[ENS] Presiding bishop warns Executive Council of 'suicide by governance'

[<mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

>Episcopal News Service
>October 24, 2010

Presiding bishop warns Executive Council of 'suicide by governance'

>By Mary Frances Schjonberg

[Episcopal News Service -- Salt Lake City, Utah] Presiding Bishop
Katharine Jefferts Schori challenged the Episcopal Church's Executive
Council Oct. 24 to avoid "committing suicide by governance."

Jefferts Schori said that the council and the church face a
"life-or-death decision," describing life as "a renewed and
continually renewing focus on mission" and death as "an appeal to old
ways and to internal focus" which devotes ever-greater resources to
the institution and its internal conflicts.

"We need some structural change across the Episcopal Church," she
said. "Almost everywhere I go I hear dioceses wrestling with this;
dioceses addressing what they often think of as their own governance
handcuffs, the structures that are preventing them from moving more
flexibly into a more open future."

Later in her remarks, Jefferts Schori said "we need a system that is
more nimble, that is more able to respond to change," calling for "a
more responsive and adaptable and less rigid set of systems."

The presiding bishop, who also chairs the council, issued her
challenge during her traditional opening remarks to council's first
plenary session, which came in the middle of its Oct. 23-25 meeting.

House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson, council vice chair, said
during her opening remarks that Executive Council has the
responsibility to address important big-picture issues.

"Fortunately God has called us to this ministry and has given us the
gifts to do what needs to be done," she said. "It is all of us,
together -- bishops, laity, clergy -- who govern the Episcopal Church.
Make no mistake about it: our form of governance enables our mission."

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79425_125355_ENG_HTM.htm