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July 25, 1996
Episcopal News Service
James Solheim, Director
(212) 922-5385
ens@ecunet.org

96-1525
STRUCTURE COMMISSION RECOMMENDS CHANGES 
IN EPISCOPAL CHURCH'S NATIONAL ORGANIZATION 

BY JAMES H. THRALL
       (ENS) In a draft report emerging from more than a year of study, the
Standing
Commission on the Structure of the Episcopal Church has proposed sweeping
changes
in the church's system of national committees and commissions, as well as in
the
roles of the presiding bishop and Executive Council.
       The report will be distributed widely for comment before being revised
into a
final form to be submitted as the commission's official "Blue Book" report to
the
1997 General Convention. Structure commission members stress that the
recommendations are no more than that: General Convention itself will have to
decide
on making any actual changes.
       Charged by the 1994 General Convention to review the system of "interim
bodies," or the approximately 30 ongoing national committees and commissions
that
serve between General Conventions, the structure commission was further
directed by
Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning and House of Deputies President Pamela
Chinnis
to ask a broader question of how the church might be organized if it were
being
created anew.
       Its 44-page initial report, released in June, would shift the emphasis
of the
presiding bishop's job away from day-to-day management of the church,
strengthen
the Executive Council by making it more responsible for overseeing the
church's
programs, and significantly reshuffle the current list of commissions. In
general,
fewer, more broadly focused committees would support a church mission that
gives
precedence to local ministry.

PRUNING A PLETHORA OF COMMITTEES
       To avoid "compartmentalization and redundancy," and to ensure that
standing
commissions follow their canonical mandate to focus on "major subjects
considered to
be of continuing concern to the church," the structure commission proposes to:
       þ eliminate commissions on Church in Small Communities, Health, Human
Affairs, Church in Metropolitan Areas, Peace with Justice, and Evangelism, and
reassign the work of those commissions to other existing commissions, to newly
created commissions, or to specifically targeted task forces;
       þ create a new Standing Commission on Common Worship that would
combine the Standing Liturgical Commission and the Standing Commission on
Church
Music;
       þ create a new Standing Commission on Domestic Mission and National
Concerns that would address many areas of "ministry at home" that were the
province
of other commissions;
       þ focus the work of the current Commission on World Mission even more
directly on missionary activity outside the United States;
       þ create a new Commission on the Ministry that would consolidate the
work
of the Council for the Development of Ministry, the Board for Theological
Education
and the Church Deployment Board, developing policies and strategies about
ministry
with the support of the Church Deployment Office and other national staff;
       þ reduce the number of members of the Standing Commission on Ecumenical
Relations and focus the commission's work on setting policy rather than
engaging in
"day-to-day ecumenical relations";
       þ make greater use of existing agencies and other networks related to
the
church, such as the Episcopal Church Building Fund, the Episcopal Church
Foundation, the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief and the Episcopal
Church
Women;
       þ reduce the number of legislative committees that meet during General
Convention, but make no changes to the size of the General Convention House of
Deputies or to the convention's current cycle of meeting every three years.

A NEW ROLE FOR PRESIDING BISHOP
       Calling it a "shift in emphasis from managing to leading," the
structure
commission recommends limiting the responsibility of the presiding bishop to
implement the policies and programs of General Convention, and turning instead
to a
strengthened Executive Council. A new position of "executive director,"
nominated
by the presiding bishop and the president of the House of Deputies, but
appointed by
the council, would be created to be the "day-to-day manager" of the national
staff and
programs.
       "The energies of the presiding bishop should be directed to being a
prophetic
voice of expressive power and fearlessness," the report states. "Freeing the
presiding
bishop from an `in house' mind set," would allow "more frequent personal
rather than
managerial, contact with sister and brother bishops and the laity and other
clergy of
the church."
       Rather than being considered "the presiding bishop's staff," national
staff
would serve General Convention through the Executive Council, overseen by the
executive director, the report recommends.
       "This is not a reaction" to the performance of past presiding bishops,
but a
"realization that we place an inordinate amount of work on one person to try
to be
both the leader and the manager," said commission member Del Glover of
Wilmington, Delaware. "The notion is `Let's allow the presiding bishop to be
more of
a bishop to the bishops, and have time to minister among the people.'"
       The presiding bishop still would chair the Executive Council, the
Domestic
and Foreign Missionary Society and the House of Bishops, said Glover, but
would be
"accountable" rather than "responsible." Someone who is "accountable is not
necessarily responsible" for implementing programs or policies, he explained.

BASIC PRINCIPLES DIRECTED RESTRUCTURING
       Budget concerns or past performance of particular commissions also were
not
factors in the decisions about realigning the list of commissions, said Robert
Royce of
Bay Shore, New York, the structure commission's secretary. "There was no
judgmental determination as to effectiveness," he said. "Never was." 
       Rather, he said, six basic principles about the nature of the church
directed the
commission's work. Those principles were that the Episcopal Church:
       þ is a national church participating fully in the Anglican Communion;
       þ is one diverse community of Christ's reconciling ministry in the
world;
       þ will commit to the diocese and provinces only that mission and
ministry
which cannot be accomplished by parishes and congregations;
       þ will commit to national structures only that mission and ministry
which
cannot be accomplished by dioceses and provinces;
       þ will have a form that will follow function and a structure that will
follow
ministry and mission;
       þ must be structured at all levels so that structures do not inhibit
deliberate
change.   
       Impressed with the level of commitment shown by all the committees, the
commission still had to ask whether "we are doing the high priority things,
and if we
did less, could we do it better," Glover said. 
       The commission also avoided getting bogged down in any debate over the
nature of the church mission, Royce said. Part of what has caused the number
of
commissions to grow, he noted, were efforts to try to address diverse concerns
about
individual aspects of ministry.
       "It's almost impossible to institutionalize what the ministry and
mission of the
church is because we all have a different Lazarus at the gate," he said.
Instead the
commission tried to address not the "`what' of mission and ministry," but
"`how' and
`where' the ministry and mission of the church occurs," he said. 

INITIAL REACTION TENTATIVELY FAVORABLE
       While the various commissions still need time to review the report and
react,
initial responses have been mostly favorable, reported Bruce Woodcock,
assistant
secretary of General Convention. "People seem to see the commission's work as
a
good faith effort to try to address the problem," he said.
       At the same time, Woodcock noted, "there's probably something in the
report
for everyone to either like or dislike."
       The Rev. Robert Sessum of Lexington, Kentucky, chair of the joint
commission on peace with justice, slated for elimination, said that he favored
"making
a more effective structure for the church," but was concerned that the report
seemed
not to provide a way for the church to deal with international issues.
       "Desmond Tutu credits the worldwide Anglican Communion with being the
community of witness that toppled the pillars of apartheid," he said. The sole
work of
his commission, he said, has been to recommend policy to General Convention on
such international concerns. "If there's another entity that's going to pick
that up and
carry it, I wouldn't have the concerns that I have now," he said.
       Louie Crew, secretary for the standing commission on human affairs,
also on
the list of proposed eliminated bodies, reported that that commission's
members "feel
positive about the shift of many responsibilities to Executive Council,
freeing up the
presiding bishop for more pastoral activities."
       The commission was concerned, however, he said, that the restructuring
proposals "do not, as worded, carefully secure space for a prophetic voice,
historically the role of many of the bodies." The commission would like to see
the
new configuration "guarantee a place for scouting at the cutting edge of the
issues of
our time, a base for leadership regarding these issues," he said.

COMMISSION AIDED BY JOINT INTERIM BODIES MEETING
       While the structure commission received helpful written reports from
the
various commissions, and read "more Blue Book reports than we care to think
about,"
an historic joint meeting of nearly all the interim bodies in Minneapolis in
October,
1995, was a particularly valuable opportunity to meet with the groups in
person,
Royce said.
       "We interviewed and talked with each one of them as teams," agreed
Glover.
"It was a chance to listen and get their input and feelings about their work."
       In collating all the information that they had gathered, the 12 members
of the
commission "took seriously the notion that we could do things differently," he
said.
"We didn't want to tamper just to tamper. What we wanted to do was to get to
some
really fundamental change."
       Calling the commission's proposals "quite revolutionary," Chinnis, who
convened the joint meeting in Minneapolis, said she was impressed that the
structure
commission did not "tinker around with moving the desk chairs on the Titanic,"
but
suggested significant renovations.
       While negative reaction might be expected from "people unhappy because
their
own particular turf is being attacked," Chinnis said, "It will be interesting
to see what
kind of response they get throughout the whole church."
       In general she welcomed the opportunity to "really tidy things up" as
the
number of interim bodies has grown. "There has been no willingness to really
sunset
things," she said, and in the absence of a clear reason to exist, "some
commissions
have wondered what they were going to do for the triennium."

A PROMISE TO LISTEN AND REVISE
       The commission wants to receive as much input as possible on its
initial
report, Royce stressed, with the hope that its initial report "will help
everybody frame
the debate."
       The General Convention office has mailed copies of the report to all
bishops,
1997 General Convention deputies, chancellors, interim body members, and other
church leaders. Comments can be sent to the commission until September 10.
       The report's proposals also are only recommendations, Royce said.
       "The structure commission in its own right will not `restructure' the
church,"
he said. "The structure commission will propose and the church, through its
input into
this project during and after the comment period and through any legislative
action of
the General Convention, will dispose."
       The recommendations are also carefully framed to permit changes, and
are
"not offered on an all or nothing basis," the report notes. "Elements of these
proposals may be considered and debated and then accepted, amended or even
rejected on their own merits."
       Any changes that are mandated, such as a possible enhanced role for
Executive
Council, are likely to be "evolutionary," Royce said. "This is not a waffle
iron that is
going to come slamming down on the church." 
       Following the comment period, the commission will meet again November
18-
20, 1996, and January 6-8, 1997.

--JAMES H. THRALL IS DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH.