Episcopal News Service has several reports from the Executive Council meeting held over the weekend in Fort Worth, and will have further coverage as details emerge.
We invite your comments on this recent meeting.
It was clear during the course of the meeting that while racial justice and reconciliation and evangelism efforts might be separate line items in the triennial budget, they are all closely tied together when it comes to reaching a “world crying out for the good news of a God who is in the business of loving and blessing and making whole the broken people and broken systems of this world,” as the Rev. Canon Stephanie Spellers described it in her Feb. 28 sermon during council’s Eucharist.
Spellers, canon to the presiding bishop for evangelism and racial reconciliation, outlined the emerging plans that include an “evangelism summit” that would be the first step in building a network of evangelists across the church. There are planned initiatives in digital evangelism….
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Council passed a 2016 budget that included allocations for many of the new initiatives. That budget is due to be posted here soon.
A summary of Executive Council resolutions
Opening remarks from House of Deputies president, the Rev. Gay Clark Jennings:
We don’t have the luxury of waiting until the roller coaster ride ends to make the changes we need to make. Dr. King said this: “In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late.” We have an enormous opportunity to be agents of justice and reconciliation. We had the mountaintop moments we needed to get going last summer at General Convention. And now we have the sacred responsibility to carry out that commitment into the everyday work of leading the Episcopal Church. And we should know going into this work, that it will not always come naturally and will surely be a growing edge, especially for those who have lived and enjoyed white privilege.
In previous posts we linked to these ENS articles:
Executive Council: Opening remarks by Presiding Bishop Michael Curry
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry says he’s ‘reasonably back to normal’
Episcopalians urged to take ‘gospel high ground’ after primates’ action
All ENS coverage of this Executive Council meeting is here at the ENS site. The next meeting of council is June 8-10.
Image credit, Mary Frances Schjonberg – ENS