wfn.org | [ENS] Disaster-preparedness plans needed, Executive Council says

["Matthew Davies" <mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

Monday, October 10, 2005

Disaster-preparedness plans needed, Executive Council says

Justice sought for victims of natural disasters

By Mary Frances Schjonberg

ENS 101005-3

[ENS, Las Vegas] The Executive Council of the Episcopal Church said
during
its fall meeting in Las Vegas October 10 that hurricanes Katrina and
Rita
have demonstrated the need for dioceses and congregations to have
disaster
plans.

The council's resolution (CIM-039) also recommends that dioceses and
congregations "take steps to provide instructions to clergy and other
leaders concerning what to do and where to go in the event of a natural
disaster or terrorist event."

The council's meeting took place against the backdrop of a major
earthquake
in Pakistan and landslides and flooding in Central America, as well as
the
aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the United States.

Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold told the council in his closing remarks
that
the events showed that the "fellowship of Christ's suffering" extends
outward around the world and that members of the Episcopal Church are
called
to live in that context.

Following the close of the council's four-day meeting Griswold said that
he
was extremely encouraged by all the reports the council heard about the
Episcopal Church's efforts to aid the victims of the hurricanes and
other
disasters.

"We are clearly committed to a long-term effort," he said.

That effort, he said, is not merely one of rebuilding church buildings
"but
helping to rebuild whole communities, because without the community, the
church has no purpose." That rebuilding, he added, must always answer
the
Gospel's call to build communities that are equitable and that meet the
needs of their most vulnerable members.

The council also asked that the Presiding Bishop and the Church Center's
management team prepare a new disaster plan for the Church Center at 815
Second Avenue in New York. In addition, the council asked that the staff
of
the Church Center study whether to create an office of disaster planning
for
the church.

Force for justice

In a related resolution (NAC-037), the council expressed gratitude to
all
those people providing disaster relief to the victims of hurricanes
Katrina
and Rita in the form of prayer, financial assistance and direct service.
The
resolution notes that such work is rooted in the Baptismal Covenant "and
the
example of Christ who called on all believers to care for the least
among
us..."

The resolution also affirms the church's commitment to doing such work,
but
says that no faith community working alone or with others can meet the
needs
raised by such disasters without the help of government at all levels.

The resolution calls on the Episcopal Church to be a "force for
justice,"
calling on Episcopalians to engage with their government representatives
as
they consider their responses to the hurricanes. The resolution says
those
issues include urging Congress to pass a budget that meets needs without
hurting other groups and calling for more money overall to care for the
country's most vulnerable residents.

It urges support flexibility for programs such as Medicaid, immigration
issues, bankruptcy rules and prevailing-wage waivers to accommodate the
unusual circumstances caused by the disaster.

Finally, the resolution urges continued prayers for the victims of the
storms and of all forms of injustice, and urges the church to
theologically
reflect on "issues such as Christ's preferential option for the poor and
issues of race and class..."

Regret for complicity in slavery

In other action, the council became one of a number of voices in the
Episcopal Church that will ask the 75th General Convention to deal with
the
church's historic connections to slavery.

While one can always learn more from the study of the history of
slavery,
said council member John Vanderstar, the National Concerns Committee
decided
that "it seemed time to quit cutting bait and start fishing."

The council agreed to send to the convention a resolution (NAC-036)
declaring slavery to be a sin "and a fundamental betrayal of the
humanity of
all persons who were involved."

The resolution would have the Episcopal Church express its "most
profound
regret" that the church "lent the institution of slavery its support and
justification based on Scripture... and [that] after slavery was
formally
abolished, the Episcopal Church continued for at least a century to
support
de jure and de facto discrimination..."

The resolution would have the church "apologize for its complicity in
and
the injury done by the institution of slavery and its aftermath" and
would
direct the Presiding Bishop to call for the church to participate in a
"Day
of Repentance and Reconciliation."

A companion resolution (NAC-038) calls for the next convention to
authorize
a study of the complicity of the Episcopal Church in the institution of
slavery and "in the subsequent history of segregation and
discrimination."
The proposed study would also investigate the economic benefits that the
church derived from the slavery, and how the church can "as a matter of
justice, share those benefits with African American Episcopalians."

The last part of the study would involve "what would essentially be
reparations, although some do not want to use that word," said the Rev.
Kwasi Thornell of the National Concerns Committee.

"It's insufficient simply to say that [slavery] is no longer a reality,"
Griswold said in an interview after the close of the meeting.

He said that he believes the country has not acknowledged deeply enough
the
impact that slavery had in the past and the wounds that people today,
both
descendants of slaves and others, still carry.

While the council resolution will most certainly be changed and
considered
along with others that may come before the next convention, Griswold
said
one outcome of the conversation is already clear.

"It does push us in a direction that will be costly in terms of our
psyches
and maybe in terms of our immediate resources," he said.

Spectrum of reactions

Following the meeting, Griswold said a high point of the four days of
meetings was hearing a report from three members of the Episcopal
Church's
deputation to the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC). He said that the
deputation's report of its experience at the ACC's meeting in June in
Nottingham "showed incredible sensitivity to the fact that we are part
of a
Communion that is incredibly diverse." He said the report also showed
the
opportunity for Anglicans to have the Anglican Communion reflect the
fullness of Christ.

At that meeting, the deputations from the Episcopal Church and the
Anglican
Church of Canada did not have normal voice and vote, having chosen to
comply
with a request from the Communion's primates that they absent themselves
from such gatherings until the Lambeth Conference of Communion bishops
in
2008. That request was made in the wake of the consecration of
openly-gay
Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire and the authorization of rites
for
blessing same-gender unions in the Canadian diocese of New Westminster.

Deputation member Josephine Hicks said during the council presentation
on
October 8 that Episcopal Church representatives attempted to hear other
people's stories "and be sure that they heard ours."

She said that there was "a wide spectrum" of reactions among ACC members
to
that story. On one end were people who thought the Episcopal Church
needed
to repent for Robinson's consecration or be removed from the Communion
immediately. On the other end were people who said "you had the moral
courage to do what we all should be doing," according to Hicks.

In the middle were people who told Hicks and the others that they
listened
to the Episcopal Church's presentations and pondered what was said. "A
lot
of people heard some things in our presentation they had never heard
before
and it got them to thinking," she said.

Discernment praised

Bishop Michael Ingham of the Diocese of New Westminster, the Anglican
Church
of Canada's partner on the Executive Council, told the council on
October 10
that he was troubled in Nottingham by claims that the events in New
Hampshire and New Westminster have caused violence and death in other
parts
of the Communion.

He urged that those claims be taken "with a good deal of caution,"
adding
that the cause of such violence is homophobia and bigotry.

Ingham also said the divisions in the Communion are "really an
opportunity
to struggle with the meaning of communion." And, he said, that struggle
must
involve asking questions about what sort of theology of Communion is
being
articulated in the Communion's actions and statements.

He summarized those questions as "what kind of a Communion is it that
says
we don't want you at our table but we do want your money; what kind of
Communion is it that says send us your check, but not your voice?"

Following the meeting, Griswold praised the council for not rushing to
yes
or no answers for some of the issues that it faced, but instead being
willing to send resolutions back to committees for more discernment.

"We live in such an urgent culture that if we cannot give an immediate
answer we feel deficient," he said.

While a quick answer may give what Griswold called "emotional relief,"
he
said, it may not reflect what God is calling us to do.

-- The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is national correspondent for the
Episcopal News Service.

Summary of resolutions passed by Executive Council

Key to abbreviations: AF=Administration and Finance Committee;
CIM=Congregations in Ministry; INC=International Concerns;
NAC=National
Concerns

AF-083A: Directs that an estimate of the impact of future revenue be
included with all resolutions proposed to the Executive Council that
would
(i) divest currently held portfolio securities, (ii) add to the "no buy"
securities list or (iii) otherwise have implications for the revenue
available for the DFMS budget

AF-087: Authorizes the Episcopal Church Archives Strategy Committee to
proceed on the basis of its strategic plan and deliberations to begin
implementing a project to relocate the Archives, communicate the project
to
the wider Church, and raise funds necessary to construct an archival
repository for the Church

AF-089: Consents to the Presiding Bishop's appointment of Alpha Conteh
as
Controller of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society

AF-090: Consents to transfer of UTO Loan Funds to be used by Episcopal
Church Building Fund (ECBF) subject to certain provisions

AF-091: Directs that a Task Force be established to study and propose a
concept for a comprehensive, Internet-based, gift-giving strategy hosted
on
the Episcopal Church's official web site

CIM-039: Commends the need for disaster planning and asks for a
feasibility
study concerning the need for an Office of Disaster Planning for the
Episcopal Church

CIM-041: Urges General Convention to continue Task Force to Study
Employment
Policies and Practices in the Episcopal Church; offer a just-workplace
resolution to 2009 General Convention; asks Church Pension Group to
conduct
survey of lay employees; asks Office of Ministry Development to study
whether pension benefits for lay employees should be made compulsory and
be
administered by a single provider; commends statement on Workplace
Values
and Church Pension Group's Guide to Human Resources Practices for Lay
Employees

CIM-042: Continue the work of the Task Force on Employment Policies and
Practices through this triennium

INC-049: Admits the Diocese of Venezuela to The Episcopal Church and
recognizes it as a diocese in union with General Convention

INC-053: Request that A&F include $200,000 for the Centennial Endowment
Fund
of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines (ECP) in next triennium's
draft
budget and form a task force to raise funds

INC 056: Expresses alarm at a suggested change in federal policy that
would
lower the threshold for the President to authorize the use of nuclear
weapons from "threat of imminent attack" to "'demonstrate U.S. intent
and
capability to use nuclear weapons to deter adversary use of weapons of
mass
destruction'"

INC-057: Expresses gratitude to the Rev. Anthony Guillen for his service
as
an elected member of Executive Council, and offers prayers as he begins
as
Missioner for Latino/Hispanic Ministries

INC-058: Expresses gratitude to Dennis Sullivan and Linda Curtiss of the
Church Pension Group for work in obtaining pensions and medical benefits
for
clergy and lay employees in Latin America and the Caribbean

NAC 034: Commends the report of the Committee on Social Responsibility
in
Investments on corporate engagement and positive investment and its
recommendations

NAC 035: Approves shareholder resolutions regarding Environmental
Justice
and Genetically-Modified Organisms (including seeds, crops, food and
other
products)

NAC-036: Urges General Convention to declare unequivocally that the
institution of slavery was and is a sin and urges the Episcopal Church
to
acknowledge its history and the injury which the institution of slavery
and
its aftermath have inflicted on society and on the Church

NAC-037: Commends Episcopal Church's response to hurricane relief and
calls
on Episcopalians to urge governmental policies that will support
evacuees

NAC-038: Directs the Committee on Anti-Racism to collect information on
complicity of the Episcopal Church in slavery, segregation and
discrimination; the economic benefits derived; and how the Church can
share
those benefits with African American Episcopalians

CONSENT CALENDAR

AF-084: Withdraws up to $310,000 from trust funds to enable Episcopal
Church
of Liberia to initiate apartment construction to generate lease revenue

AF-088: Increases reimbursement for automobile mileage from $0.405 to
$0.485
per IRS regulations

ECC-005: Accepts Audited Financial Statements for fiscal 2004

ECC-006: Approves Grant Thornton as independent auditor for fiscal 2005

INC-050, -051: Appointment of new missionaries and acknowledgement of
returned missionaries

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