The Anglican and Episcopalian Church

Theo Johnson

10/03/2014

PA 642

The Anglican and Episcopalian Church

The Episcopalian Church continues to be part of a broader entity, called the Anglican Communion, which is lead by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. Traditionally, the Anglican Church was formally headed by the Crown Sovereign; however, increasingly the day to day leadership of the Church has shifted to the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Episcopalian Church is governed by a bicameral General Convention, divided into two houses: the House of Bishops and House of Deputies. The word Episcopalian, literally means, the Rule of Bishops. Decisions are voted on by the two houses.

“The House of Bishops is composed of every bishop with jurisdiction (diocesan bishop), every bishop coadjutor, every suffragan bishop, every retired bishop, every bishop elected to an office created by General Convention, and every bishop who has resigned because of mission strategy – each of whom has a seat and vote. The House may also elect collegial members who are admitted with seat and voice, but no vote. Collegial members are bishops in the Anglican Communion who serve extra-provincial dioceses.”

“The House of Deputies is composed of up to four lay and four clerical deputies from each of the jurisdictions, domestic and overseas, elected in the manner determined by each jurisdiction.”

They meet every three years in a General convention, where legislation is enacted, church policy and programs approved and budgets are adopted.

The official Committees, Commissions, Agencies and Boards (CCABs) of the Episcopal Church are:

Agenda Committee of Executive Council

Board Development (GAM)

Board for Transition Ministry

Board of the Archives of the Episcopal Church

Budgetary Funding Task Force

Constable Fund Grant Management (GAM)

Court for the Trial of a Bishop

Court of Review for the Trial of a Bishop

D004 Task Force on Older Adult Ministries

Disciplinary Board for Bishops

EC of JSC on Planning and Arrangements

Episcopal News Service Advisory Committee

Executive Council Constable Grant Review Committee

Executive Council Joint Standing Committee on Finances for Mission

Executive Council Archives Strategy Committee

Executive Council Committee on Anti-Racism

Executive Council Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility

Executive Council Committee on Indigenous Ministries

Executive Council Committee on Science, Technology and Faith

Executive Council Committee on Strategic Planning

Executive Council Committee on the Status of Women

Executive Council D020 Task Force

Executive Council Economic Justice Loan Committee

Executive Council Executive Committee

Executive Council Investment Committee

Executive Council Joint Standing Committee on Governance and Administration for Mission

Executive Council Jubilee Ministries Advisory Committee

Executive Council Standing Committee on Advocacy and Networking

Executive Council Standing Committee on HIV/AIDS

Executive Council Standing Committee on Local Ministry and Mission

Executive Council Standing Committee on World Mission

FFM SubCommittee on Finances

GAM 009 Consultation

GAM-005 (GAM)

General Board of Examining Chaplains

Governance & Policies (GAM)

House of Bishops

House of Bishops Committee on Pastoral Development

House of Bishops Committee on Religious Communities

House of Bishops Committee on Theology

House of Bishops Planning Committee

House of Bishops Spouses' Planning Group

House of Deputies Committee on the State of the Church

House of Deputies Study Committee on Church Governance and Polity

INC 055 Task Force (UTO)

Joint Audit Committee of the Executive Council and the DFMS

Joint Nominating Committee for the Election of the Presiding Bishop

Joint Standing Committee on Nominations

Joint Standing Committee on Planning and Arrangements

Joint Standing Committee on Program, Budget and Finance

Presiding Bishop's Council of Advice

SCLM Chairs of Task Forces on C056

SCLM Task Force - Animal Rites Group

SCLM Task Force - Canonical and Legal Considerations

SCLM Task Force - Creation Season Group

SCLM Task Force - Joint Creation/Animal/Science Discussion Group

SCLM Task Force - Liturgical Resources

SCLM Task Force - Pastoral and Teaching Resources

SCLM Task Force - Theological Resources

Standing Commission for Small Congregations

Standing Commission on Anglican and International Peace with Justice Concerns

Standing Commission on Communication and Information Technology

Standing Commission on Constitution and Canons

Standing Commission on Ecumenical and Inter religious Relations

Standing Commission on Health

Standing Commission on Lifelong Christian Formation and Education

Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music

Standing Commission on Ministry Development

Standing Commission on Social Justice and Public Policy

Standing Commission on Stewardship and Development

Standing Commission on the Mission and Evangelism of The Episcopal Church

Standing Commission on the Structure of the Church

Standing Commission on World Mission

Strategic Partnerships (SC on World Mission)

Task Force on B014

Title IV Review Committee

Title IV Task Force II - Education

With a balanced budget of around $37,806,448, largely collected from Diocese contributions the Episcopalian Church has a sizable budget. It is important to note that the various provinces, diocese and parishes also have their own budgets decided on by their own parishes and directed towards their own initiatives, with each diocese typically contributing between 10-20% of their revenues to the larger Church. The Church has a large number of endowment funds, it also has well over $505,000,000, US dollars in assets. None of this, includes the holdings of the individual dioceses and parishes. This is the budget and items of “The Episcopal Church,” and aside from our contributions to our Diocese, who contributes to the Bicameral General Convention, this is not the Budget of “St. James by the Sea Episcopal Church” or any of the other individual Parishes who often have their own holdings, investment portfolios, incomes and budgets.

The Budget is allocated according towards

1. Proclaiming the Good News with the goal of Starting New Congregations – $4,813,544
2. Teach, Baptize, and Nurture New Believers with the goal of strengthening Province IX for Sustainable Mission – $939,471
3. Respond to Human Need in Loving Service with the goal of making missionary service available for all episcopal young people -$2,243,059
4. Seek to Change Unjust Structures with the goal of engaging Episcopalians in the Eradication of Domestic Poverty through Jubilee Ministries - $1,251,227
5. Strive to Safeguard the Integrity of Creation and Sustain and Renew the Life of the Earth with the goal of creating and strengthening local networks to care for creation - $100,000

The remaining components of the budget are here;

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/sites/default/files/ec_budget_2014_revised_adopted_02072014_for_web.pdf

Now, its important to recognize that the entity, the Episcopalian Church, budgeted above is only a tiny portion of the broader Anglican Communion. Take for example the St. Matthews Episcopal Church in San Mateo, California. The Church owned the adjacent lands where a hospital was built, but the hospital became a privately established company leasing the lands. The Parish itself, owned the church, the school and some housing facilities for our deacons. While operating under the banner of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, the school itself, “St. Matthew's Episcopal Day School,” would barely co-mingle funds with the dioceses, it would instead have its own budgets and revenues from the tuition paid by students which then paid for operations and the salaries of the staff. With annual tuition being over $7,000 per year at the time and nearly 14,000 per year now the inflow of money, despite the school's small size, was significant. With many Episcopalian school's nation-wide and around the world, these proceeds would aggregate under centralized control, the local level of course, would never allow for such. I would imagine that there was some funds paid directly to the Church for usage of the facilities and while everything has to be sanctioned by the presiding Bishop, the parents, faculty and staff of the school worked to comply with the state's educational board to form a sophisticated curriculum that maintained the ethics and study of our faith, while also covering the subjects and topics expected to be covered by the Board of Education. Our parents had to pay taxes for public education, but elected to pay tuition for our own private education. Our school taught what the board of education wanted taught substantially better than public schools, but also allowed for theology to be taught and for morning prayer services. The Anglican system, or English-American system, avoids extensive centralized planning and funding, instead preferring for direct funding at the entity level wherever possible. The idea is not to send tons of money through a layered bureaucracy that is sluggish and unresponsive, but to keep those funds in the hands of those providing the services and goods, exchanging back and forth between, controlled locally, where they can be used more efficiently and in closer proximity to the needs visible on the ground, face to face, as people of faith.

As with most Anglo-Saxon societies, they tend not to be very rule or law based, rather more based on manners, customs and traditions embodied by common law. Anglo-Saxon people and countries, look at what works with minimal hierarchical control. According to the Economist, German countries stereotypically like to have everything to stem from the rule of law, even if it doesn't work. I may be stereotyping but from experience it seems thatt German Americans tend to gravitate towards the military and police force and run tighlty controlled rigid organizations while English Americans tend to be businessmen with fluid organizations centered around complex social networks geared towards matching goods and services to markets and investing available capital to generate returns.

The primary services of the Church; however, are geared towards salvation. Baptism, Mariage and Communion, or Eucharist are bigger draws. The Churches do; however, provide public services and charity. I can tell you that from St. James Episcopal we have some housing for poor families and take our weeks volunteering at a non-denominational homeless shelter. In certain circumstances, there are funds for medical services that can be made available for healthcare. There are also properties used for weekend retreats. The Episcopalian Church is an old organization with a rich history, the big families that built America, that traditionally governed America and owned the businesses were Episcopalian. Religiosity varied, but most of the Church's official work is geared towards the soul. There is a focus on praise through music, sciptural sermons applied towards current events and regular presentations or performances at our church along with focused bible or related topic studies. The Episcopalian Church is very different than the bible thumping baptists, because it has long been so interwoven with the state that it had to evolve along with society. The Episcopalian Church has interwoven itself within what political scientists call America's civic religion even invovling democracy in the election of its house of deputies. It has always been a leading religious organization as it relates to equality between men and women, including allowing for females to be ordained as Bishops, and also in its teachings on tolerance towards the LBGT communities. There is regular incorporation of relgious thought outside of the narrow confines of the Episcopal Church. I've heard sermons elevating Martin Luther King, Jr., to a prophet. I've heard sermons incorproating in the teachings of Rabbis after visits to the holy lands. Unlike the Catholic Church, its Priest's are able to marry, and as a result we have never had scandals surrounding child abuse. There are rifts in the church relating to social issues, but Archbishop Welby has done a good job at keeping these issues in perspective so that the Anglican Communion can continue to grow and heal previous divides.

I would like to see the Church to do more as it relates to health and education and to use its wide membership to push for educational voucher programs and consider moving into the provision of direct cash health services void of insurance, or a single payer health option to be purchased direclty from the Church. The American insurance system has caused health care costs to inflate to artificially high costs, so providing for a basic health system void of insurance would bring the costs of healthcare back down to their real market value. I appreciate the State of California and our Federal Government but feel at times, they do a lot more harm than good for society. At this point, nearly every service the state provides have devolved into common racketes. Providing parents and citizens with more choice, specifically the choice of sending their children to a State run school, or having the funds-per-pupil amount provided as a voucher that could be used for a private school, would relieve an immense amount of tension on our public school system while significantly boosting the role and influence of the Episcopalian Church in that student's life, whlie creating viable revenue streams for the Church. The elementary education I received was so vastly superior to those who went to public school, it seems cruel to force future generations into such a failed educational system as our state's, especially when there is a working alternative. Our schools taught us about evolution, science, mathematics, critical thinking and history better than the public schools. I wouldn't have received 5 on my AP English and Biology Tests, scored so high on my SATs if this was not the case. We still had sex education and we still had all the other facets of a public education, but were able to benefit from smaller class sizes, discuss morality and ethics and most importantly avoided being brainwashed by the Communists who infiltrated the Education Board in their efforts to make Americans feel guilty about their success, deceiving us into believing that there was anything other than a Market Based System that could effectively provide for the needs of our daily lives or that the State should ever have any other role than as a public servant. The public school system should be required to compete with the private school system, and those opting for the private school system should not have to subsidize public schools.

Traditionally, the church has a much larger role in healthcare, and with so much corruption surrounding the FDA, pharmaceutical companies and health administration the Church could step in and provide a valuable alternative. Scientifically speaking, prayer has been shown time and time again to be among the most effective treatments for a wide range of medically diagnosable ailments. I know that I am going to create a lot of cognitive dissidence and upset a lot of people when I say this, but a large amount of mental health issues are disturbances of the psyche, are spiritual maladies that prayer and attendance at a church services can help you heal. To be clear, I am not suggesting that everyone should stop seeing their doctor or taking medicine in exchange for a zealous healer holding a tent revival. I am suggesting that prayer can be a valueable part of any holistic approach to health. Psychologically speaking, its hard to deny the fact that the shift of orientation to a faith based community, combined with some of the aesthetic pleasantries of being in such can substantially improve one's temperament and disposition.

Many communists were good scientists because they avoided using the easy answer of God, but they were also generally horrible business men and so had to try to use the state to force customers to spend money on their products or services. Yet, the leading scientific breakthrough's have come from scientists viewing science as a means of better understanding of God and his universe. Many of these persons believe they are just democrats, unaware of the drift and origin of the ideolgies they have been indoctrinated into it. In America, these days, I would be considered a very religious, conservative, democrat. My liberalism is not socialist or communist, but lives in the philophies of John Stewart Mill, John Locke and Adam Smith. I share the goals of social equality, especially as it relates to ethnic origin and religious practice, but am bounded by fiscal realism and believe the surest way for them to be achieved this for the state to be scaled back and leave us space. It is important to understand that historically speaking, socialists and communits could not resist using the state to build monopolies. Once they built state monopolies, they then could not resist protecting those monopolies by creating laws geared toward harming their competitors and protecting their businesses. The problem with state monopolies and protective practices is that they interfere with the natural competition of free-markets that are necessary to keep prices and practitce competitive. That is why I have never been one of those liberals. I am a subscriber of true liberalism n. protestant, democratic and market-driven.

Additionally, it is an undeniable fact, spelled out on the Congressional Record of the United States of America (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1561529/posts), that the Communist party was actively trying to infiltrate distinguished positions in the field of psychology in an effort to coordinated the most successful mechanism of social control since the invention of the radio. They have at least in part, been successful and the problem is that the social control is used to force people to think in a way God, or at least evolution, never intended humans to think, causing further social malaise and stagnation. Suggestive marketing coached millions of Americans into erroneous diagnosis' and then subscriptions to addictive medicines for illnesses that they never had. My point being, that there has long been a lack of morality in the medical field that the Church may be able to have a hand in providing that improves the quality of those services and reorrientates the focus of health towards the overall health of the patient and universal goal of humanity to do unto others as they would have done unto them.

The biggest problem that the Episcopalian Church is facing is heavy taxation at the Federal, State, County and Municipal level. Citizens only have so many available financial resources and the money that is being taxed by the governent and that money could be used to go to the Church to provide overlapping services that either the Church or State could provide. It is because of this that contributions to the Church should be tax deductable and services that the state provides should be transferrable as a voucher that approved religious organizations with services meeting baseline requirements should then be able to receive and redeem for cash.

The benefit of this all would be a better balance between Church and State. To be clear, as I use Church, I am not only referring to the Episcopal Church or only Christian Faiths but the broader body of widely practiced monotheistic religions emphasizing a moral universe. Politics aside, it is obvious that many Americans identify that our state is carrying an increasingly unsustainable debt burden while being pushed to provide an ever growing amount of services to an ever growing number of dependents. There is a real opportunity for the various Churches to have a role in providing these services. In reality, most people only need acute or temporary, but immediate support from the Government, but the government departments have created unresponsive bureacracies that generally provide long-term solutions that generally require long waits to be accessed. Whether its medicare, social security, affordable housing or food stamps, the waiting period for these programs is extensive and the individuals on them, stay on them for way too long, at way too high of a cost. As it realtes to the Epsicopalian Church, at least at St. James, there is no question that we could manage those funds more efficiently while finding more cost-effective solutions for our parishioners than the State.

Philosophically speaking, there is way too much emphasis on equality, when it should be on equal opportunity and shared responsibility. The easiest way to allow for equal opportunity and responsibility is to vastly simplify the law into basic common and criminal law notions that are universally taught, practiced and enforced. Encouraging self-sufficiently and financial responsibility, breaking the spell of Communist Idealists detached from reality and decieved by indoctrination, vigorously emphasizing American mores and values is the only way back from global catastrophe.