THE GRAPEVINE
THE GRAPEVINEIt is clear that winds of change are sweeping through the Episcopal Church. It is also clear that the provinces of the Episcopal Church will play an important role in that change. The precise nature of such change is difficult to predict with accuracy, but the outlines are clear.
Provinces will play an increasingly important part in the linking of persons involved in various programs. Province II already has important networks related to evangelism, Christian education, youth ministry, and college work, among others. The Provincial Synod, meeting last May, established two new networks: the Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation Network and an HIV/AIDS Network. The exercise at synod to share ideas about the future of the province* made it clear that there is a lot of enthusiasm for this networking function in Province II.
The core of this networking will be close communication between persons working on similar programs within the province. That communication will increasingly be electronic. Province II is committed to the use of Ecunet/Quest International and has budgeted funds so that all members of the Provincial Council will be accessible electronically. The provincial newsletter, The Grapevine, will be published on-line in the Ecunet/Quest meeting SECOND PROVINCE, as well as on paper. Our hope is to reach every parish in the province.
The chief function of provinces will be to enhance and promote this increased communication by linking persons and providing resources. At this juncture it is unclear whether the provinces will receive enough funding to do this work well. Some program funds, like those for JPIC, are currently being funneled through the provinces from the national church. Some program networks receive small amounts of funding directly from the province. The normative pattern has yet to emerge, and it is unclear how much support the provinces can expect from member dioceses.
The nine provinces are very different. In some, a part-time executive has been hired to facilitate the province's work; others have very little organization. Province II is very diverse. That diversity is considered a strength by most deputies to the synod, but it is not clear what structure would best serve the province's varying needs. There is some enthusiasm for hiring a part-time executive, but a specific proposal has not been put forward. The Provincial Council will be exploring possibilities in the coming year.
The coming change in the church is also revealed in the recently released draft report of the General Convention Committee on Structure. That report suggests combining or eliminating a number of standing committees and commissions. It also suggests a different role for the presiding bishop and a different relationship between the presiding bishop and Executive Council. This will be a major subject of discussion between now and next year's General Convention in Philadelphia.
Since the last General Convention (1994), the Provincial Council has made a concerted effort to respond to the work and the mandates of General Convention. At the last two synod meetings workshops were presented on the use of Ecunet/Quest International and the Concordat of Agreement with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. We have also responded to requests to examine our function and to consider how we as a province might enhance the work of the church. Finally, we have looked at issues of justice and interfaith dialogue. These threads will continue at the synod meeting in May 1997. The Diocese of Long Island will be our host.
The primary focus of the next synod will be preparation for the General Convention. We expect both provincial deputies and deputies to General Convention to attend the meeting. Workshops on the structure report, revision of Title IV on procedures for dealing fairly with issues of alleged clergy misconduct, the Concordat, and the election of the next presiding bishop will all be part of the agenda. We also hope to hear directly from the secretary of General Convention and the treasurer of the Episcopal Church.
There is a great deal going on in the life of the church. It is an exciting time to be an Episcopalian, and Province II is in the thick of things.
*See "Vision of the Province--Summary of Table Discussions at Synod".
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Many people envy me my job as I travel from church to church all over Europe. Many people think of these churches as pearls strung on a necklace of elegant and historic cities. Many people regard the Convocation as a refuge for those few fortunate Americans who have time and money enough to live a transatlantic existence. If that is the case, then many people are a little right, but a lot wrong!
Certainly, I am fortunate to travel as I do, but much of the time I find myself and the congregations I visit identifying with the Israelites in Egypt: "Thus says Pharaoh, 'Go and get straw yourselves, wherever you can find it; but your work will not be lessened in the least.' So the people scattered throughout the land, to gather stubble for straw." (Exodus 5:10-12.)
Now that hardly does justice to the support we receive from the national church and the Board of Foreign Parishes. However, as never before, our needs are outrunning our resources, and our opportunities for mission, far from lessening, have greatly increased. Let me tell you some of the ways that God is blessing our life and witness in the "New Europe."
In June at St. James Church in Florence, I ordained a young ItalianÑthe first Episcopal priest to be ordained in Italy for service in Italy. Claudio Bocco is now serving both the English-language congregation and the small Italian community which he has been instrumental in gathering. We all want this Italian ministry to grow and flourish, but we have no funds with which to pay Claudio. As a result he has to work full time and commute twice a week to Florence, a round trip of a hundred miles. Possible in the short run, yes, but hard to sustain.
At St. Paul's Church in Rome, the English-language congregation (from all around the world and not just the United States) supports the Joel Nafuma Refugee Center. This is the one oasis of hope and companionship for a host of displaced persons from the Sudan, Ethiopia, Iraq, Iran, and other areas of conflict in Africa and the Middle East. Help has come from the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief, but the need far outstrips our resources. And at St. Paul's also are Juan and Cecilia Erazo, an Ecuadorian priest and deacon, who have gathered a vital congregation of Latin Americans. These two superb and talented missionaries are actually being supported by their adult children, receiving no remuneration for their ministry from either St. Paul's or the Convocation. As yet, there are simply no funds available. How long can they continue on this basis?
In October our new Commission on the Ministry of the Baptized recommended two women for postulancy. One is Dutch, a former Roman Catholic who became an Episcopalian at All Saints Church in Waterloo, Belgium; the other was trained at a French Reformed Church seminary and was received into the Episcopal Church at the American Cathedral in Paris. Both are now embarking on their pre-ordination training. When ordained, they will be, respectively, the first Dutch woman and the first French woman to be ordained in the Episcopal Church for service in their home countries. The Convocation has little in the way of funding for theological education, but we are convinced that when God calls, God also makes it possible to respond to that call. So we are going forward in faith, as are Alja Tollefsen and Laurence Fouchier, the two postulants, and their families.
This fall I shall commission an American working for Digital Equipment and a German supreme court judge as lay pastoral leaders of Anglican-Episcopal communities sponsored by our congregations in Munich and Wiesbaden. The third Episcopal congregation in Germany, Christ the King Parish in Frankfurt, has just begun to hold monthly services in Darmstadt. Another new community is just being launched in central France, entirely on the initiative of a couple who recently moved from Paris to work at Michelin, which has its principal factory in Clermont-Ferrand. Three of these communities just mentioned meet for worship in , respectively, a Lutheran, an Old Catholic, and a French Reformed Church building.
As you can tell, the two "e" words (evangelism and ecumenism) are alive and well in the Convocation. Indeed, if space allowed, I would write at equal length about the new opportunities in Eastern Europe which we and the Diocese of the Church of England in Europe are seeking to respond to together. Yet, time and again, what we could be doing is left undone. Lack of resources means that opportunities to draw people from many different cultures and language groups and walks of life into the Episcopal Church are being lost. That is not a new story, I know, for those who are reading these words! Nevertheless, one of the hopes I cherish most is that in Province II there will be dioceses and parishes able and willing to enter into companion relationships with one or another of our congregations in this rare moment of opportunity in the "New Europe," both west and east.
Let me leave you with another more positive text, this time from the Acts of the Apostles: "That night Paul had a vision in which he saw a Macedonian standing and begging him, 'Come over to Macedonia and help us.' As soon as Paul had this vision, we got ready to leave for Macedonia, because we decided that God had called us to preach the Good News to the people there." (Acts 16:9-10.)
Believe it or not, there is now an American priest caring for the small Anglican-Episcopal community in Macedonia! The Convocation believes that God is indeed calling us to preach the Good News to an extraordinary range of people here in Europe. We ask for your prayers and your help in a host of ways in this modern mission field, where needs are as urgent and opportunities are as challenging as one finds in parts of the world long regarded as more traditional missionary territory, by a generous and responsive Episcopal Church.
May God bless you and us in the mission we share on both sides of the
Atlantic.
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(Editor's note: The following address was given at Province II Synod, May 9, 1996.)
I'm very happy to have the opportunity to be with you today. As you probably know I had next to no experience with the national church before accepting this position, and therefore, each chance to meet another group and share ideas and viewpoints is very welcome.
We have just completed our audit of the 1995 financial situation and I finally feel comfortable saying (a la Yogi Berra) that the past is behind us. There may still be some questions about certain matters but we now have a solid picture of what we have, and a base for planning the future. Our current financial position is strong, but our future is far from clear. Issues of adequate funding and debate concerning the role of the national church center are yet to be resolved and may never be finally resolved.
As to the past, we have almost completed the resolution of the embezzlement. Next week we'll close on the Virginia property and are expecting, momentarily, to complete negotiations on additional settlements which, together with prior recoveries, will get us to a reasonable conclusion.
The financial group, particularly our new controller (Anthony Perfetti, Long Island) and assistant treasurer (Catherine Lynch, New Jersey), have spent much of the past few months improving systems and controls. In addition to this work, we have significantly changed our banking practices, adding on-line control features and lock box facilities.
We have also devoted a great deal of attention to our investments. As you may know, we manage about a thousand trust funds, half of which do not directly benefit the national church. At our Investment Trust Fund Committee meeting next week, we will be starting a complete reevaluation of our investment strategies. This is not to imply that investments were not well managed in the pastÑour performance results were very good. However, we have many different constituencies within the thousand funds with different income and growth objectives and we must provide a way of accommodating these. In addition, we have just completed a review of every trust document. A daunting task, to be sure. We are fully complying with their provisions.
Our budgeting and reporting procedures represent our next priorities. My impression is that budgeting has in the past been done on a broad basis with amounts being assigned to general areas. Our accounting follows the same pattern so that it is difficult or almost impossible to track costs of specific tasks or projects. For example, it might be possible to know the cost of a particular meeting but it would require extensive digging to determine how much was travel, materials, etc. To address this we are installing a new accounting system this summer, and I am on my way to the Program, Budget, and Finance Committee meeting to propose that we build our new budget from the bottom up. This will allow much greater control over our spending and also allow for more informed adjustments to spending in reaction to changing economic conditions.
Although unclear, as I mentioned earlier, the future looks promising to me. There will still be differences among us over everything from theology to autonomy, from sociology to spirituality. I am relatively new to the church, having been received in the mid-eighties, but I'm told if we survived the new prayer book everything else is a snap. In fact, for us, living in conflict seems to be a source of enrichment and reenergizing.
I think we have seen the worst of giving reductions as a protest action and because of distrust in our ability to manage our financial affairs. The vast majority of dioceses appear to be making every effort at stewardship. The diocese of Long Island is a good example. There is some confusion and inequity involved in our new commitment formula and I think this needs some additional consideration which we will address at the Program, Budget, and Finance Committee meeting. We are convening a stewardship conference later this month in Salt Lake City. The purpose is to develop a broader theological position on stewardship. We hope this will be a helpful guide to parishes and dioceses. A theologian from Union Seminary in New York will participate in this project, as it is an issue throughout the church.
Finally, let me describe some activities going on at the church center. About four months ago we began a review of all aspects of our mission and operations. The objective is to evaluate every activity and position in terms of its relevance to the completion of our mission. A number of significant changes have emerged that will be presented in June for discussion. One very clear result is a reaffirmation that the national church center is a resource for the rest of the church. Our role is not to carry out programs, but to enable others to do so more effectively.
Another decision is to reopen the development office of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society. We need this to support activities such as the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief, but also to support fund raising and stewardship activities at all levels of the church. The Episcopal Church Foundation has stepped into the void that was created when this office was closed for budget reasons and has done a wonderful job of service to the church. But we believe that this is a responsibility that the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society must fulfill.
My first half-year has been a wonderful experience. There have been a lot of problems but the willingness and ability of people to meet each challenge has been astounding. This, along with the frequent offers of help from every part of the church, adds greatly to my feeling of optimism. It is clear that although we may differ on some points, we are still one church with a very strong sense of common mission and faith.
Again, thank you for this opportunity and for all that this province does
and is.
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The Executive Council held its second yearly meeting in Charleston, West Vir ginia, June 10-13, 1996. We were to experience the small rural church, learn about their cluster churches, and enjoy an evening Eucharist, followed by an outstanding potluck supper.
One of the highlights of the meeting was the report on the status of the diocesan visitations. As of June 10, council members and national church staff teams have visited 84 of the 95 dioceses to be visited. During each visit, we have talked with the diocesan bishop, clergy, and lay leaders. We have learned about their mission priorities, have strengthened their partnership with us through our visits, have listened to their concerns, and have celebrated with them as they engage in living out and proclaiming the Gospel.
The Planning and Evaluation Committee is reading the reports on these visitations. The committee will give a report at the next meeting of the Ex ecutive Council in Toronto, Canada, November 7-12 in a joint meeting with our Anglican partners. Thus far, the committee has grouped the material into eight categories of priorities and general concerns. These are: communication, local ministry, finance, social justice ministries, global ministries, autonomy, leadership, and structure.
The data obtained from these visits will form the basis of the program and budget decisions for the next triennium beginning after the 1997 General Convention. The data will provide the main input for the Executive Council's report in The Blue Book , which is available before General Convention, and aid in the preparation of the Executive Council's report to the 1997 General Convention. The report from these diocesan visitations will provide a large body of information regarding the significant issues facing the church, and serve as a legacy to the new administration as we enter the twenty-first-century.
I will be in Chicago on September 25-26 with members of the Planning and Evaluation Committee to assess the data we have received from the diocesan visits. The committee will be working on the final, crucial phase of analyzing the information shared during the visits, with a view to determining what our priorities as a national church should be for the immediate future. From each of the 95 dioceses there are three reports: Executive Council member report, presiding bishop's staff member report, and a diocesan report.
Lloyd Casson, national staff person for JPIC, reported on the work of the Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation Committee which was established by the Executive Council in 1995. The purpose of the committee is to foster collaboration and facilitate communication between the council and ministries for peace, justice, and the environment. They are to be advocates for issues concerning anti-racism, economic and social justice, environmental stewardship, Jubilee ministries, and global economic strategies.
This past spring, the presiding bishop and the president of the House of Deputies called for a new initiative, whereby the entire Episcopal Church would be engaged in a process of dialogue on the issue of racism in church and society, to be held as an annual event on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, be ginning January 20, 1997. A committee of representatives of each order was appointed to oversee the process of development and implementation of this initiative. A one-time grant was made from the Constable Fund for funds for the development, production , and distribution of resource materials to aid in parish, diocesan, and community dialogues.
Funds from the Constable Fund were approved for use by the ecumenical office of the national church for the purpose of projects and activities which will further prepare the Episcopal Church for its decision on the Concordat of Agreement with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The funds will be used to provide a 20 minute introductory video on the Concordat for use in congregations; for satellite downlink for regional teleconferences on the Concordat; for publication of resource questions and answers; and for a Central American workshop (to be held in Guatemala) on the Concordat and ecumenism.
A 44 page draft report from the Structure Commission proposes changes in the
church's overall system as well as in the roles of the presiding bishop and
Executive Council.
Contact: the Rev. Virginia Sheay, St. Luke's, 1620 Prospect St., Trenton, NJ
08638-3031.
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