Saturday, March 24, 2018

A MESSAGE FROM THE STANDING COMMITTEE

From Maryland-

March 22, 2018

Dear Friends in Ministry,

The Episcopal Church created a Commission on Impairment and Leadership to study “matters involving the serious impairment of individuals serving as leaders in the Church, with special attention to issues of addiction and substance abuse.” The work was initiated by the crisis in our diocese: the death of Thomas Palermo caused by then Bishop Suffragan Heather Cook who was driving while impaired. The report of the Commission was just released and can be found here. As part of the Standing Committee’s ongoing commitment to nurturing our relationships in ministry and building trust, we commend the report to you.

The Standing Committee is a body of four lay and four clerics elected by Diocesan Convention to fulfill certain canonical functions and to serve as a body of advice to the bishops. We gathered with our bishops for a retreat on Saturday March 17, 2018 to continue the conversation on impairment in church leadership. Peggy Treadwell, editor of Edwin Friedman’s Failure of Nerve, guided us in reflecting on the last three generations of diocesan leadership including both clergy and laity. We saw patterns of behavior that have developed in our diocesan system. We identified areas of needed work as we move forward building mutual trust across our diocese.


More here-

https://mailchi.mp/episcopalmaryland/message-from-standing-committee-03-23-2018

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