Episcopal Press and News
The Presiding Bishop's Address from the Chair to Executive Council, Birmingham, Alabama, October 31, 1995
Episcopal News Service. November 9, 1995 [95-1302]
Edmond L. Browning, Presiding Bishop and Primate
If your perceptions of time are anything like mine, this has been one very short summer. Only yesterday the Executive Council said goodbye in Seattle, and now, in the twinkling an eye, we are together again.
I am very happy to see all of you and I hope these past months have been renewing for you, rewarding, and rich, as they have been for me. I hope you have experienced joy, learning, growth, and a great deal of love. I hope you have not felt too worn down by troubles and worries. I pray that you have known you are not alone, that you have remembered you are loved, and that you have been daily repaired by prayer.
As has been my custom over these last years, I begin this morning by naming the context in which we meet, as I see it from my perspective. The title I have given these remarks is Reflections on leadership, and the demands of love. That should tell you something about where I'm headed.
During this meeting we will explore, on a variety of levels, what it means to be leaders and to hold a sacred trust. As we do this, I ask that we look at our leadership in light of the words of Jesus. "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love."
The immediate context I name is the Diocese of Alabama, where we have already begun to experience Southern hospitality. I thank you, Bishop Miller, and the clergy and lay persons of this diocese, for gracious hospitality and for sharing something of your life with us over these next days.
We welcome to our midst one who formerly sat with us at this table, namely Furman Charles Stough, who in his present incarnation is the Assistant Bishop of Alabama. Bill was key to the first efforts of Council at Long Range Planning several years ago, and I hope you take some pleasure, Bill, in seeing the evolution of those early endeavors.
Before the week is out, we may hear a "roll tide," and we may even have a little taste of "muhn payh." If you don't know what I'm talking about you can get a translation from Harold Nicrosi, another dear friend who used to sit with us at this table.
This Executive Council meeting takes place in the context of two recent events important in our common life: most recently, the meeting of the Interim Bodies. I completely agree with Pam's positive assessment of that gathering, which gave us an opportunity to check the pulse and take the temperature of the church.
My friends, the vital signs are very good. I came away from Minneapolis extremely encouraged about the work that is being done by interim bodies in response to the General Convention directives and, in some cases, the guidance of this Council.
Equally, the interim meeting of the House of Bishops in Portland gave signs of hope. You have likely heard about the meeting and I won't rehearse the reports here. I will say that the efforts the House has made over the last years to live their theology of episcope have borne fruit. In March of 1992, following up on the Phoenix General Convention, we assessed ourselves as not functioning well together. Three and a half years later, we have a vastly different assessment. I want publicly to thank Sam Hulsey, who has chaired our planning committee through all of this, and who has worked as hard as any one I know to make our House of Bishops better servants of the church and the mission.
I do not for a minute diminish our areas of disagreement. And, even were I to try, they have certainly been well publicized. In fact, our differences have been much more closely attended to than our quieter victories in learning from one another, and together discerning how God is calling this church.
Please know I am not forgetting that ten of our number brought charges against one of us, and that 66 other bishops supported those 10. I am not forgetting that women are not ordained in four of our dioceses and the question of how those with different theological positions on the issue of women in holy orders can live together is still before us. I am not forgetting that those who take seriously the authority of scripture and its centrality still do not agree on issues of sexuality and human intimacy.
Even so, I can say with great conviction that the life of the House of Bishops is a sign of great hope. It is also a good indication that the process leading to the election of the next presiding bishop will be a healthy one. And let me say here that the health of that process means a very great deal to me.
When we were together in June I reported that the President of the House of Deputies and I had named an eight-member treasurer search committee and had instructed them to bring one name to us for review and, given our approval, for nomination to the Executive Council. That process was completed within this last week. Later in the meeting, I will take great pleasure in putting before you the name of Stephen C. Duggan to serve as the next treasurer. If you elect him, Pam and I then together will have the honor of appointing him as Treasurer of the General Convention.
Over these last months we have been very well served by Robert Brown, who interrupted his retirement to accept the post of interim treasurer. With Bob's leadership, these last months have been a great deal more than a "holding action." During this time we have not only repaired some of the damage from the past, we have made excellent progress toward the future. Bob, for Pam and me and for this Council, let me say a deep thanks.
Another reason why we have made such progress over the last months is the presence among us of Bishop Charlie McNutt. Charlie has already made an enormous difference in the smooth running of our operation, and in my ministry. I give deep thanks for his organizational and management gifts, and his spirit.
I also want to say here that we all owe a great deal to the Administration and Finance Committee. I have no idea how many hours they have invested over the last months, but it is a lot. They, along with the three other committees with particular financial responsibilities -- Program, Budget & Finance, the Audit Committee and the Committee on Trust Funds -- they have served this church very well. Thanks to their hard work, we have not only turned the corner we are coming down the home stretch.
However....we still have some old business, or maybe we might more appropriately name it "unfinished business." And that is the matter of the embezzlement.
I want to report to you the most recent information in this matter, and very recent it is, some of it as recent as yesterday.
I am pleased to announce that the insurance company that issued the bond covering the former treasurer's activities has competed its exhaustive audit of our claim of loss. Our counsel has met with insurance company representatives to discuss a number of issues related to our claim, and, while there are details yet to be worked out, I can now tell you that we have reached agreement in principle under which the bonding company will promptly pay the church the full face amount of the bond -- one million dollars. In addition, we will retain the assets that Mrs. Cooke turned over to us earlier this year.
The criminal proceedings have dragged on longer than expected. We have supplied the federal prosecutor in Newark, who is handling the grand jury proceedings, with a large amount of material and we are in constant conversation with the federal authorities about their progress. As you probably know, this is not a public proceeding and we have no direct knowledge of the status of things. We will continue to monitor the process closely and provide input when we can. The bottom line, nevertheless, is that we do not yet know what the outcome will be regarding the serious criminal charges against Mrs. Cooke. Neither do we know whether the federal government will be able to bring about further restitution from Mrs. Cooke to the church.
We have thus far refrained from filing a civil suit against Mrs. Cooke and her husband for the purpose of recovering additional assets. Until recently we had not been able to locate any such assets and it made more sense to await completion of the criminal proceeding.
A few days ago, however, we were advised by Mr. and Mrs. Cooke's bank in Washington, pursuant to a release the Cookes signed last winter, that there was $60,000 in an account at the bank in their name. Yesterday, October 30, we filed a proceeding in the name of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society in Washington and successfully attached that account. At the same time, we filed a civil suit against the Cookes in Virginia. The result of these actions will be to freeze the bank account and to begin the process of seeking potential civil recovery.
I think we will each breathe a collective sigh of relief that could be heard from Birmingham to Mobile when the matter of the embezzlement is behind us. I look to that day. In another way, it will never be over in the sense that we will never again be who we were before. My dear friends, our pain has not been wasted. We placed ourselves and this experience in God's hands, and through the power of the Spirit, redemption has come. We have been through the refiner's fire, and we are stronger for it.
By reviewing our very dense agenda we can see this is going to be a full, intense week. Therefore, it is particularly imperative that we not look at our work as a series of disconnected time blocks, but, rather, in a holistic fashion. It all fits together. Everything we will do fulfills a dimension of our leadership responsibility. Everything we will do is consonant with our response to the commandment given us by the One we follow, the One who said: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."
A recent book entitled "Leadership and the New Science: Learning about Organization from an Orderly Universe" by Margaret Wheatley has some very creative thoughts on holistic vision. Dr. Wheatley's thesis is beautifully developed and too long to deal with in any meaningful way here. However, let me abstract just a bit. The nub of her argument is that each of us lives and works in organizations in ways that are derived from a view of the universe that is grounded in the physics of Isaac Newton -- from seventeenth century Newtonian mechanics. This, she explains, is severely limiting. It leaves out the new science, specifically quantum mechanics and the view of the world, the metaphors, that derive from it. Our image of how things work must not be derived only from what happens to an apple when it falls out of a tree, but from the interactions of subatomic particles.
I quote: "In new science the underlying currents are a movement toward holism, toward understanding the system as a system and giving primary value to the relationships that exist among seemingly discrete parts..." That is, you think because you understand what one child is like, you will understand what two children are like, or three or four. Not so. You may understand each one but you also have to understand the connection, the interaction. And so it is with particles. This is what we learn from the new science.
Let me tell you what I have learned about snowflakes. We all heard when we were small that there are no two snowflakes alike. Do you know what determines the shape of a snowflake? I'll tell you. It is other snowflakes and how they are in proximity. It's the relationships.
As Margaret Wheatley says: "When we view systems from this perspective, we enter an entirely new landscape of connections, of phenomena that cannot be reduced to simple cause and effect...
"The quantum mechanical view of reality strikes against most of our notions of reality. Even to scientists, it is admittedly bizarre. But it is a world where relationship is the key determiner of what is observed and how particles manifest themselves. Particles come into being and are observed only in relationship to something else. They do not exist as independent 'things.' Quantum physics paints a strange yet enticing view of a world that -- as [one scientist] characterized it, 'appears as a complicated tissue of events, in which connections of different kinds alternate or overlap or combine and thereby determine the texture of the whole.'
"These unseen connections between what were previously thought to be separate entities are the fundamental elements of all creation." Let me say that another way. "I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing."
My dear friends, this truth of our interconnection is at the heart of all we are about. It is at the heart of who we are in Christ. It is at the heart of who we are, and what we do, as leaders. Let us hold this view of our interconnection as we go about our work this week. Let us look at our agenda in the context of our interconnection.
Part of what we will do is to hear from and dialogue with the Planning and Evaluation Committee about our visits to dioceses. Let me give you my own sense of this. I very much support these visits for several reasons. First, they are a sacramental witness to our interconnectedness and to the fact that our life together makes each of us different. These visits are about abiding in the love of Christ, and out of that love building relationships, and being in partnership.
Let me also say this: our relationships with every person are profoundly changed by our relationship with Jesus. I am prevented from having my personal wishes determine my agenda because of my relationship with Jesus. As John Wesley put it: "God has wisely joined us all together as the parts of a body so then we cannot say to another, 'I have no need of you."'
We do need each other, and our visits to the dioceses are one demonstration of that.
I also believe the visits are key to where we are now because we cannot assume that our interconnectedness is universally understood by the dioceses. In fact, when a diocese reduces its commitment to our common program in the name of "good stewardship," we can assume they are not clear about it.
A vision of interconnectedness will enrich all of us and empower our mission. We are challenged as leaders to articulate that vision in a way that is clear, and compelling. The visits will give us an opportunity for that. We must do a better job of describing the fruit of the vine of which we are all branches. We have to get so clear that people can smell the grapes, so they can taste the wine.
I want to share with you a very simple description of how I see our program. It is simple. I do not believe it is simplistic. We have three kinds of programs supported by our common funds, by our program budget. One, programs that are carried out on behalf of all of us. In other words, we all pay for these programs but they get done in a central way. My ministry and much of the ministry carried out through the Office of the Presiding Bishop are examples of this. Another is much of our world mission activity and the work of the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief.
The second category is those programs that enable others. Ministries that enable plant seeds. This is why our Congregational Ministries Cluster calls itself The Seed Company. Our stewardship programs are an example of enabling ministry. In fact, I think we can say that all of our program staff, in one way or another, carry out enabling ministries in that they are resources to the church. We will be hearing from several members of The Seed Company later this week.
The third category is programs that built networks, that put people together, that let one part of the church know what another part is doing. An example here is the youth and violence project, one part of which was an inventory of some of the incredible anti-violence activities going on around the church. These can be used as models for others.
Of course, I don't mean for this to look like tidy boxes. We are trying to get away from tidy boxes and dry charts. However, this is a beginning way to describe a complex web of activities. Programs cut across categories, and the program staff are operating in several modes at once.
Our ecumenical work is an example of how programs can operate in all categories. First, our various ecumenical dialogues come in the category of united program or shared mission. They are funded by us all through the program budget and then carried out in a central way on behalf of us all. Second, we support the work of the network of diocesan ecumenical officers and our ecumenical officer puts together people who are working ecumenically at the local level. Third, through our ecumenical officer, with materials and other resources, we enable dioceses to, for example, study our Concordat with the Lutherans.
I would like to charge this Council, with the initiative coming from the program committee, to develop a brief and clear description, perhaps even a one or two page sheet, of what our program is all about and how we all are part of it. I would suggest that the chairs of the committees meet while we are here, and with the support of appropriate staff, begin to plan for how this is going to happen. We need to have this to take to the dioceses. We need to help everyone smell the grapes, and taste the wine. This is a first step.
Also, in some fashion, our visits to the dioceses must affirm and support our special concerns for the welfare of children and the eradication of the sin of racism. Just how we will do this needs to be worked out as we go along, and I ask that the agenda committee sees that our next meeting reflect our need for time to grapple with this as a Council.
While I am on a roll here, I have another very practical suggestion. I understand we are going to have an opportunity this week to see how we can communicate in cyberspace. I know that many of you are communicating electronically and others are interested. I want us to leave here with some plans about this that move beyond the vague. What if by the time we leave here everyone who is communicating electronically is paired with some one or some ones who is not so they can be of help? I would like to ask the program committee to evaluate the workability of this suggestion, perhaps to develop it a bit, and help us all with this.
Now I turn to another focus of the week, also connected. On Thursday we will spend the entire day looking at issues of leadership and governance. Helping us will be two people many of you know. Katherine Tyler Scott is the director of Trustee Leadership Development, an organization that works with many non-profit groups. She was the local chair of the Convention committee in Indianapolis and now co-chairs the Joint Nominating Committee for Presiding Bishop.
Working with her will be the Rev. Dr. James B. Lemler, rector of Trinity Church in Indianapolis, and a colleague of Kathy's at Trustee Leadership Development.
Our goals for Thursday are two. We will begin to increase our capacity for governance and for leadership and we will begin to reweave the fabric of effectiveness and trust, trust among ourselves and trust in us as leaders by those whom we serve.
Both Kathy and Jim bring a great deal of expertise to this task, as well as a great knowledge of the church. I know our time will be well spent as we work toward a holistic vision of our leadership role and our governance responsibilities, on our relationships with one another, and with those for whom we are servant leaders.
To return again to Margaret Wheatley and the images and metaphors from the new science. She writes: "A quantum universe is enacted only in an environment rich in relationships. Nothing happens in the quantum world without something encountering something else. Nothing is independent of the relationships that occur. I am constantly creating the world -- evoking it, not discovering it -- as I participate in all its many interactions. This is a world of process, not a world of things."
My dear friends, this is what community is all about. We are the branches. Our vision of community, our enactment of community evokes community, creates community. The quantum universe is changed by our efforts. We are co-creators. We are the branches on the vine.
William Raspberry, a noted journalist, spoke recently at Sewanee on the Crisis of Community. He said: "America has a crisis of community that is deep, wide and largely unaddressed. And it threatens to destroy our solidarity as a nation, in much the same fashion as a similar crisis of community has ripped apart the former Soviet Union and what used to be Yugoslavia.
"I'm talking about more even than the normal give and take among the various sectors and ideologies of the society. I am talking about our growing inability to act -- even to think -- in the interest of the nation.
"It's almost as though there IS no national interest, apart from the aggregate interests of the various components. The whole society seems to be disintegrating into special interests -- driven by a new and dismaying interest in what politicians are pleased to call 'wedge' issues."
My sisters and brothers, nothing in this nation wedges us apart more than the sin of racism. I am saddened to tell you that some bishops, fortunately only a few, have said to me in so many words: "We don't need to worry about racism anymore.
We've done that. Let's move on." I leave it to you to imagine my response to that. It is to this world, this hurting place, to this nation so deeply infected with racism that it threatens our very soul, it is into this darkness that the light of Christ's love is to be shone. It is into this place of fragmentation that we are called to bring an holistic vision. The vision of interconnectedness is part of the transcendent reality, of things seen and unseen, visible and invisible. Invisible as a subatomic particle or wave, and just as real. This vision is what we have to offer, so the quantum universe, and our little corner of our global village, will rise new in the morning.
It is quite a task. Do you doubt we can do it? I don't. I don't because I never forget that we aren't alone in this. With God, with God's love, nothing is impossible.
My son Peter is a priest and his oldest child, now going on four, is named Joshua. Joshua asked Peter one day, "Daddy, what does God eat?" Peter said, "I don't know, Joshua, what God eats." So Joshua said, "Daddy, what does God wear?" And Peter said, "Joshua, I don't know what God wears." So Joshua asked him, "Daddy, well, where does God sleep?" Peter said, "Joshua, I don't know where God sleeps." And Joshua looked at his Dad and said. "You don't know very much about God, do you?!"
Peter didn't miss a beat. He looked at Joshua and he said, "Oh yes I do. I know everything about God. I know that God loves you." That is everything to know about God. God loves you. I don't think we have to worry too much because our tasks are so great and our strength seems so small. We live in God's love. All we have to do is accept it. All we have to do is accept the new commandment from Jesus, that we love one another, as he loves us. Then, then, we are ready to be branches.
Edmond L. Browning
Presiding Bishop and Primate