The Episcopal Church Executive Council convened in a regular meeting Monday, Oct. 19, at the church’s New York headquarters, where it passed resolutions to adopt The Episcopal Church’s strategic plan and authorized officers to negotiate a purchase agreement for the sale of The Episcopal Church Center at 815 Second Ave.
Since his investiture in November 2024, Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe, his staff, and a team of consultants have carried out research and listening sessions to better understand the needs of The Episcopal Church and to realign resources to support local ministry in dioceses. In February 2025, Rowe announced a significant restructuring of Church Center staff, and the strategic plan builds on that initial major step.
“What if, for once, the church was ahead of the curve instead of finding itself surprised by change?” Rowe said. “While we cannot bring everyone back to the pews, we can put in the work now to look at aging, financial, and climate-related trends—and we can examine migration patterns around the church to guide our church-planting strategy.”
For two years, Rowe and senior leaders have researched such trends within the church and wider society, spoken with lay and ordained leaders around the church—including the Executive Council and House of Bishops—and conducted focus groups with Episcopalians from all nine provinces. Throughout that process, Rowe has emphasized the theological foundation of this effort.
“The church is the body of the risen Christ in the world, and what we do with our buildings, our endowments, our staff, and our structures is spiritual work, not merely administrative,” he said. “The institution is one of the instruments through which the body carries out our mission.”
The strategic plan highlights three priorities—witness, support, and sustain—and offers multiple emerging opportunities for carrying them out.
Witness: A Christianity Worth Proclaiming
We must embody a Christianity that is authentic, expansive, beautiful, and unafraid—rooted in the sacraments and our tradition.
- How we can carry this out:
- Conduct churchwide evangelism and visibility campaign
- Elevate the voice of The Episcopal Church in the public square
Support: Capacity Where It’s Needed
We must move from running programs to managing relationships—convening, coordinating, resourcing, and connecting the vitality already on the ground.
- How we can carry this out:
- Reduce relational conflict and Title IV burden in dioceses, and launch churchwide Title IV pilot
- Support dioceses in financial planning and real estate analysis
- Assist dioceses in managing crises
- Guide dioceses in discerning sustainable and vital structures
- Partner with dioceses to raise funds for local mission
Sustain: A Church Built to Last
We must organize for the long term: be honest about our realities and relinquish what we must—including what we love—so that what emerges can thrive.
- How we can carry this out:
- Enhance resources for congregational vitality: church planting, revitalization, and redevelopment
- Create and implement vital networked models for formation and young adult ministry
- Reform and streamline governance
“There is a version of the next 15 years in which we miss this moment—where our options narrow, our agency erodes, and we become something very different without ever deciding to,” Rowe said. “And there is another—the one this plan addresses—in which a church entrusted with a great deal actually decides to steward it well while it still can. We are living in Holy Saturday. But we know how the Easter story ends, and we would rather lean into that promise than bury what we have been given.”
The sale of the church headquarters is a core component of the strategic plan, and the Executive Council affirmed that 25% of its net proceeds will be placed in a trust fund to pay for building out and moving to a temporary New York office space. The remainder of the net proceeds will be placed in a second trust fund whose income will be used to fund grants for church planting, revitalization, and redevelopment.
“Investing in congregational vitality is critical to the future of our mission and ministry, and I am selling the actual house to do it,” said Rowe.
Until the closing, the buyer and sale price of the Church Center will remain confidential. Over the next two months, staff offices will be consolidated on the sixth floor of the Church Center, and records will be appropriately stored. The move to a new, temporary New York office space will take place after July 2027.
While some of the strategic plan interventions have funding and support to begin during 2027, others depend on the outcome of the triennial budget process, which culminates in a vote at the 82nd General Convention July 3-8 in Phoenix, Arizona. All interested in learning more are invited to mark their calendars for open hearings taking place on Zoom Nov. 18 and Dec. 9–both from 2-4 p.m. ET. More information will be available in the coming weeks.
