The 76th General Convention this July will be asked in various ways to continue the Episcopal Church’s mission of living out the baptismal covenant vow to “strive for justice and peace.”
Already-filed resolutions, most contained in the triennial reports of the church’s commissions, committees, agencies and boards, address social justice issues and echo the baptismal promise to “respect the dignity of every human being.”
Leading the list of new domestic initiatives to be considered at the convention in Anaheim, California, is one from the Executive Council’s Jubilee Advisory Committee to establish a program to alleviate domestic poverty.
Arising from Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori’s May 2008 summit on domestic poverty, the resolution focuses on the poorest counties in the United States that encompass federal reservations for Native Americans.
All of this would help Bishop-elect Tarrant in efforts to reanimate ministry here in South Dakota. The worry is that the financial problems described in the Blue Book will make funding tricky and hard to sustain, even if such resolutions pass.
I would rather the General Convention start a mission to live out the Baptismal Covenant by continuing “in the apostles teaching and fellowship.”
If we continue in the Apostles’ teaching then we will strive for justice and work for peace.
YBIC,
Phil Snyder
“Justice and peace initiatives” – what a fresh, unique direction for General Convention! And, just think what a difference it would make if there were anybody left that cared what ECUSA had to say about anything!
Speaking of the Gen Con Parade event:
[url=http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/052009/05202009/466055 ]Episcopal conventions good only for laughs[/url]
“…establish a program to alleviate domestic poverty”.
Really? Does this include the local churches that are failing by droves under oppressive budgets?
How about the following poverty initiatives:
1. Locate 815 to the heartland and away from the elite-driven, self-important black hole of costliness…it starts with “M” and finishes with “anhattan”.
2. Consolidate dioceses. Make the leftover bishops suffragans and let them retire for attrition.
3. Stop sueing everybody in sight.
How much will all of this save?
May free up local church money to address poverty in their own communities.
And, just think what a difference it would make if there were anybody left that cared what ECUSA had to say about anything!
Were the above comment to be accepted as true … it would make a complete sham of the covenant process … and the entire Anglican Communion. Sadly, it may be true of some of the more conservative Anglicans … but it certainly is not true of the Communion as a whole.
Now … to look at more from the outside … while the Episcopal Church has a membership that represents less than 1% (perhaps 0.6%) of Americans … it gets a surprising amount of coverage in the press … both national and international. Obviously there are quite a few people who care about the Episcopal Church and what it has to say. Add to this the fact that the percentage of Episcopalians holding significant political office exceeds (by perhaps a factor of 10) their percentage among the general population … and it’s more than apparent Episcopalians play a significant role in the world.
As for the justice & peace initiatives … I do believe that striving for justice and peace is a part of our baptismal covenant. Moreover, I believe there is value in stating a position on issues of justice and peace. Even so, my personal experience is that so many justice and peace issues are placed before us — at deanery meetings, at diocesan conventions, at General Convention, and even at the level of the entire communion — that they cease to have real meaning or impact.
First Family,
To be more precise, when I say, “care,” I mean, “takes direction from.” ECUSA has been increasingly teaching immorality and universalism for so long now that there can’t be more than a handful of people that take its pronouncements as in any way prescriptive for their lives. (Even in the case of its partisans, ECUSA is aligning its teachings to them, i.e., the culture, not vice versa.)
Certainly, under other definitions of “care,” you’re right: others in the Communion do care that ECUSA teaches things contrary to the Christian Faith under color of a common organization.
We can agree on this, though: the covenant process is a sham.
RE: “it gets a surprising amount of coverage in the press … . . . ”
Oh boy, does it.
I don’t have a dog in this fight but what Philip Snyder said. Nail the essentials and the rest will follow. Like the priests and monks of [url=http://www.angelfire.com/pa3/OldWorldBasic/A_brief_overview_of_Anglo-Catholicism.html]my late Anglo-Catholic movement[/url] standing up to apartheid decades ago. (I knew a late priest thrown out of Namibia in the 1960s who ended his days in the Continuum. So much for implying conservatives are bigots.)
Anyway this seems pretty much standard left-wing boilerplate: for example right about Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine, well-meant but economically naive soft socialism at home. Mainline stock in trade really.
The Episcopalians do get inordinate coverage for their size, and there are several theories about that (including the secularists wanting to mock/spite Rome with something that looks sort of like it: ‘hey, Pope, why don’t you get with it and have women priests and same-sex marriage?’*), but what strikes me is what [url=http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=6254]Joseph Bottum[/url] wrote about all mainliners: as much as they preach, right or wrong, on justice and peace issues, [i]mainstream society stopped listening to them around 1975[/i]. Their last hurrah was turning on the establishment on black rights and the Vietnam war.
I’m sorry but the concern about the American Indians seems like liberal posturing to impress other whites; a nice, safe PC cause.
*‘The Episcopal Church: We’re More Lenient Than the Church You’re Mad At.’
[url=http://sergesblog.blogspot.com]High-church libertarian curmudgeon[/url]
Phil: I have been a regular churchgoer in the Episcopal Church for the better part of three decades and have never heard anyone preach immorality or anything contrary to the Christian faith.
Having just returned home from a funeral for a 46 year old man and a wake this evening for a 40 year old female – both enrolled members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe – I might think this conversation could move along with a bit more helpfulness if people actually responded to what this article is about. In the past year I have conducted more than 25 funerals on Standing Rock. We have an average life expectancy for men of about 47 years and for women about 58. Poverty has real effects on real people and real families. Young people don’t see a way out. So, why not quit sniping from the sidelines and see that whether we are liberal/conservative (or whatever labels you want to use here) we have a common mission. Our church brought the Gospel to so many tribal people and the work that we have is established – but underfunded. This is an arena that we can find common ground folks! In case you may be wondering, I’ve been serving as a priest on Standing Rock for 18 years. I don’t mean to be harsh, but this isn’t the place to take pot shots at anyone trying to make a difference here.
John Floberg
Canon Missioner, The Episcopal Diocese of North Dakota
NoVA Scout … I hear you. I’ve been an Episcopalian and regular churchgoer all my life — that’s well over five decades … although I won’t say by how much. Much as you … I’ve never heard anyone preach immorality or anything contrary to the Christian faith … certainly not from one of our pulpits.
The proposals to increase direct financial support for Episcopal efforts among the native tribes are good. Anyone who has seen the spiritual poverty, never mind physical poverty, of places like the Four Corners area or the Sioux reservations knows help is needed. But these resolutions also call for a lot of “advocacy,” which means a lot of money will be spent lobbying government, as if the governments actually listened to TEC. Better for all the money to be spent in actual charitable and church work where it’s needed.
Katherine, et al
The US Government has much that it has yet to do to fulfill treaty obligations. Our Church does have a responsibility of speaking with Native voices to get our government to respond. Indian Health Service is woefully underfunded. It is not a question of Church alone or Government alone or Tribal alone initiatives to address the many causes and effects of poverty. It is all of that and more.
In North Dakota know I have access to my Senators and Congressman and they listen. But they need their colleagues to hear as well. There Church provides a level of coordination to those efforts that are done locally. The structure is already in place for this. We simply need to provide resource for that structure – those people – to do their work.
John
That’s funny, NoVA Scout. ECUSA preaches the liberty to murder children in the womb, and your bishop (if you’re in NoVA) voted to consecrate Gene Robinson to the episcopate. Pay closer attention.
“Peace and justice” work, like the MDG, suffers now in TEC [i]because[/i] it is known to cover over the deeper controversy. It is seen, rightly or wrongly, as a smokescreen. Until we get a Covenant signed and stop all the other legal nonsense, little of this justice work will seem credible or properly motivated. Contested issues of Christian sexual conduct can also not be an inserted or implied rider to these causes. Most of all, the misuse of the Baptismal Covenant into which one can read about anything they wish — and many have done so — has to stop for the integrity of all our theology.