THE GRAPEVINE

The Newsletter of Province II of the Episcopal Church


Volume 5 No. 3 , Fall 1998
Jan Paxton, Editor

Contents:

Provincial Elections

The next Synod of Province II will elect officers to the Provincial Council. Terms for all the officers will expire. Some of the officers are eligible for election, some are not.

The President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer are all eligible for re-election. The Vice-President, the Rt. Rev. Walter Dennis, is retiring and will not run for a second term. As of this writing, the other officers, the Rev. Stephen Lane, Mr. John Goldsack, Esq. and Mrs. Gwen Carter, have not decided whether or not to seek a second term.

The representatives of the clergy and laity, the Rev. Joseph Jerome and Mary Flad, are not eligible for re-election. The representative of the bishops is elected by the House of Bishops. The Rt. Rev. Orris Walkers is not eligible for re-election.

The Synod will also elect a clergy representative to the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church for a term of six years. The Rev. Virginia Sheay is our current representative and is not eligible for re-election. The person we elect will not succeed Ginny until her term expires at the end of 1999.

The lay representative to the Executive Council, Dr. Alfred Price, and the liaison to Episcopal Life, Adair Saviola, continue in office until the expiration of their terms several years from now. The other officers of the Province, the Chancellor, Mr. Michael Rehill, Esq., the Network Liaison, the Rev. John Rollins, and the editor of The Grapevine, Jan Paxton, are appointed by the President and serve at the discretion of the President and Council.

Nominees are sought from throughout the Province. Officers must be resident in the Province and need not be current deputies to Synod. Nomination forms are available from the Secretary and should be submitted well in advance of Synod.

This is an important time in the life of the Province with significant decisions to be made about how we accomplish our work. The Province needs strong leadership. Please think carefully about whom you'd like to direct the work of the Province.

Stephen T. Lane
President

Contact: Stephen T. Lane
120 East Main St.
Palmyra, NY 14522
Phone: (315)597-9236
e-mail: zion@computer-connection.net

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The Haiti Initiative of the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief

Progress Report
In partnership with the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti and after two years of planning, the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief has launched an important cooperative venture, The Haiti Initiative, focused on church-based community development projects adapted to a specific congregation's or institution's setting.

Supported by an initial grant of $105,000 from the Fund, the Diocese of Haiti and its Bishop, the Right Reverend Jean Zache Duracin, will soon call their new Director of Development.

Working with the Bishop and the Diocese's Development Committee, this Director will have the ministry of staffing the coordination of many of Haiti's existing community and parish development projects as well as working to implement the emerging visions of new projects in many areas of the country. He will work out of Bishop Duracin's office in Port-au-Prince, with a stateside base to be determined.

Cathy Parrill, the first Director of Development, prepared a survey of Episcopal Church-related projects throughout the country. In addition, she began the critical task of working with the people of the Diocese of Haiti on stating their priorities, strategies, and goals for parish-based and diocesan projects.

The work of this office is being assisted by the Haiti Initiative Committee, chaired by the Reverend N.B. White, St. Paul's Church, Cleveland Heights, Ohio. This committee met in Port-au-Prince in February, 1998, to organize its support for the Development Office and the ongoing work of the Diocese of Haiti. The members have accepted a major responsibility for communicating with the Episcopal Church in the United States and raising funds to help support the projects, large and small, identified by the people of the Diocese of Haiti as critical to moving forward to seek to meet, in Christ's name, the needs of the people of Haiti.

During its meeting in Port-au-Prince, the Haiti Initiative Committee adopted the following Mission Statement:

Directed by the vision of the people of the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti, the Haiti Initiative of the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief serves as a means of coordinating support for diocesan and church-related community development projects and ministries in the Diocese of Haiti.


This committee, then, will act as representatives in the United States of the Diocese of Haiti's vision for ministry, supporting Bishop Duracin, Haiti's Development Committee, the Director of Development, and individual congregations and regions as they work together to design and direct significant programs and projects that carry forward the Church's mission of being the Body of Christ in our time.

Bishop Duracin and the Development Committee of the Diocese have already identified three projects for immediate attention. With Cathy, they prepared statements of the case for these ministries, each born of the faithful vision of the Episcopal Church of Haiti. All are important. All represent ways in which we in the United States can stand with our brothers and sisters in Haiti to do ministry by acting together on the Gospel's imperative that we be Christ's hands and feet now.

For further information, please contact:

The Chairman of the Haiti Initiative Committee -
The Rev. Nicholson B. White
St. Paul's Church
2747 Fairmount Boulevard
Cleveland Heights, Ohio 44106
Telephone: 216-932-5815 Fax: 216-932-8257
E-mail: stpauls@compuserve.com

Letter from the Chairman of the Haiti Initiative

Dear Friends of the Haiti Initiative;

I know from the volume of inquiries about the Initiative that interest and commitment to our shared vision are high. Thank you for hanging in there with us as we have been going through the stresses, some usual and some unusual, of starting up a new organization based on an emerging concept of coordinating congregation-based development in the Diocese of Haiti.

You will recall that the Bishop of Haiti, the Right Reverend Jean Zache Duracin, asked Cathy Parrill of the Diocese of Milwaukee, to serve as the diocese's Director of Development to coordinate planning and implementing projects that carry forward the Diocese of Haiti's vision for mission and ministry. After several months, Cathy had to leave that post because of some mutual lack of clarity about her role. So this vital post, without which the Initiative cannot go forward, has been vacant since the Spring.

The good news is that Bishop Duracin has recently asked the Reverend David McNeeley, M.D., to fill this position, effective as soon as funding can be arranged. The National Church's World Mission Office is being tremendously supportive, but they have no funds available, and I and others are working with them to secure the necessary financial backing. As soon as that is in place, I hope that David will be able to move back to Haiti from New York so that we can resume the Initiative's work of seeking support for projects identified and sponsored by the people of the Diocese of Haiti.

You have been patient, no doubt wondering what was/is going on. The Initiative's backbone is the presence in Haiti of the right person to coordinate the projects we together seek to support. David McNeeley will be that right person. He is a priest-physician who served for years at L'Hopital Sainte Croix, Leogane, and St. Vincent's Hospital, Port- au-Prince. He knows Haiti, speaks Creole, is married to a Haitian physician, and enjoys the trust and confidence of all who know him. He is an extraordinarily good choice for this critical position.

You will soon receive the latest fliers about the Initiative, thanks to the wonderful work of Ken Quigley, President of the Morehouse Publications Group and a member of the Haiti Initiative Committee. You will see that the planning phase has moved ahead during this time of waiting for Bishop Duracin to identify his new Director of Development.

The people of Haiti have put forward three critical projects as our initial targets: 1. To complete construction of the Seminary and Diocesan Center at Montrouis and to provide for its future; 2. To erect a primary school at L'Eglise Episcopale St. Sauveur, Les Cayes; and 3. To create a fund for supporting parish-based ministries throughout the diocese.

More later....Keep the faith and be assured that we are moving forward at the pace dictated by circumstances in Haiti. The wide-spread interest in and extraordinary commitment to the life and witness of the Diocese of Haiti promise a wonderful future for the Initiative.

Keep this work in your prayers! Thank you.

As ever, faithfully,
Nicholson B. White, Chair
The Haiti Initiative of the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief

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Province II Executive Council Report

The Rev. Virginia Sheay

The Executive Council at its third meeting of the new triennium met in the Diocese of Vermont in Burlington, from Monday, June 8 to Friday, June 12, with Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, III, Chair, and Dr. Pamela P. Chinnis, Vice-chair. Our meeting location which overlooked beautiful Lake Champlain with its view of the Adirondack Mountains, was near the Diocesan House and its camp grounds on the lake, and close to the Cathedral of St. Paul where we met for worship.

During our meeting, time was set aside to bid farewell to The Rev. Canon Don Nickerson, to learn about the ministry of the Diocese of Vermont, and to reflect on our life of common faith and prayer through two meditations led by Bishop Griswold.

The Rev. Canon Don Nickerson
We began our meeting with Holy Eucharist at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul with Don Nickerson as Celebrant. This would be his last meeting with us before his retirement on June 30, 1998. We were surprised to learn that Don was elected to serve on the Executive Council sixteen years ago at a Province I meeting held at St. Paul's. He pointed to the very pew where he sat at the time he was elected. Don served as Executive Officer of General Convention, Secretary of the House of Deputies and the Executive Council. He succeeded the Rev. Canon James Gundrum in these positions in 1987 on an interim basis. In 1988 at the General Convention in Detroit, Don was formally elected.

In her homily, Ms. Sonia Francis, Staff Liaison to Province II, spoke about the way Don has been the "bottom line" thread throughout the years, "helping us to measure what really matters." Dr. Pam Chinnis in her opening address said that she was having a hard time imagining how she will get through the General Convention without him. He has always been a reassuring presence on the platform for Dr. Chinnis. She mentioned how he always spoke with clarity and was unflappable in all sorts of conditions. We will all miss him.

The Ministry of the Diocese of Vermont
We were warmly greeted by The Right Reverend Mary Adelia McLeod, Bishop of the Diocese of Vermont. We learned that the population of Vermont is 600,000 people with 75 people per square mile. There are fifty-one parishes and missions in the Diocese. Twenty-eight of the congregations are served by clergy working less than full-time. Twenty parishes have full-time, professionally trained clergy leaders. The Diocese is currently embarking on a "Discovery 2000 Campaign" that will focus on four initiatives: a revolving loan fund for parishes, a talent and resource network, congregational renewal, and the Diocesan Outreach Fund. $1.6 million has been raised toward these Initiatives. Bishop Griswold complimented the outstanding leadership of Bishop McCleod and said that the Diocese of Vermont is very well ordered, oriented toward community outreach, and is grounded in careful planning.

Bishop Griswold's Meditations
As it is the custom of the Executive Council to include daily worship, bible study and reflection in our time together, we were particularly pleased to have Bishop Griswold lead us in two meditations: one based on the mystery of God in the Trinity, and the other on the paradox of truth. In the meditations he showed us how we are invited into God's inner life through communion, how we become ministers of communion with one another through our various relationships in love and truth. At the center of truth is Jesus who said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." The Way is truth and truth is life. One has to travel in the truth to know what truth is all about. The mystery of Christ is always unfolding. The last word of Christ has not been spoken. Truth is still unfolding. It is paradoxical. It is a corporate discovery in the process of traveling in the truth. At the conclusion of the meditations, Bishop Griswold asked us to reflect on where we were in the journey of truth and what circumstances brought us to this time in our faith journey.

New Budget Process Recommended
Steve Duggan, Treasurer, and Bishop Russ Jacobus of Fond du Lac, Vice-Chair of Interim Body Program, Budget, and Finance Committee, introduced a "vision-driven budget," which they hope will be presented to General Convention. It is a priority-based budget, not a detailed budget with particular line items. This new process will bring together staff and committees to listen to the church at all levels. By not having detailed line items, there is room for more flexibility to respond to requests that inevitably come up at General Convention. In the past, the budget was prepared in advance of General Convention, making it almost impossible to be open to new opportunities, and impossible for Convention resolutions that request funding to receive any at all. Executive Council endorsed the concept and will appoint a group to oversee the new process and begin implementation at diocesan conventions this fall.

Duggan also reported that funding requests from interim bodies (committees that meet between conventions) far exceed the ability to fund them. These budgets need to be revised. A letter will be sent to each of the interim bodies asking them to resubmit their budget requests.

Come and See
The Council adopted a proposal for a video documentary "Come and See" to be financed from the Constable Fund. The video will show in a compelling way the vitality of the Episcopal Church, and various dimensions of our common life. It will be seen through the eyes of Bishop Griswold during his first year in office. The documentary will take ten months to complete. It will be suitable for use in congregational special events, vestries, adult discussion groups and parish education classes. It will be made available to all dioceses through their educational media resource directors and centers. It will also be offered for sale, at cost, through Episcopal Parish Services.

Chiapas Resolution
In a resolution to be sent to the House of Bishops and the United States government, the Council notes with dismay the long and tragic history of the massacres of indigenous peoples in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. The Council calls the latest tragedy, the massacre on December 22, 1997, to their urgent attention. The resolution supports the rights of indigenous peoples of Chiapas to pursue just living conditions and land reform that honor their human rights and culture.

Patricia C. Mordecai
Patricia C. Mordecai, Assistant to the Presiding Bishop for Administration at the Church Center in New York City, gave us an overview of the day-to-day operation which she directs at the Church Center. She describes her style jokingly as "management by wandering," a reflection of her serious intent both to familiarize herself with the work of the entire staff and to be accessible to all persons. Life at the Church Center is slowly changing. There are daily chapel services at 12:10 PM; staff lunches on Wednesdays, and by September 1, the switchboard will be open until 6:00 PM. This will please the folks from the west coast! There are also plans to make the lobby more hospitable.

The Birth of a New Province
The Rev. Canon Patrick Mauney, Director of Anglican and Global Relations, reported about the inauguration of the new Province of the Anglican Church of Central America, held in April 17-19, San Jose, Costa Rica. At the ceremony, The Rt. Rev. Frank T. Griswold addressed the inaugural provincial synod in fluent Spanish and received a standing ovation for that alone! The inauguration of this new Province is a tremendous achievement, especially since there are five nations involved in the Province, making this a very complex organization. Bishop Cornelius Wilson, Bishop of Costa Rica, was installed as Presiding Bishop.


The Concordat Process
Both The Rt. Rev. C. Christopher Epting, Bishop of Iowa, and The Rev. Canon David Perry, Ecumenical Officer at the Church Center, were optimistic about the progress of the document: "Called to Common Mission: A Lutheran Proposal for a Revision of the Concordant of Agreement." It is being studied by the synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Basically, the document stands in continuity with the original document passed by the General Convention of 1997, while addressing further many Lutheran concerns. This is the work of the Lutheran drafting team: Martin Marty, Todd Nichol and Michael Root, in consultation with our team: Bill Norgren, J. Robert Wright, and Christopher Epting.

Coming away from the Burlington meeting, we can be proud of the work of the church as seen through the office of the Presiding Bishop, the staff at the Church Center, the Diocese of Vermont, the Council and the interim bodies. Recalling his three years on our council, Canadian partner, The Very Rev. James Merritt, expressed the value of our partnership with the Anglican Church in Canada. He commended our pioneer spirit, as a church that can leap ahead with energy. He said that there are two words in the French language for pride: la fierte (dignity) and l'orgueil (arrogance). It is in the spirit of la fierte that we can rejoice as we represent the ministry of Christ to the world. Merritt exclaimed, "What we do is good!"

Indeed, in his closing remarks, The Presiding Bishop stated that he has seen a lot of the Episcopal Church in the United States since his investiture, and he concludes that the Church is alive, well, and faithful, filled with good energy and spirit.

The next meeting of the Executive Council will take place in November 2-6, 1998, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Virginia M. Sheay
Alfred D. Price
Warren C. Ramshaw
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