Care with the Blue: Councils of Advice for the PHOD and PB

As we move on from the Executive Council section of the Blue Book, we come to the reports from the Councils of Advice, one for the President of the House of Deputies (PHOD) and one for the Presiding Bishop (PB)... both of these reports are short enough to combine them into one essay.

Summary of the Reports

The two highest officers of our church are the PHOD and the PB. I would say they are the highest officers because each one presides over one of the houses of our General Convention, but the work each does is remarkably different.

The report for the Council of Advice to the PHOD notes in the mandate that the President is authorized to appoint an advisory council, which means it is not a required act. I don't know if every PHOD has appointed one, but my hunch would be they have. The first five members are largely ex officio due to their roles in the House of Deputies. Of the remaining eight, four are clergy (one of those four being a bishop) and four are laity. Of the laity, two are lawyers. Their report largely just acknowledges that they met four times in 2016–2017, leaving one to assume they will likely meet twice in 2018. Each meeting is budgeted to cost roughly $16,000 (or a little more than $1,200 per participant). For lodging and travel, that sounds about right.

Though the canons are the mechanism through with the PHOD Advisory Committee is created, the Rules of the House of Bishops require one be created for the PB. That Committee is also not appointed by the PB, rather, it is ex officio, with one bishop from each province (either the President of the Province of the Vice-President of the Province). Through the end of 2017, this Committee had met seven times, once at each of the meetings of the House of Bishops. Since they meet during House of Bishops gatherings, this Committee also has no separate travel budget of its own.

Reactions to the Reports
With reports as sparse as these ones, it is hard to know much of what these committees do when they meet and whether or not it his helpful to the PHOD/PB and the life of the church.

Nearly $100,000 to get people together twice-a-year to give the PHOD advice seems like a lot of money for something I find hard to imagine is that essential to that ministry (particularly because I personally am not a big believer in a large role for the PHOD outside of General Convention and Executive Council Meetings)....  However,  I am the first to say I don't know what the PHOD actually carries on her plate in the current structure of that office. So if she finds this helpful, I wouldn't speak against it.

The Council of Advice for the PB clearly functions differently, likely keeping the PB engaged in what is going on in each of the nine provinces of our church while also being a pretty good group of bishops for the PB to take counsel with when he needs advice. With no real added cost to this group's existence, it doesn't raise my eyebrows like the one for the PHOD does.

Note: You can click here for a list of all Blue Book Reports & Resolutions that have thus far been reviewed.