Following its meeting Oct. 19 in New York City, The Episcopal Church’s Executive Council shared the following letter to the church. Read prior council letters to the church here.
Fall in New York City is cool, brisk, and on the move.
And so was the Executive Council, working efficiently but purposefully in its one-day meeting at the Church Center at 815 Second Ave., a location of great significance at this meeting.
Council gathered Sunday evening for dinner in the penthouse apartment where the presiding bishops of The Episcopal Church stay while in New York City. It is a lovely, if dated, space, with a wraparound terrace with a view of Grand Central Station in one direction and the United Nations building in the other.
Monday morning Eucharist was in the Chapel of Christ the Lord, followed by our meeting there. You saw the chapel if you watched the investiture of Sean Rowe as presiding bishop. We had shared meals across the foyer in the former bookstore. During the lunch break people visited floors 4, 5, and 6, the only floors occupied by church staff in this 10-story-and-a-penthouse building.
It felt part elegiac, part celebratory, and part pragmatic, given our agenda, which included the reports of the Standing Committees of Finance (FIN) and Governance and Operations (GO) related to selling the Church Center building.
“The church was never promised permanence; it was promised the presence of God.” This sentence opened the remarks by President of the House of Deputies Julia Ayala Harris, as she greeted council members gathered “in a building that has served as the headquarters of The Episcopal Church for more than 60 years.
“Generations of Episcopalians have prayed, debated, disagreed, reconciled, and made decisions that have shaped our common life,” she said. “But the church’s life did not begin at this address. For nearly 175 years before we came here, The Episcopal Church was already worshipping, serving, and discerning where God was calling it next. And now we are considering whether it is time to leave.”
Which means the council faced a decision that raised questions about property, finances, and stewardship of our resources and, in Ayala Harris’ words, “about the purpose of this church we serve: What are we called to sustain? And what are we called to release?”
Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe laid out the theological vision underlying not just this decision, but all of them: “The one question that governs every decision we make: How does this serve the mission of God in the world today?”
He described the church as living in liminal time, a Holy Saturday kind of in-between time where “the old has genuinely died and new has not yet appeared. “
“Are we willing to be reshaped – relinquishing forms we love so that something can rise we may not live to see? That is genuine stewardship: to build the church we will not live in,” Bishop Rowe said in his presentation of the strategic plan, in which there are three strategic priorities: Witness – A Christianity Worth Proclaiming; Support – Capacity Where It’s Needed; and Sustain – A Church Built to Last.
The plan is entitled “Our Courageous Witness,” and it has us doing the seemingly unEpiscopalian thing of going into the public square and giving Christian witness, as well as the practical work of offering greater support to dioceses and congregations (such as help with Title IV disciplinary matters), and pragmatic financial strategies to sustain the church for years to come.
In short, as council member the Rev. Theodora Brooks said in response to the presentation, it shows “the funeral procession is interrupted.”
Yes, rumors of the death of The Episcopal Church are exaggerated. As Brooks said, “We see that life every Sunday.”
Council members were enthused about the prospect of an advertising campaign to educate people about The Episcopal Church and raise our visibility, so we are no longer the best kept secret in the nation and elsewhere. Yes, dear ones, it’s evangelism about “Christianity Worth Proclaiming,” a Christianity that seeks and serves Christ in all people and respects the dignity of every human being.
It is a measure of the excellent, thorough briefings and reports that have brought the council through the process of reaching this decision that the resolution to sell the building passed with very little opposition. And while there was clearly trust in the room, there also was some healthy skepticism. Questions were asked and answered, with the obvious aim of being thorough.
This decision is only about selling the building, which includes short-term accommodations for staff and an interim location. Discernment about the permanent location of the Church Center will include the wider church.
Twenty-five percent of the proceeds from the sale will pay for temporary offices in Manhattan and eventually “fund costs” of a new permanent location “in a metropolitan area or state to be determined,” as stated in the resolution approved by the council.
The discussion of the sale of the building was followed by discussion of the church’s triennial budget process. Transparency is the goal, with the budget being reviewed by Executive Council, then made available for public review, and finalized in February.
The report of Episcopal Church representatives to the Anglican Consultative Council, the Rt. Rev. Rafael Morales Maldonado of Puerto Rico, the Rev. Ranjit Mathews, canon to the ordinary in the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut, and Yvonne O’Neal, lay leader from the Episcopal Diocese of New York, was encouraging, as it appears the emphasis on institutional survival that marked recent years has moderated, with much more openness to the workings of the Holy Spirit.
Indeed, the Holy Spirit seems to be hanging around. The strategic plan’s success depends on a foundation of leaders who will, as the report states, “labor faithfully and with the kind of grit and determination that will see the work through.”
But it also depends on the openness of every Episcopalian, because we are partners in this work, every one of us, in all four orders of ministry.
Together, we can do this.
