Episcopal Press and News
Executive Council's Diocesan Visits Garner Both Criticism and Praise
Episcopal News Service. December 5, 1996 [96-1635]
Nan Cobbey, Features Editor for Episcopal Life
(ENS) "This triennium has been rocked by scandal after scandal. ... Our people are embarrassed and are calling for us to renew the public face of the Episcopal Church."
Bishop Christopher Epting of Iowa was reporting back to the Executive Council meeting in Toronto, Nov. 7-11, what council members and church center staff had heard from more than 3,000 members over the past year. The series of visits had taken two-member teams to almost every diocese.
"Faithful, dedicated Episcopalians... are literally begging the Episcopal Church to lead and to project a worthy life," reported Epting. Then he and other members of the council's committee on planning and evaluation led the council members in discussions of "what the church is saying to us."
What the visiting teams had heard included praise, especially for the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief and the United Thank Offering, for national stewardship efforts, and for the rural and small church office. But it also included sharp and sometimes bitter critiques of national program priorities, communication efforts, the provincial structure, the size and scope of General Convention, and the dual roles of the presiding bishop as spiritual leader and chief executive officer.
Some dioceses used the visits to complain about the national office and officers, and to criticize a perceived social and political agenda that they do not share. Others focused on where they needed help and how that help might be arranged. Across the board, dioceses seemed to be demanding more support for local ministries, fewer "top-down" directives, and better communications. Over and over again the reports pointed with pride to work being carried out locally, especially with youth.
The committee read all the reports of those visits -- three about each diocese, a total of 240 -- and got the message: "The role of the national church should be to support, enable and facilitate [local] ministry." That statement appears in the first paragraph of their summary, "What We Heard."
"In certain areas of ministry such as ecumenical relations and Anglican/global relations, the national church must continue to have a primary role. There was a call for spiritual leadership that would set a positive direction and a clear identity for the church," said the summary.
In addition to its report to the church, the Executive Council issued 12 recommendations that are to be used in all future program planning and budgeting at the national level.
The recommendations call for:
- more support for congregational development;
- strengthening of the Linkage Program that makes church center staff members the personal communicators to dioceses;
- refocusing church center staff on networking and facilitating for dioceses and congregations;
- training in emerging technologies including the Internet;
- a pamphlet explaining national church program and budget;
- enhancing the public image of the church;
- a plan to modify or realign the provincial structure;
- a study of needs expressed by overseas dioceses;
- recommendations for improving General Convention;
- resources and publications in languages other than English;
- these recommendations to be reflected in budget and program priorities;
- a compilation of "exciting" ministries as a resource for the church.
These recommendations are the most recent step in a six-year planning process that has involved national staff and consultants, two sets of diocesan visits to dioceses (in 1993 and 1996), and two "visioning" and planning retreats for council and consultants. The process also encompassed a Partners in Mission Consultation (PIM) in 1993 in which representatives of three other denominations, the National Council of Churches of Christ and 15 Anglican churches from around the world visited dioceses from New Hampshire to El Salvador.
The final outcome is yet to be seen, but Epting struck a positive note as he presented the recommendations. "There are exciting things going on out there. We experienced hundreds if not thousands of them. ... Many of our people would be proud if they only knew 'where the money goes' and how it is used for ministry!"
The council's final report, as well as the 240 individual visit reports, are available to the church from the Planning and Evaluation Office at the Church Center, where Vernon Hazelwood, director, will conduct word searches on request.