Episcopal Press and News
Executive Council Approves Budget of $45 Million, Sets up Plan for Socially Responsible Investments
Episcopal News Service. November 8, 1989 [89217]
Jim Solheim, News Director, Episcopal News Service, Jeffrey Penn, Assistant News Director, Episcopal News Service, James Thrall, Diocese of Connecticut
NEW YORK CITY, Nov. 6 -- In a three-day meeting here, the Executive Council passed a $45 million budget, advanced a design for long-range mission planning, and took historic steps to use the church's endowment fund for justice-oriented investments.
"The atmosphere of this meeting was much more cooperative and congenial than the previous one in Pittsburgh," said Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning in closing remarks to the council.
The dynamics of the meeting revealed relatively little debate and almost no wrangling over complicated budget proposals in the plenary sessions.
The tone for the meeting was set in the Presiding Bishop's traditional opening address from the chair. Browning told the members of the council that Episcopalians should claim a common identity and move forward to proclaim Christ's mission: "We have opportunities for leadership in the Christian community." Insisting that "effective evangelists are true to themselves," he suggested that Episcopalians "give thanks for and celebrate that which has made us a distinctive people" and offer that distinctiveness as a gift to the wider Christian family.
Browning maintained that the decade of evangelism was an opportunity to share "our heritage of liturgical and sacramental worship, our apostolic continuity, and our 'reasonable tolerance'" as "evangelistic tools."
Browning charged the council to recapture its purpose to "unify, develop, and carry forward the work of the whole church. . . . We are a body, gathered from diverse places, charged with representing the whole church, not separate and competing interests and groups."
His words seemed to address what he described as "a vague sense of dissatisfaction" and "a tendency toward fragmentation, a certain factiousness among members of council," coming out of its previous meeting in Pittsburgh last June.
Setting their sights on the next General Convention in Phoenix and the future, the council was encouraged by the Presiding Bishop to continue its support of the Mission Imperatives and embark on a period of unifying the church to move ahead. "I believe that after two decades of introspection and strife we know what divides us. It is now time to move forward -- to share and celebrate what unites us," Browning said. He described the present time as "the birth pangs of a new day in our lives."
Browning pointed to the Anglican emphasis on the Incarnation to suggest that an "ecologically attuned theology" should be a major focus for Episcopalians: "We would surely place a special emphasis in our programs on Creation and our relationship to Creation." He concluded that the World Council of Churches formulation of Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation is a "natural" for Anglicans. "We have a staff officer for peace and justice, and our programs reflect that priority," Browning said. "But what about the integrity of Creation -- where does our program reflect this?" he asked. "The mission of the church, and therefore the Episcopal Church," He charged, "is to serve as midwife to the new Creation begun in Jesus Christ."
Browning concluded his remarks with a gentle suggestion that the council keep in mind for all its deliberations and planning: "Leave room for surprise, for the operation of the Spirit," he said.
Some council members expressed surprise by how smoothly the 1990 budget proposal was handled. The $45,089,303 budget was introduced, discussed in small groups, and passed unanimously on the last of the council meeting -- a tribute to careful work by the Church Center staff and a trust level that seemed to pervade the meeting.
The long and complicated process to develop a budget had an additional component -- a challenge from the Presiding Bishop to designate 25 percent of the budget for new initiatives, in an effort "to energize and galvanize" the church for mission.
Treasurer Ellen Cooke reported that parish-level giving increased to $782 million in 1988, with 22 percent committed to work beyond the parish. "Both those figures represent a new high for our church," she said.
Two new funds set up by the Executive Council will put some of the investments of the national church to work for the poor.
In what the Presiding Bishop called a "historic step" that will "enable the church to live up to its calling," the council voted unanimously to reinvest $7 million of endowment that had been used as reserve deposits through two new programs: a $3.5 million "alternative investment program" and a $3.5 million "revolving loan fund."
The alternative investment fund will be invested in organizations that offer financial and other support to community-based development and human service projects such as cooperative housing, worker-owned businesses, and credit unions. The revolving loan fund will provide direct loans to such projects.
The new use of the money will continue to provide a financial return while also supporting ministry, said the Hon. Hugh R. Jones of New Hartford, New York, a member of the council's witness and outreach committee.
In terms of long-range mission, the decision to establish the two funds "is more significant than our decision to divest from South Africa," Jones said. While the South Africa decision was a reaction to a specific situation at a specific time, he said, the funds will have a continuing and wide effect on the economic justice ministry of the church for years to come.
Council made the move in response to a resolution from the 1988 General Convention that called for the national church to raise $24 million over six years to support a ministry of community investment and economic justice. The so-called "Michigan Plan" (for the diocese that proposed it) also calls on dioceses to pursue economic justice initiatives with help from the national church.
The $7 million is not considered part of that $24 million, but will help raise it by being an example of the church's commitment to economic justice, explained Timothy D. Wittlinger, secretary of the Economic Justice Implementation Committee set up to oversee the project.
The Implementation Committee also has been busy developing manuals to help dioceses start economic justice programs, or if they have such programs in place, help them become more familiar with the national resources available, Wittlinger reported. In addition, the committee has been exploring the potential use of a computer data base on economic justice work maintained by an organization called the Community Information Exchange.
Economic justice was also the concern of a number of resolutions passed by the council (see additional story).
In an effort to move planning beyond the limitations of the triennium model, the council appointed a new planning and development committee that presented the council with a three-stage program to identify and share stories of ministry.
Drawing together the stories of national, diocesan, and local mission would help identify emerging mission needs and define "who the church is called to be and what the church is called to do," said committee member George Lockwood of Hawaii.
The committee's original design provoked questions and confusion on the part of council members. Some were not sure how the stories would be compiled and how to include the voices of the disaffected who have left the church. "Are we ready to make major changes that might be suggested by the stories?" asked Dr. Howard Anderson, another member of the committee.
The council adopted an amended resolution requesting the committee to report at the March meeting in Kansas City with specific plans on the design, stressing that the eight Mission Imperatives developed for the 1988 General Convention as the framework for gathering the stories. Such a process, suggested Anderson, could provide a "test of whether the imperatives are being taken to heart 'out in the field.'"
"The church does have a vision, and that vision has been articulated," said Presiding Bishop Browning. "The challenge now," he said, "is to live into that vision."
The aspect of the design that excited him most, Browning said, is that it would "involve the grass roots." Too often, he said, the Episcopal Church can be legitimately criticized for "not listening to the person in the pew."
Ana Maria Soto of Arlington, Virginia, also cautioned that the church not become so preoccupied with gathering its own stories that "we just sit and talk to each other." She asked, "Where is our plan for evangelism? Where is our outreach?"
In an effort to focus on outreach, the council set dates to launch a Decade of Evangelism. It designated the first Sunday in Advent, 1990, as a day of nationwide reflection, prayer, and commitment to open the Episcopal Church's observance of the decade. Executive Council also directed the church's evangelism office, in collaboration with the Standing Liturgical Commission, to prepare liturgical materials for that day's worship. The materials will be mailed to every congregation in September 1990.
"Most everything is in place to give birth to Episcopal Life if you pass the budget," Bishop John McNaughton reported to the council. He reminded the council that it was exactly one year ago that it had decided to launch a new publication because of the "imminent demise of The Episcopalian" and the need for a "single, unifying publication."
The organizational and administrative chart is ready, McNaughton added, and the first issue could be ready by March, "if things go well." In the meantime, The Episcopalian will continue to publish without a break until a new publication is ready.
McNaughton reported that 43 applications for the editor's position are being screened, finalists will be interviewed, and a "prioritized list" of nominees for editor will go to the Presiding Bishop on or about December 1.
Ten delegates to the Seventh Assembly of the World Council of Churches were approved by the Executive Council. They are:
The Rt. Rev. Artemio Zabala, Asia, Philippines; The Rev. Hsien Chih Wang, Asia, Taiwan; Ms. Virginia Norman, Caribbean, Dominican Republic; Ms. Sarai Osnaya, Latin America, Mexico; The Rt. Rev. James H. Ottley, Latin America, Panama; The Most Rev. Edmond L. Browning, U.S.A.; Ms. Judy Conley, U.S.A., Province I; Mr. George McGonigle, U.S.A., Province VII; Ms. Jennifer Rehm, U.S.A., Province I; The Rev. Fran Toy, U.S.A., Province VIII.
The WCC assembly will be meeting in Canberra, Australia, in February 1991.
Bishop Furman Stough, deputy for the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief, reported to the council that the fund is projecting a total income for 1989 of $5 million. In the third cycle of this year, the fund awarded grants of $560,000. He also said that gifts for relief in areas hit by Hurricane Hugo and the San Francisco earthquake "will probably reach in excess of $300,000" for each disaster.
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