It’s been a horrific summer in the Middle East

My September 17, 2014, article for the Grand Haven Tribune, "It’s been a horrific summer in the Middle East,"

Please don’t tell anyone I told you about this,” the man told us with tears in his eyes, “I could lose my job.” In order to respect that request and protect his identity, I won’t tell you how I met the man. I won’t tell you when he told me this or what he did working for a major international company before everything got even worse in the West Bank.

But I will tell you that I can never forget the look of fear in his eyes. He was pointing out the bullet holes in the outside wall of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem — the oldest Christian church still in daily use.

“Notice the bullet holes are all from guns fired outside the church,” he said. “You will find no bullet holes in anything out here due to people firing from inside.”...

Read more at the Tribune's website here.

A Reimagined Episcopal Church: Some Steps Forward, Some Steps Back

A few days ago, the Task Force for Reimagining the Episcopal Church (TREC), released an Open Letter to the Church, sharing the latest update on their thinking and their emerging recommendations, hoping the church would give them prayerful feedback.

This letter represents an evolution from their prior release of position papers (one of which I found a few things to disagree with...). This latest letter contains a lot of good thoughts and I truly do believe they are moving in a positive direction. It seems very clear to me that they are trying abundantly hard to listen to the church—as best you can in our virtual age. I know a few people on TREC and what impresses me most is that they are not there to do what they want, but they are there to try to listen hard to the church while also making recommendations that will move us forward.

Indeed, my biggest worry is not TREC's recommendations being imperfect (the only way anyone would think they were perfect would be if the disagreeing reader got to write their own recommendations!) My biggest worry is that the political camps in General Convention are too deeply entrenched for any significant change to go forward. 

As exhibit A, I would direct you to the Lead's story on the open letter, to which their actual lead to the article is, "The Taskforce for Reimagining The Episcopal Church (TREC) today released a report in which sets out a vision of an Episcopal Church led by a Presiding Bishop with few checks on his or her executive powers."

Well, I'm pretty sure the report does more than set out a vision of "an Episcopal Church led by a Presiding Bishop with few checks on his or her executive powers." As I said on the House of Bishops / House of Deputies list serve, the fact that this was the big takeaway says more about the editorial slant of the Lead than it does about the report itself. Indeed, I think that there are other recommendations—two specifically—that are more jarring and more damaging to the future of the church than the idea that our leader be a bishop.

I'm on record with supporting a somewhat strengthened Presiding Bishop, but I think there is a deeper question the church must first answer.

Which Path Forward?

As I see it, other than the status quo, there are two options forward for our church. Everyone seems to agree that we need to revision ourselves as the missionary society we technically are. We need to find ways to support small and struggling congregations—but not just to support them but actually to equip them to enact changes that will help them grow once more. We need to take advantage of 21st century technology and increase the participation of all quarters of the church in our church's life. 

BUT, is this best accomplished through an increase in authority to a single leader or to an elected body? In times of struggle and change, do elected bodies or a single leader stand a better chance of charting a strong course forward and leading the church in that direction?

I would argue that a single leader has a greater capability to lead, particularly when supported by a strong working relationships with an elected body. Anyone who has ever been on a board knows that, absent a strong leader, a board, whether operating by consensus or majority vote, struggles to move quickly, decisively, and boldly. That's good—boards exist to slow decisions, to ensure adequate discernment and consultation exists. However, to be led solely by a board slows all decisions. Furthermore, in most organizations it is hard to get on a board (they tend to self-perpetuate), and so you wind up with an oligarchy. 

What's fascinating is that most of those who I have read who oppose a strengthened Presiding Bishop in this open letter seem to support a different option given by TREC in their earlier position paper: have Executive Council hire someone as a General Secretary to the church. 

What is the difference between a General Secretary and a Presiding Bishop? A General Secretary could be from the laity or the clergy while a Presiding Bishop is, obviously, a bishop. I think that, as the Episcopal Church, it make sense to retain our historic practice of being "episcopally led but synodically governed." 

But this is the more telling difference between the church: a Presiding Bishop is elected by the House of Bishops and confirmed by the House of Deputies whereas a General Secretary would be chosen by... Executive Council. 

And yet, all those who oppose a strengthened Presiding Bishop and want a General Secretary instead say over and over again that it is because the voice of all people, particularly the laity, needs to be heard. They say we cannot centralize power in an age of decentralization. And yet, their own preference seems to be a centralization of power in the Executive Council of the church by having them select our leader instead of the actual General Convention.

Of course, General Convention is also an elected body, but they are one that will, by its very nature, be much more representative than Executive Council.

Which brings me to specific suggestions I would have in light of TREC's open letter.

Changes to General Convention

I agree that the primary role of General Convention should indeed be a place of deliberative discernment and evolution for the church's view on large-scale issues. I do not know whether shortening the length of Convention is necessary (they seem overwhelmed at trying to accomplish everything at the current length). TREC suggests we need "efforts to focus and prioritize its legislative agenda." But if we do that AND shorten the length, we might wind up with a still harried and rushed experience. 

What I would prefer is to leave the length alone while prioritizing the legislation. Get rid of all legislation that is unnecessary to the actual function of our church. Then, see how General Convention feels once we have focused and prioritized the agenda. My guess is that there will be more time for breathing, more time for discernment. My guess is that the current length will then, for the first time in years, be sufficient for the task at hand.

I would also say that Crusty Old Dean's point that we need specific changes to focus and prioritize legislation is essential. Keep the legislative committees, but streamline the legislative process. Allow Executive Council to bring legislation directly to the floor of the house. Increase the needed sponsors for resolutions. Empower a body to combine legislation. I would also say we need an explicit statement about what sort of legislation we should consider at General Convention. Sometimes resolutions that express the "mind of the convention" on pressing political matters may be helpful—but those should be few and reserved for only the most important of questions. 

TREC also does not discuss changing the size or make-up of General Convention. As I said earlier, I think General Convention should move to a unicameral synod with the retained ability to call a vote by orders. Each diocese voting delegation should consist of the diocesan bishop, two priests/deacons, and two lay people, with an equal amount of alternates elected. That's is half the size of the current delegation. 

(I am on record for actually supporting all four orders being the delegation for General Convention—that is, instead of "clergy", having priests be one order in the house and deacons be another order. However, it could be that many dioceses don't have a robust enough diaconate for that to happen.... in my pie in the sky world, though, it seems to me that having deacons and priests each attend as their own order alongside laity and bishops would be ideal). 

But then, keep the budget you had for when your voting delegation was larger and also send people to General Convention not for voting but to participate in parallel workshops and training opportunities that would empower the church. The sort of person who may be a good General Convention delegate may not be the same as the person in your diocese you would send to a series of workshops on Young Adult ministry (and vice versa). 

Changes to the Presiding Officers

Change the Presiding Bishop to a role that is elected by the entire General Convention. Take a cue from our ELCA sisters and brothers and scrap the current nomination process (a process that will cost us a quarter of a million dollars this year!). Have the first ballot allow any eligible bishop to be elected. Then, in successive ballots, slowly drop off the lowest vote getters until you get to a person who is actually elected by a majority of the laity, priests/deacons, and bishops. This is not impossible in an age of electronic voting.

Then, do the same thing to elect a President of Deputies or Vice-President (or some other name)—but have that person be a lay person. The election process is the same as that for a Presiding Bishop. Envision the relationship as similar to that between a rector and a senior warden. 

Next, empower the Presiding Bishop to lead the church, assisted by the advice of the President of Deputies. Have the Presiding Bishop remain bishop of their diocese (even the Archbishop of Canterbury, even the Pope is bishop of a diocese!), but since General Convention is now paying the salary, the diocese can elect a suffragan (if need be) to assist. 

As TREC recommends, the Presiding Bishop remains "CEO of the Church, Chair of the Executive Council, and President of DFMS, with managerial responsibility for all DFMS staff" and the President of Deputies is "Vice President of the Church, Vice Chair of the Executive Council, and Vice President of DFMS." The Presiding Bishop nominates "Chief Operating Officer (COO), Treasurer/Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Chief Legal Officer," with the concurrence of the President of Deputies. The Presiding Bishop retains the right to supervise, hire, and fire all staff (just like a rector). 

Changes to Executive Council

Here is one of the most significant disagreements I have with the TREC report. I agree with cutting the rise of Council in half (from forty to twenty), but they suggest those twenty all be elected at General Convention without attention to regional representation, eliminating the election of Executive Council members that currently also happens at regional provincial synods. 

No. 

Once again, as Crusty Old Dean notes, this would likely result in only a few provinces having adequate representation. Instead, I would reverse it. I would have the entire Executive Council elected at the regional provincial synods, with those synods being comprised not of independent synodical representatives, but of the Deputies and Alternates to General Convention (with both Deputies and Alternates having the right to vote at a provincial synod—current practice is that provincial synod is its own elected representative office). Each province elects one lay person and one bishop, priest, or deacon to sit on Executive Council. 

Changes to CCABs

TREC also suggests the "elimination of all Standing Commissions except the Joint Standing Committees on Nominations and Program, and Budget & Finance." Instead, the Presiding Offices "appoint such task forces as might be necessary to carry out the work of a GC on a triennium by triennium basis."

I agree with most of this... I think. So long as the Presiding Officers are vigorous in appointing task forces we need and pay attention both to rotating people into task force work that have not previously served while also bring people onto a task force who may have served in a similar task force previously. A balance between continuity and fresh ideas is essential. 

Changes to Churchwide Staff

The final—and most troubling!—recommendation is "a transition in the mission or program-related staff of DFMS to a primarily contractor-only model."

I am consistently shocked by the fact that a church like ours that speaks to strongly of the importance of justice and valuing all the baptized consistently treats lay employees so remarkably poorly. This new model eliminates salaries. It eliminates benefits. It is shocking. And it is wrong.

My experience of the Churchwide Staff has been nothing but fantastic. I do believe that the staff could perhaps be reorganized—but the overarching concern should not be saving money but instead empowering ministry. The staff for ecumenical and interfaith relations has been slashed over the past few years—a remarkably bad decision given the increasing importance of ecumenical and interfaith relations at the local level in our times. One of the reasons why our diocese is still viable is because of our relationship with the ELCA!

Ask ourselves what work we want staffed at a churchwide level. A missioner for young adults, for Latino ministry, an ecumenical officer... what else? Create that staff, have Executive Council be the employer with the Presiding Bishop as the one with supervisory, hiring, and firing. 

Concluding Thoughts

As I said, TREC is moving in some very positive directions—though there are definitely a couple areas where I would raise caution flags. 

I simply pray that as they move forward they will continue to listen to the voice of the Spirit in the larger church... and that all of us will hold our own fears and anxieties lightly. Indeed, nothing short of the work of the Holy Spirit will enable TREC's final recommendations—no matter their final form—to make it through the various interests and groups that make-up General Convention.

Holy Spirit, who broods over the world, fill the hearts and minds of your servants on the Taskforce for Reimagining The Episcopal Church with wisdom, clarity, and courage.  Work in them as they examine and recommend reforms for the structure, governance, and administration of this branch of the one holy catholic and apostolic Church. Help them propose reforms to more effectively proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ, to challenge the world to seek and serve Christ in all persons—loving our neighbors as ourselves—[MT4] and to be a blazing light for the kind of justice and peace that leads to all people respecting the dignity of every other human being.Be with The Episcopal Church that we may be open to the challenges that this Taskforce will bring to us, and help the whole church to discern your will for our future. In the name of Jesus Christ our Mediator, on whose life this Church was founded.  AMEN