Episcopal Church Restructures, Adds New Mission Committees

Michael Camacho |Thursday, October 08 2009

A group of Executive Council members work October 6 in Memphis, Tennessee, on a plan to reconfigure the group's standing committees. They are, from left, House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson, the Rev. Gay Jennings, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, the Rev. Dr. Ian Douglas, the Rev. Canon Mark Harris and the Rev. Dr. Lee Crawford. (Photo: ENS)

The Executive Council of the Episcopal Church on Tuesday announced the addition of several new committees to its structure in an effort to refocus the church on mission and ministry works.

Meeting informally at a hotel in Memphis, Tenn., the group agreed to form five new committees based on a proposal from Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, which included Local Mission, Church-wide Mission, World Mission, Resources for Mission, and Funding for Mission.

Tentative responsibilities for the new committees include congregational development, education and formation for Local Mission; advocacy on public policy for Church-wide Mission; and partnership work with the Anglican Communion and Episcopal Relief and Development for World Mission;

The Resources for Mission and Funding for Mission committees will handle Episcopal Church administration and governance issues, previously handled by the Administration & Finance standing committee, which will shift its focus towards budget and related issues.

Initiating the restructuring process was the Rev. Canon Mark Harris, chair of the council's task force on its by-laws, who issued a challenge to the members gathered to, "consider what it means to be a missionary council."

"Is there some way in which we can recapture the sense of the engagement with God's mission in the world, and by implication in our mission as Episcopalians to that end?" he asked, according to Episcopal News Service (ENS). "Can we put our regulatory responsibilities as a corporate body into the context of a council gathered to proclaim good news in the context of the Episcopal Church?"

The additional committees more than double the size of the council's current standing committee structure, which includes Administration & Finance, Congregations in Ministry, National Concerns and International Concerns.

Composed of 38 members, the Episcopal Church's Executive Council carries out the programs and policies adopted by the General Convention according to Canon 1.4 (1)(a). Twenty-one of the 38 members participating in this week's meeting are new to the council, having recently been elected by the General Convention and the provinces.