. She said the Church Center is close to settling on space in Seattle on the school campus adjoining St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral. Plans to open an office in Atlanta have been "more of a struggle," she said, because "hope is kind of faint" that the Church Center can secure rent-free diocesan-based space, as it has for the other three offices.
"We're very, very conscious of the need to be robustly present in the South," Watt said, noting that there are "feelers" out for space elsewhere.
In response to questions, Watt said the Episcopal Church is committed to having a regional office in Province IX. "The only question is when and how," she said.
Her answer prompted a good-natured "bidding war" between Dominican Republic Bishop Julio Holguin and Puerto Rico Bishop David Alvarez, extolling the virtues of locating such an office in their dioceses.
Watt also noted that some changes have been made as to which ministries will be based in regional offices and which will remain in New York. She cited the Office of Black Ministries as one that was slated to move out of New York but that will now remain at the Church Center.
"We're trying to be responsive to concerns that are raised to us," she said.
Watt also told Council that the first phase of a re-design of the Episcopal Church Center's website is due to launch July 9. It will include a new welcome page, new pages for each mission center (Advocacy, Evangelism and Congregational Development, Mission Leadership, and Partnerships) and an improved search capacity, she said.
Grieves described for the Council the transition from the Church Center's previous structure to the one now based in the four mission centers.
Among the many changes needed, he said, are new web-based ways to help the Church Center tell the stories of its ministries and make its resources more widely available to the church. The center directors are also developing new job descriptions and evaluation processes for the reorganized staff, he said. Watt had noted during her remarks that 16 positions which were vacant either from normal turnover or because they are newly created have been filled in the last month and a half. Seven more are open and three in the Seattle regional office are about to be posted.
Grieves said the center staffs are looking to move beyond previous allocations of work to specific "portfolios" into more collaborative and collegial efforts.
"It's a dynamic process; we recognize that," he said, adding that he and the other center directors are open to feedback, questions and suggestions because the reorganization "may yet need some tweaking."
Upcoming on Council's agenda
The meeting will resume on the morning of June 14 with more committee time. In the afternoon, Council will spend time in anti-racism training, followed by a plenary session during which the members will hear from Steve Hutchinson, chancellor of the Diocese of Utah and chair of the Title IV Task Force II which is charged with revising the Episcopal Church's rules on ecclesiastical discipline. The task force has already proposed a revision which it plans to fine-tune and offer to the 76th General Convention in June 2009. More information about the current proposal is here.
The June 14 plenary session will also include a brief "hands-on" introduction to the use of public narrative as a leadership tool for General Convention and beyond. A smaller portion of Council will be part of a group of about 65 people that will get further training in the public-narrative process on June 16 following the conclusion of the Council meeting.
Council will have dinner on June 14 with representatives of the Diocese of the Rio Grande and Province VII of the Episcopal Church. Presentations about the diocese and the province will follow the dinner.
June 15 will begin with Sunday Eucharist. Part of the Council goes to the Cathedral Church of St. John where Jefferts Schori will preach and preside. Other members of Council will worship with the congregation of St. Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church where the Rev. Brian Taylor will be celebrating his 25th anniversary as rector. House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson will preach at that service.
Among other actions and conversations expected during the meeting are:
- consideration of requests from Council Committee on Indigenous Ministries (ECCIM) and Navajoland Area Mission to restore a five-percent reduction made in the 2008 budget allocation to the church's Domestic Partnership block grant program;
- continued discussion of Council's place in the Episcopal Church's governance structure;
- discussion of the second draft (the St. Andrew's Draft) of a proposed Anglican covenant; and
- a report of the continuing effort to re-locate the Archives of the Episcopal Church.
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 correspondent for Episcopal Church governance, structure, and trends, as well as news of the dioceses of Province II. She is based in Neptune, New Jersey, and New York City.
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