Pope Calls for Church That Is Far More Decentralized

From ABC-

Pope Francis called Saturday for a Catholic Church that is far more decentralized, where they laity play a greater role, bishops conferences take care of certain problems and even the papacy is rethought.

Francis issued the call during a ceremony Saturday to mark the 50th anniversary of the institution of the Synod of Bishops, a consultative body formed during the Second Vatican Council that was intended precisely to encourage more collegiality in the running of the church by inviting bishops to offer their advice to Rome.

Over the past five decades, the synod has been little more than a talk-fest. But Francis has sought to re-energize it, and the contentious meeting under way at the Vatican, in which conservative and progressive bishops are squaring off over ministering to families, has been the result.

More here-

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/pope-calls-church-decentralized-34540931

Reimagining the Church

From Patheos-

The phrase, “think globally, act locally” is attributed to Patrick Geddes, a Scottish philanthropist, town planner, biologist, and sociologist. The idea, though not the exact phrase, appears in his book, Cities in Evolution, which was published in 1915. Well ahead of his time, Geddes was at pains to argue for an approach to urban planning that took the surrounding environs into account.

The concept has been appropriated and broadened in its application to a number of endeavors, but it’s time that we apply it to the life of the church. As my friend and colleague, the Very Reverend Kevin Martin points out in analyzing the strategic plan developed by The Episcopal Church, referred to as “TREC” (Taskforce for Reimagining The Episcopal Church), the vision for the future is bright, but the content of the report is focused on enhancing and strengthening a largely centralized approach to doing church.

Read more:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/whatgodwantsforyourlife/2015/03/reimagining-the-church/#ixzz3V1KaOEDA

Churchwide Meeting October 2

From The Living Church-

Following a resolution approved at General Convention in 2012, the Task Force to Reimagine the Episcopal Church (TREC) will convene a churchwide meeting via webcast from Washington National Cathedral on October 2, beginning at 7:30 p.m. (Eastern time).

The purpose of the meeting is “to receive responses to the proposed recommendations to be brought forward to the 78th General Convention,” according to a release from the Episcopal Church’s Office of Public Affairs.

The task force is encouraging each diocese to have the following persons participate: a bishop, a lay deputy, a clerical deputy, and one person under the age of 35. The meeting is open to the entire church, however.

More here

http://www.livingchurch.org/churchwide-meeting-october-2

Why We Should Do Politics like Episcopalians

From Patheos-

Despite the tiny number of Episcopalians in America - 2 percent or so of the population—more presidents, senators, and Supreme Court justices have been Episcopalian than have been identified with any other religious affiliation. That suggests that maybe Episcopalians have some gifts for politics.

Now there could be some less-than-flattering reasons for this, of course. The Episcopal Church was, before the Revolution, the Church of England, and so it was well-established in British colonies, and many of the best, brightest, and richest belonged to it. Despite fifty years of decline, it has continued to be a church populated by the privileged; Episcopalians have the highest median income of any American religious group except Jews.

But along with that high income goes high levels of education. As Lisa Keister points out in her book Getting Rich, Episcopalians tend to be better educated than most of the population, so Episcopalians have some knowledge as well as some social clout.

More here-

http://www.patheos.com/Progressive-Christian/Why-Politics-Episcopalians-Greg-Garrett-08-28-2012.html

Shared Governance: The Polity of The Episcopal Church

From Bonnie Anderson- (I was privileged to serve on the committee and to contribute three of the essays)

Shared Governance: The Polity of The Episcopal Church, a collection of essays on the history and theology of church governance by the House of Deputies Special Study Committee on Church Governance and Polity is now available from Church Publishing.

"The collection is intended specifically as an educational and reflection tool for Deputies to the General Convention, and offers a number of insights particularly geared to their work," said the Rev. Tobias Haller, who chaired the committee, which was appointed by Bonnie Anderson, President of the House of Deputies, after the 2009 General Convention. "However, any Episcopalian wanting to be better informed about how and why our church came to function in the way it does will find the essays helpful."

The book focuses particular attention on the history and structure of the two Houses of the General Convention and how they interact; the role of the Presiding Bishop and the President of the House of Deputies and how their offices have evolved; and the role of the Executive Council, which carries out the work of the church between sessions of General Convention.

Haller said the collection dispels "some of the prevailing mythology concerning the origins and practice of our shared governance."

More here-

http://houseofdeputies.org/shared-governance-the-polity-of-the-episcopal-church.html

Presiding bishop warns Executive Council of 'suicide by governance'

From ELO- Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori challenged the Episcopal Church's Executive Council Oct. 24 to avoid "committing suicide by governance.

Jefferts Schori said that the council and the church face a "life-or-death decision," describing life as "a renewed and continually renewing focus on mission" and death as "an appeal to old ways and to internal focus" which devotes ever-greater resources to the institution and its internal conflicts. "We need some structural change across the Episcopal Church," she said. "Almost everywhere I go I hear dioceses wrestling with this; dioceses addressing what they often think of as their own governance handcuffs, the structures that are preventing them from moving more flexibly into a more open future."

Later in her remarks, Jefferts Schori said "we need a system that is more nimble, that is more able to respond to change," calling for "a more responsive and adaptable and less rigid set of systems." The presiding bishop, who also chairs the council, issued her challenge during her traditional opening remarks to council's first plenary session, which came in the middle of its Oct. 23-25 meeting.
More here-

http://www.episcopal-life.org/79425_125355_ENG_HTM.htm

Bp. Lawrence Responds to Episcopal Forum

From The Living Church-

Bishop Lawrence Responds to Request for Investigation
September 23, 2010

Dear Members and Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina,

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of all mercies and the God of all encouragement, who encourages us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to encourage those who are in any affliction with the encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged by God.”
(2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

Yesterday a group within the Diocese known as the Episcopal Forum of South Carolina wrote to the House of Bishops and the Executive Council of The Episcopal Church urging them to investigate my actions as Bishop and the actions of our Standing Committee. They have cited seven concerns as the foundation for their request. While these are trying times for Episcopalians and there is much need for listening carefully to one another, I do not want to let these accusations stand or go without response. Perhaps in their anxiety they have done us all a favor — indeed, presenting me with a teachable moment for this diocese and, dare I hope to believe, for others as well who may have read their letter. I will strive to refrain from using ecclesiastical language (Episcopalianese) or unduly difficult theology. Unfortunately, due to the accusations, a certain amount of each is necessary. Nevertheless, I will tune my writing as well as I can for the person in the pew. I will proceed by first putting forth in italics the accusation. In most cases I will just use their language, then, give my response. This could be much longer, but there is little need to try your patience.

More here-

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2010/9/24/bp-lawrence-responds-to-episcopal-forum

The Making and Re-Making of Episcopal Canon Law

From ACI

In order to current arguments about the structure of The Episcopal Church and its relationship to the other members of the Anglican Communion, it may be may be useful to reflect on earlier periods in which the Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church have changed significantly. It could be argued that the three most important such periods in the history of The Episcopal Church in which such change took place were: the American Revolution, the early 20th century, and the 1960s. The first of these three periods was perhaps the most radical, an attempt to revise English canon law in light of American democratic ideals. The second of these periods of reform was perhaps the most sweeping; Episcopalians of the early 20th century attempted to replace a set of individual provisions with a comprehensive code of canon law. The third period of revision—during the 1960s—is an important realignment made in recognition of the increasing complexity of the Anglican Communion.

Constitution and Canons for a new Democracy

Later in this volume other authors will write about the precise details of the Constitution and Canons that were adopted by the Episcopal Church in the period from 1785 to 1789. At this point I do not want to enter into that very important conversation. What I would like to do is to step back and simply consider the importance of the fact that a set of constitutions and canons were adopted at all.

It is easy for contemporary Americans to overlook the degree to which William White (1748-1836), the first bishop of Pennsylvania and the longest serving Presiding Bishop (1789, 1795-1835), and his colleagues departed from the English model of church organization that they inherited. Americans, after all, declared their interest in preserving “the religious principles of the Church of England,” and they continued to use much of the same terminology as their English co-coreligionists.1 Nevertheless, they created a church quite unlike that of England.

More here-

http://www.anglicancommunioninstitute.com/2010/02/the-making-and-re-making-of-episcopal-canon-law/

Communion, Order, And Dissent Or “The Revenge of Puss And Boots”

A lengthy but good paper by Phil Turner from ACI-

I owe it to my readers to provide an explanation of a puzzling title. What does a discussion of “communion, order, and dissent” have to do with the well-known and well-loved children’s story of Puss and Boots? Remember, in the story, the hero can only reach his goal if he listens to a despised cat that he must take as his companion on the way. It would seem that the point of the story is that attention must be given to what we might otherwise despise if we are to succeed in our more “high flown” endeavors.

My point is that hierarchy, the subject of this conference, is an aspect of church order, and both have become something like the cat in Puss and Boots. We cannot reach our more noble goals without these unwelcome sources of help. Nevertheless, for some years we have neglected these despised companions, and as a result our church and our communion are in a terrible mess. Indeed, our seminaries do little or nothing to introduce future clergy to the importance of church polity. I remember when I was in seminary the arguments about church order that so engaged the Reformers were mentioned, but only in passing. Polity, we were told, is a subject we ought to “bone up on” because there would be polity questions on our General Ordination Exams. The message was clear. Hierarchy and order are not very important subjects. Yet, here we are at the beginning of the 21st Century faced with fiercely debated polity issues. The debate centers on the communion wide challenge of an Anglican Covenant and on a domestic legal battle over the meaning of the constitution and canons of The Episcopal Church (TEC). The former challenge might produce a divided communion and/or result in TEC becoming a second track form of Anglicanism. The latter might produce a change in our constitution effected by a secular court rather than constitutionally mandated procedures.

More here-

http://www.anglicancommunioninstitute.com/2010/02/communion-order-and-dissent-or-the-revenge-of-puss-and-boots/