Episcopal Press and News
East Tennessee Symposium to Explore Search for Structural Reform of the Episcopal Church
Episcopal News Service. May 14, 1993 [93096]
In recent years, members of the Episcopal Church from the tiniest parishes to bishops and national leaders have asked aloud what kind of structure is needed for the challenges of the 21st century.
The question has been uttered by Episcopalians of a variety of viewpoints and theological perspectives. Whether the dialogue includes such terms as "long-range planning" or "paradigm shift" or "decentralization," there seems to be a crescendo of voices asking if the Episcopal Church should make some significant changes in its institutional life.
Just as the church's Executive Council has embarked on a churchwide process to gather concerns from the grassroots, a symposium in St. Louis this August may serve to turn up the volume in the conversation about church structure.
The August 12-15 symposium, "Shaping Our Future: A Grassroots Forum on Episcopal Structures," sponsored by the Diocese of East Tennessee may bring as many as 2,000 Episcopalians together to talk about structural reform.
Some of the original motivation for the symposium was sparked by two rectors from the Diocese of East Tennessee, the Rev. Stephen Freeman and the Rev. Peter Keese. Freeman and Keese offered a resolution at the 1991 diocesan convention that called for significant changes in the structure of the Episcopal Church. Among other things, Freeman and Keese called for the General Convention to meet once every 10 years, and for a diocesan bishop to serve as the presiding bishop.
Although the proposal was not adopted by the diocesan convention, it was referred to a committee for further study. The committee, later known as the "East Tennessee Initiative," initially proposed to convene a small symposium of scholars and church leaders at the University of the South in Sewanee, then suggested a larger meeting in St. Louis.
"I would describe the symposium as a gathering of the family where the concerns of the legislative process do not hinder the dialogue," said Bishop Robert Tharp of East Tennessee in a telephone interview.
Tharp said that the symposium would look at the best strategies for "the mission of the church in the 21st century. Perhaps the way we are structured now is not the best," he said. "People do not feel they are being heard in the church, and many feel that this is related to a hierarchial structure -- concentrating on the top-down, rather than the grassroots."
The Rev. Jon Shuler, rector of the Church of the Ascension in Knoxville, Tennessee, and executive director of the East Tennessee Initiative, agreed with Tharp that the symposium is an opportunity to "talk positively about what the Episcopal Church needs to meet the challenges of the future."
Some skeptics of the upcoming symposium have criticized it as an uncontrollable "shadow General Convention." One observer said that it could well be a "magnet for the discontented." Another suggested that cool passions and calm heads would not necessarily prevail in the "heat and humidity of an August in St. Louis."
Tharp dismissed such characterizations. "This is not an alternative to General Convention nor a mini-General Convention. I would disavow the whole thing if it turned into something like that."
Tharp said that, although there would be some plenary sessions at the meeting, "none of them would resemble the House of Bishops or Deputies. There will be no opportunity to debate in the plenary sessions. I don't believe that any resolutions will come out of this meeting."
Tharp expressed his "fervent hope" that the symposium be "a positive thing, not a gripe session. Our intention is that it would provide a safe environment for all to come and speak freely," he said. "The symposium is not designed to be a place for the same old tired complaints, negativism and blame," Shuler added. "There is a lot of despair out there and there is a real need to rekindle hope. I really do pray that this will be such a positive experience that it will rekindle hope."
In a telephone interview, Shuler said, "Many people feel that the church is suffering because we are not building up the body of Christ at the local level and that structures are impeding the local church," Shuler said. "There is a sense of estrangement from the official processes for decisionmaking in the life of this church. The present structural form by which we try to gauge or discern what is occurring in the church is not working," he asserted.
Shuler said that the institutional church is always in need of reform. "Reformation never ends. If there isn't a constant reformation occurring, then the very problems that we thought we had escaped from come back to haunt us," he contended. "The development of hierarchial structures tends to crush the very communities that bring them into being."
Shuler said that the symposium would be "forward looking -- not about blaming, finger-pointing or scapegoating. Anyone interested in those activities will be disappointed in the meeting," he said.
"I see the symposium as a piece -- a contribution to the discerning of the Spirit of God," Shuler added. "Let this be one stream flowing into the river. It is not the only place where water is running into the river."
"I think many people in the pew feel very far away from what they think of as the national church," said Toni Gilbert from Chattanooga, Tennessee, a member of the national steering committee for the symposium and a member of the church's Executive Council. "I think that the symposium may help to create a feeling of connectedness, she said. "People want to feel like they are being heard."
Shuler reported that the planners still believe they will attract nearly 2,000 participants, although the current number of registrations is closer to 300. "We are heartened by the rapid pace of registrations in the last week," Shuler said.
If the number of registrations do not meet expectations, there could be a financial problem with commitments to St. Louis hotels, Shuler admitted. However, he is confident that "the numbers will all come together."
A national fundraising effort to support the symposium has solicited -- and received pledges of nearly $100,000 -- from interested bishops, dioceses, parishes and individuals. Shuler said that the proposed budget for the entire meeting was "nearly $1 million."
More than 30 speakers have confirmed that they will participate at the symposium, according to Shuler. He said that the planning committee had worked diligently to respond to initial criticism that most of the speakers at the meeting were white, male clergy. The design includes speeches in plenary sessions comprised of the entire group as well as smaller forums and workshops. Participants will have opportunity to ask questions in each session. A compilation of the major speeches will be published following the meeting, Shuler said.
"When I first heard about the symposium, I approached the idea with caution because I feared that it might be a forum for people to only express anger and criticism," said the Rev. James Fenhagen, one of the speakers who will address the symposium.
Fenhagen, executive director of the Episcopal Church Foundation's Cornerstone Project, said that he became convinced that the symposium had a broader purpose. "I hope it will provide a forum for people of differing points of view to look at constructive ways that the church can address the future," he said.
Despite the energy generated by the St. Louis symposium, some observers point out that the church is already engaged in exploration of restructure and reorganization. The Episcopal Church Center undertook a significant reorganization in September 1991, the House of Bishops has completely altered its format for interim meetings, and the Executive Council has been developing a long-range planning process during the past triennium.
Bruce Woodcock of the General Convention Office in New York pointed out that "seven canonical groups, including the Standing Commission on Structure, standing committees of the Executive Council and joint committees of the General Convention," are already considering options to "streamline and improve the legislative process."
Barry Menuez, senior executive for planning at the Episcopal Church Center, said that national church leaders will "be very interested in the papers that will be presented [in St. Louis] on crucial issues that are facing the church in the next century and will give due consideration of that material in the context of the long-range planning process of the Executive Council."
Menuez noted that the council is currently conducting its own "data gathering process on the grassroots level." Already 88 dioceses have scheduled visits with council members and national staff to share concerns. Menuez pointed out that more than 2,500 Episcopalians would take part in these face-to-face visits by the end of the summer.
"The current listening process keeps faith with the desire of the Executive Council to be in closer contact with people on the local level," Menuez said. He said that these visits will help national leaders "articulate the emerging vision of the church, clarify our understanding of mission direction, test our program priorities, and grapple with the issues of decentralization and the location of the Church Center that were raised at the last General Convention."
Fenhagen said that, although he hopes the symposium will stimulate conversation, the principle objective should be to provide information and data for the Executive Council's planning process. "The symposium will be of no value if it doesn't get connected up with the structures of the church," he said.
Shuler described what he called a "pent-up demand" for the upcoming symposium, despite the churches own efforts to reform from within. "National leaders have told us that we are merely duplicating their own efforts and that they 'have it all under control,'" he said. Shuler said that he was skeptical of those efforts because the people involved in them have a "highly institutionalized and hierachialized view of the church."
"I see the St. Louis symposium as 'grist for the mill' along with such other important data as the parochial reports, reports from the church's standing interim bodies, and the recommendations of the recent Partners in Mission consultation," Menuez said.
Voices calling for structural reform of the Episcopal Church -- within and outside of the formal structures -- continue to rise in crescendo as the church moves toward the end of the 20th century. Whether the St. Louis symposium and other movements for change will live together in harmony or clash in a cacophony of dissonance may determine the church's ability to address the challenges of the next century.