wfn.org | Church seeks clarity of role, funct

[ENS.parti@ecunet.org]

August 6, 1997
Episcopal News Service
Jim Solheim, Director
212-922-5385
ens@ecunet.org

97-1906
Church seeks clarity of role, function 
in structural changes

by Mike Barwell
     (ENS) Piece by piece, and with a strong allegiance to the status
quo, the Episcopal Church reorganized its internal structures during the
72nd General Convention.
     The numerous changes, resulting from a three-year study by the
Standing Commission on Structure with further work by the convention's
Committee on Structure, clarified the roles of the presiding bishop and
Executive Council and also shifted around responsibilities of various
interim bodies that serve between conventions.
     "We clarified the role of the presiding bishop ... revised the role
of the Executive Council and clarified its position as the board of the
Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society... making it clear that [it] is
not the executive of this church," said Byron Rushing, chair of the
convention's Committee on Structure.
     He called the work "the most extensive revision since the interim
bodies were created," and he praised the deputies and bishops for not
allowing money to become the basis of their decision making.
     Despite the changes, in the final analysis, Rushing said, "we
shouldn't care what the structure is; it doesn't matter what the structure
is. Just go and do the ministry... and you will find other people doing it
and you will talk to those other people ... and we will call it a network."

Defining roles, new positions
     The central role of the presiding bishop was maintained in spite of
a recommendation that authority for the church's program reside with the
Executive Council, the body that carries out the mandates of General
Convention between conventions. 
     As primate of the Episcopal Church and the Executive Council's
chair, the presiding bishop also serves as chief executive officer of the
Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, the formal corporate name of
the church.
     Convention endorsed a new position of an executive director or
chief operating officer appointed by and responsible to the presiding
bishop to run the day-to-day operations of the Episcopal Church.
     Bishop Peter Lee of Virginia said the change clarifies "the
distinction between leadership (the presiding bishop) and management
(the executive director)."
     Another new post is a chancellor  or legal counselor for the
president of the House of Deputies.

New interim bodies
     The main thrust of the restructuring work dismantled and
recomposed some of the more than 30 commissions, committees, task
forces and program areas at the national level.
     Past conventions have created numerous groups to study issues
and recommend policy or programs. Some commissions had huge
portfolios or overlapping jurisdictions while others were small and more
focused.
     Every group was scrutinized during the structure committee's
work, Rushing said. The work wasn't easy or pleasant, he said, and
continued on the floor of convention as deputies and bishops fought to
save their favorite programs.
     "Drawing black lines through our sacred cows" is how one deputy
from Hawaii described the process of revising the list of the church's
standing committees and commissions. 
     In an attempt to head off a piece-by-piece restoration of all the
eliminated or recombined commissions, Rushing laid out for the deputies
just how the work of the bodies had been redistributed. 

Other changes
     Among the measures approved by convention were resolutions:
     ~ clarifying that the treasurer elected at every meeting of the
General Convention may also be treasurer of the Domestic & Foreign
Missionary Society and of the Executive Council;
     ~ creating a new Standing Commission on Anglican and
International Peace with Justice Concerns;
     ~ expanding duties of the Standing Commission on Constitution
and Canons;
     ~ replacing three standing commissions on evangelism, and
churches in small communities and metropolitan areas with a single
Standing Commission on Domestic Mission and Evangelism;
     ~ changing the Constitution of the Domestic and Foreign
Missionary Society, regarding the officers of the society, to add the
executive director of the Executive Council as a vice president of the
society;
     ~ clarifying the role of the Standing Commission on World
Mission and broadening its membership to include more people with
direct representation in world mission. Wording in the original resolution
requiring half the membership be from jurisdictions outside the United
States was deleted;
     ~ allowing the presiding bishop and the president of the House of
Deputies to jointly appoint members of the Executive Council as liaisons
between the council and commissions;
     ~ merging two commissions~the Standing Commission on
Liturgy and the Standing Commission on Church Music~into a single
body: the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music;
     ~ discontinuing the Council for the Development of Ministry and
the Board of Theological Education, combined under the new Standing
Commission on Ministry;
     ~ creating a Standing Commission on National Concerns;
     ~ amending the Joint Rules of Order to allow for the
establishment of task forces of the General Convention;
     ~ spelling out the responsibilities of the Executive Council ;
     ~ establishing audit and reporting standards for the Domestic and
Foreign Missionary Society; and
     ~ urging the inclusion of young adults (ages 19 to 30) on church
committees and commissions.

~Michael Barwell is director of communication for the Diocese of
Southern Ohio.