Amid the regular budgeting process, the opening of Executive Council’s meeting in Salt Lake City included reactions to the proposal by Bishop Stacy Sauls that the Episcopal Church call for a Special Convention to deal with questions of its structure.
From the Episcopal News Service report:
“Anderson and Bishop Stacy Sauls, the church’s chief operating officer, both used their opening remarks in part to address the way in which Sauls in September introduced to the House of Bishops a proposal to engage the laity and clergy in conversation about the kind of structural reform that he said could shift the church’s focus toward mission.
Anderson was among some in the church who felt Sauls ought to have alerted them to his intention to propose such a conversation and she said in her remarks to council she had told Sauls this. In turn, Sauls referred in his remarks to “the matter that has come between some of us,” which he called “a breach that has been carried on very publicly and regrettably without talking to one another.”
Anderson suggested that the church needs to “slow down” the conversation. She said that the church’s Standing Commission on the Structure of the Church “has developed a sample resolution to help all of us – clergy, lay people and bishops – structure our conversations and work together toward change that best facilitates mission and best limits unintended consequences.”
[…] Sauls said that if he were to deliver his presentation to the bishops over again, “I would have notified Bonnie of the one thing I presented that was new,” which was a model resolution (found at the end of his presentation to the bishops here) that he described as “a vehicle for bishops to take this conversation to the people with whom they work.””
More here.