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Governance news posted Wednesday, January 11, 2012

The State of the Diocese

The State of the Diocese:
The Diocese of Pennsylvania in 2012
The Rt. Rev. Charles E. Bennison, Jr.
The Feast of the Epiphany
January 6, 2012

If you see something, say something.
- Department of Homeland Security

Our little systems have their day;
They have their day and cease to be;
They are but broken light of thee,
And thou, O Lord, art more than they.
- Alfred Lord Tennyson

“If you see something,” blares announcement throughout high-risk areas of our airports and train stations, “say something.” What I see is that the average age of parishes in our diocese, like the Episcopal Church, portends a death tsunami in 10 to 20 years unless we make ministry to, with, and by our children and youth our “Number One” program and budget priority.

At the same time, I see numerous parishes and mission churches in our diocese doing just that and more, and, consequently, experiencing enormous growth and vitality. We can all learn from them.

Today, 60 of our 141 churches (or 43%) are, or are soon to become, “non-traditional,” i.e., unable to sustain a traditional ministry with a full-time priest, property, and program.

At a recent Episcopal Clergy Association of Pennsylvania conference, the keynoter Diana Butler Bass began by saying, “Please know that the Episcopal Church is not in decline. It has collapsed!” She proceeded to iterate the cultural forces that have had a deleterious effect on belief, and on confidence, in the church and its purpose. She assured us that we should not feel guilty for what has happened, for its control is beyond our reach.

We may not need to feel guilty, but as diocesan leaders we do remain responsible for the institutions of the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Pennsylvania which, like all “institutions”, exists to pass on to the next generation its “institutes” or values.

It is clear from responses to my recent Convention Address, in which I spoke about our need to address the numerical losses in the Episcopal Church and most religions, that the Diocese is coming to terms with the fact that having fewer church buildings will advance, not diminish, our effort to fulfill the Gospel mandate to make more Christians.

We are also coming to realize that our present diocesan “systems” are often serious stumbling blocks to our advancing Christ’s mission. “Our little systems,” Tennyson wrote, “have their day,” and the God whose plan we are to serve is “more than they.” As a diocese, we must adapt or die, and adapt in the following ways:

1. New Diocesan Canons: In my 2011 Convention Address, I asked the Diocesan Financial Review Committee and the Diocesan Mission Planning Commission (DMPC) to continue their collaboration so that, because form follows function, the canonical changes proposed at our next Convention can reflect DMPC’s mission strategy.

Given the enormity of the challenges we face, however, I now believe that such an approach is too timid, piecemeal, and insufficient to effect the changes we need to become not just a viable, but a truly vital, diocese. Therefore, we need to bring before the 229th Convention: (a) a resolution calling on the DMPC to set forth in greater detail than heretofore our diocesan mission strategy, and (b) a resolution calling for the Diocesan Financial Review Committee to be expanded and re-organized as a Diocesan Canons Revision Committee. The committee would draw on the work of many other dioceses and the general Episcopal Church which have revised, or are in the process of revising, their canons, and would work in collaboration with the Diocesan Canons Committee on Constitution and Canons over a three-year period 2013-2015, allowing for my successor to participate in creating a complete, new set of diocesan canons to be presented to the 232st Diocesan Convention in 2015.

2. Parishes and Mission Churches: During 2011, thirty clergy began new ministries as rectors, vicars, priests-in-charge, or assistants. Three parishes where the clergy announced a date certain for their retirements in 2012 have begun their discernment processes. Ten churches paired with another church and in five pairs are sharing a priest. One parish is served by a priest who receives no compensation. At present, there are fourteen churches in transition.

In 2012, the number of “non-traditional” parishes that cannot afford a full-time priest and staff will continue to increase, making our diocese a truer reflection of most others in the Episcopal Church (the Diocese of Alaska, for example, has 56 churches, but only six full-time priest). Our diocesan mission strategy must aim toward not just the viability, but the vitality, of our parishes and missions based less on their number of people at worship than on the extent to which their members are sharing the “Good News” and working for justice in a world increasingly divided between those who have and those who have not, between those who can read and those who cannot, those who are online and those who are not.

Bearing in mind that the God of the Bible never rejects our justice because of our lack of worship, but always rejects our worship because of our lack of justice, I ask the DMPC to: (a) revisit the vision statement adopted at the 2011 Diocesan Convention in terms of what it means to be an “apostolic” church committed to the world, rather than to itself, and thereby a “catholic” church marked by true diversity, and thereby a “holy” church distinct from the world to which it is sent, and thereby “one” church united through baptism in the Body of Christ; (b) examine where we are “land poor” with too many properties that require our stewardship of time and money that otherwise could be used for ministry and justice on behalf of people, and propose strategies for downsizing and consolidating such properties; © validate the parishes and missions that may not be able to afford a priest but are nonetheless performing valua ble ministry and justice work; (d) draft for a Diocesan Canons Revision Committee a proposed canon whereby parishes and missions can spend their endowment principal only with the permission of the Bishop, Standing Committee, and Committee on Finance and Property; (e) draft for a Diocesan Canons Revision Committee a proposed canon clearly defining an independent parish from a mission church under the Bishop’s direct oversight, and the circumstances under which a mission would become a parish, and a parish, a mission; (f) draft for a Diocesan Canons Revision Committee a proposed canon whereby any parish receiving financial assistance of any kind from diocesan resources would become a mission under the Bishop’s direct oversight.
During 2012, fourteen parishes in the Diocese will participate in a six session series, Transforming Congregations Workshops with Kaleidoscope Institute sponsored by the DMPC in order to advance congregational development.

In this series of six Sunday afternoon workshops Kaleidoscope will introduce and teach key modules of the Kaleidoscope Institute’s seminal work in community transformation and building of inclusive communities. Inter-woven with KI’s new work in congregational development which focuses on sustainable missional ministry while utilizing all the resources in the community. Participants will learn how these “holy currencies” can establish a cycle of blessings that transform the life and work of a congregation. The six sessions will incorporate experiential learning with the presentation of concepts, models and theories and invite participants to acquire and practice new skills.

With the retirements in 2010 and 2011 of our vicars at the Church of the Advocate, the Free Church of St. John the Evangelist, St. Mary’s, Bainbridge Street, St. Dismas’, Graterford, and now La Iglesia de Cristo y San Ambrosio, five of our seven mission churches welcomed new vicars. (The other two are All Souls’ Church for the Deaf and St. Gabriel’s).

On August 29, 2011, the Montgomery County Orphans’ Court ruled that David Moyer had to remove himself from acting as the incumbent of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Rosemont, and those vestry members who participated with him in seeking to alienate the people and property of the parish from the Diocese had to resign from the vestry. On October 9, the parish elected a new vestry, which in turn immediately made a pledge to the Program Budget of the Diocese. On November 27 Bishop Michel made the first full Episcopal Visitation to the parish in many years. Thus, of the eleven parishes whose clergy fifteen years ago were seeking in one way or another to alienate their people and property from the Diocese and the Episcopal Church, eight are now functioning parishes within the Diocese, one (St. James-the-Less) offers a non-parochial ministry as an Epiphany/Miguel school under the aegis of St. Mark’s, Locust Street, one has closed, and the vestry of All Saints’, W ynnewood, remains, after more than a decade, in violation of the canons by employing a priest who is not licensed to serve in the Diocese.

3. Children in the Liturgy: Inasmuch as participation in the Eucharist and reception of the sacrament is central to the life of the baptized, incorporation of baptized children in the Sunday Eucharist in its entirety remains an important issue in many of our parishes and mission churches. At St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields, Chestnut Hill, on May 5, 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., the Diocesan Liturgical Commission will host “You Must Be As A Child: Children in the Word,” a conference for clergy, children, and adult laity about how we can incorporate our children into the Body of Christ through liturgy. Bill Gordh, a renowned biblical educator, adjunct at General Theological Seminary and Union Theological Seminary, story-teller and banjo player, will lead clergy and laity, adults and children in experiencing a number of working approaches to children’s liturgical formation.

4. Minority Aspirant Recruitment: A pressing issues facing the Episcopal Church is our need for more clergy of color to serve in all parishes and mission churches, regardless of their racial and ethnic mix. This issue is especially acute for our diocese, historically one that has had the largest African-American membership in the Episcopal Church, and where the only person of color in the ordination process today is Barbara Robinson, a member of Calvary/St. Augustine Church, who is preparing for the diaconate.

This is not the first time we have confronted this crisis. More than seven years ago a group of clergy met overnight with me at Wapiti. From that conversation emerged the twelve-member Black Aspirants Recruitment Consultation Task Force chaired by the Rev. Renee McKenzie-Hayward. The Reverend Randolph Williamson served the Task Force as its researcher. A year later at Wapiti, on January 10-11, 2006, the Task Force presented its initial report to the members of the Consultation for their comments and critique. The final report was presented to the Diocese at the Annual Absalom Jones Festival on February 11, 2006, with a copy mailed to every parish. The work made a difference: soon we had five persons of color come forward as aspirants.

Because it is time we do this work again, I have invited our active clergy of color and clergy serving minority churches to meet again at Wapiti on Monday-Tuesday, February 13-14, to advance again the number of people of color aspiring to ordained ministry.

5. Anti-Racism Training: Every member and the Clergy and of diocesan governing bodies, parish vestries and mission committees is expected to take the training offered by the Antiracism Commission of the Diocese through the Crossroads Antiracism Organizing & Training group. Concerned that many of our clergy have not taken the training because it usually occurs over a weekend, I am using my discretionary fund so that a session can occur during the week this coming April 24-26. A second training will occur over the Columbus Day Weekend October 8-10. It is incumbent upon every member of the Standing Committee, Diocesan Council, the Committee on Finance and Property, the Deans’ Council, the Cathedral Chapter, the Wapiti Boards, and the Church Foundation to avail themselves of these opportunities for the training. Register online at: www.diopa.org/news/topics/education/antiracism-training-04-24-2012/

6. Finance and Property: Our 2010 diocesan audit was the cleanest audit in my tenure.

The Diocese ended 2011 close to forecast with approximately $250,000 in the operating account. Designated cash balances exceed $1,500,000 and represent monies segregated for specific purposes within the Diocese. Unpaid pledges and unpaid assessments exceed $100,000 in both instances, but that is fairly normal based on past experience. We have historically received 2011 pledges and assessments into February of the following year. We anticipate closing our 2011 books on or about January 20th, 2012, in line with previous years’ closings. We received 52 audits and 136 parochial reports; that 90 parishes did not do a 2010 audit, and 6 failed to submit a parochial report, represents a serious lack of accountability and is a cause for major concern.

The Standing Committee, Committee on Finance & Property, and Diocesan Council adopted strong Conflict of Interest and Whistleblower Policies assuring transparency and integrity in our financial and management practices. Our task now is to assure adherence to these policies.

I am extremely grateful to Norman McClave for accepting my appointment as Diocesan Treasurer, beginning January 1, and to John Loftus for continuing as Assistant Treasurer. The Rev. Kirk Berlenbach, Chair, and Jack Henn, Vice-Chair, continue to offer superb leadership to the Committee on Finance and Property. The Rev. Michael Knight and Debora Brown last year completed the Program Budget process in record time and presented a budget based on full disclosure of all funding sources from those applying for support in 2012. They are already hard at work on the 2013 budget.

I am asking the Standing Committee and the Program Budget Committee to build 2013 budgets which reflect:
• the impact the increasing number of non-traditional churches (many of which do not pledge to the Program Budget and cannot make their assessments) and of the canonically-mandated Denominational Health Plan (whereby all lay employees working 30 hours or more a week are to receive the same level of health insurance as do our clergy), to take effect January 1, 2013, will have in 2013 on the Program Budget and the Diocesan Assessments;
• my sincere hope that, inasmuch as each year I as Bishop request from Standing Committee its consent to allocate from investment revenue a large portion of the income to the Program Budget, the Program Budget Committee will voluntarily honor my request that it allocate a 10% tithe – or approximately $500,000 – of our total diocesan income as our pledge to the Episcopal Church;
• my recommendation that the committees move 50% of the costs of the finance and audit expenses from the Program Budget to the Episcopate Budget;
• my recommendation that we establish an entirely separate budget for the Property Fund, recognizing that this function is self-sustaining, and meets the costs for property maintenance, repair, and personnel in carrying out the function;
• my recommendation that the committees include in their budgets allocations not only $75,000 annually to be accrued during 2012-2015 to fund the succession process for the election, consecration, and employment of the next Bishop, but also an annual amount to be accrued for transitional salaries for other new employees whom we will need to have overlap with our present employees, many of whom may retire about the time I do.

7. The Cathedral: On February 28, the Chapter voted to pay the 3919 Corporation of the Church Foundation $3500/month in order to have an option giving it the right of first refusal on any offer on the building. When the Church Foundation proceeded to market the property adjacent to the Cathedral at 3719 Chestnut Street and received a $2.6M offer, the Cathedral Chapter exercised its option and on August 16 purchased the property for $2.7M. On December 19, the Chapter voted unanimously to approve an agreement with the Radnor Property Group (RPG) for the development on the now-expanded Cathedral property site of a high-rise building with student housing, ground-level commercial space, Cathedral offices, meeting spaces, and potentially, offices for the next Bishop and diocesan staff. On December 20, the Standing Committee voted unanimously to grant consent to my agreeing to the agreement.

8. Church House: Last year Sean McCauley, Diocesan Property Manager, convened and chaired a committee with representatives from the Standing Committee, Diocesan Council, and the Committee on Finance and Property to study the sale of Church House and the relocation of diocesan staff to the Cathedral, were its development project to proceed. Sean listed the operating costs associated with Church House operations and costs that would be associated with moving with the Cathedral Staff to rented office space in West Philadelphia if and when the development of the Cathedral property proceeds as planned. The study showed that Church House is oversized for present staff needs, inefficient as an office building, lacks adequate parking, and, at $200,000/year, extraordinarily costly to maintain.

On February 2nd and 3rd , 2011, Cushman Wakefield, Colliers, Prudential Fox Roach, and Binswanger (real estate brokers) reported to the committee their assessments of the real estate value of Church House, its pros and cons relative to both the residential and commercial real estate markets, and their firm’s strategies and fees for marketing it. Anticipating that Church House could take a long time to sell, I hope that we can look seriously at putting it on the market in 2012.

9. Diocesan Convention: I announced at the 228th Convention that the 229th Convention would take place at the Cathedral on November 10, 2012. Progress at the Cathedral is such, however, that the undercroft will be under construction at that time to accommodate the Cathedral offices during the upcoming development project, and later, when the project is finished, a day-care center for young neighborhood children. Consequently, Convention will be held at Episcopal Academy in Newtown Square.

10. Diocesan History: The Diocesan History Commission, chaired by the Rev. Dr. Jean Mather, has completed its decade-long project by signing a contract with Penn State Press to publish by mid-2012 This Far By Faith, the first in-depth history of Pennsylvania Episcopalians in the context of their times. I believe the book will be an invaluable tool when the Diocese drafts its profile in the process of discerning whom it will elect as its next Bishop. To celebrate the volume’s publication, the Commission, in collaboration with historiographers in the other four dioceses in the Commonwealth, arranged for a Service of Evensong at Christ Church, Philadelphia, at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, October 7, 2012, with the Rt. Rev. William Franklin (a former Professor of Church History at the General Theological Seminary, one-time Curate of St. Mark’s, Locust Street, and now Bishop of Western New York) as the preacher. Each of the ten historians who authored one of the book’s t en chapters has agreed to preach or speak in one of our ten deaneries the morning of October 7, 2012, to participate in the celebration at Christ Church that afternoon, and to present the learning from their research at the Annual Clergy Day on October 9, 2012. I have invited all active and retired Episcopal bishops in the Commonwealth to participate in both the celebration and Clergy Day.

11. Ecumenical Relations: In the face of the temptation on the part of most religious bodies today to succumb to a self-centered survival mentality because of their present numerical decline, ecumenical theology and ecumenical relations demand more than ever our recognition that our present divisions severely weaken Christ’s mission, and that our schisms are a scandal, though we are far too seldom scandalized by them.

We usually distinguish between ecumenicity, referring to intra-Christian activity, on the one hand, and “inter-faith relations” among separate religions, on the other. But if we take the New Testament Greek “oikomene” literally as referring to “all people everywhere,” we would recognize the distinction is misleading and start, instead, with the experience of people everywhere with, or in many cases, without, God.

With conversations about the experience of “all people everywhere” with “the mighty acts of God,” the Rev. Daniell Hamby, our Ecumenical Officer, the Rev. Henry Galganowicz, long involved in “interfaith relations,” and I are seeking to revitalize ecumenical theology and ecumenical relations in our diocese. We will widen our circle at a dinner in my home at 279 South Fourth Street, Philadelphia, on Tuesday, January 24, 5:00 – 9:00 p.m. If you are committed to pondering what is in your heart and the hearts of “all people everywhere” as ecumenical work, please join us by contacting Linda Hollingsworth in my office (lindah@diopa.org) to let us know of your interest.

The Most Rev. Charles Chaput, Archbishop of Philadelphia, has accepted my invitation to address our Diocesan Convention November 10. The Rev. Robert Tate now represents us on the Administrative Group of the Religious Leaders’ Council on which I sit. The Interfaith Center of Greater Philadelphia has its offices at our Cathedral. I actively represent us in the Pennsylvania Council of Churches.

At my request, the Rt. Rev. Frederick Borsch, President Philip Krey, and Professor Storm Swain of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia are drafting a proposal for us to offer, on the analogy of Safe Church Training and Anti-Racism Training, what I have called “Religious Identity Sensitivity Training,” so that we can be better equipped to respond when, say, one of our members marries a Muslim or Hindu or Jew or Sikh or Buddhist.

12. Camp Property: The Wapiti Land Company has published and posted online Guidelines for the Use of Wapiti, and vestries, church staffs, and diocesan organizations are using the property and helping to defray its operating expenses.

The Standing Committee and I approved (a) the expenditure of monies from the Property Fund and proceeds from the sale of Christ Church, Eddington, allowing the Wapiti Land Company of the Church Foundation to retire on December 5 the $1.5M M+T Bank loan on the Wapiti Farm property, and (b) the commitment of the proceeds from the imminent sales of St. John’s, Lansdowne (anticipated to be $950,000), and St. Peter’s, Germantown (anticipated to be $400,000), for the creation of a Wapiti Loan Retirement Fund, to be used to pay off the remaining debt, giving the Diocese outright ownership of the property.

On the principle that individuals may use their assets to speculate by hoping to borrow at a rate cheaper than what their own money will earn invested in the bank, but doing so is not appropriate practice for a non-profit entity such as the Diocese, once the proceeds from the sales of the vacant properties of St. John’s, Lansdowne, and St. Peter’s, Germantown, are deposited in the Wapiti Loan Retirement Fund, I will request from the Standing Committee its advice and consent to use the Fund to reduce or retire completely the TD Bank loan, on which there is to be no pre-payment penalty.

13. General Convention: Among the issues coming before The Episcopal Church (TEC) next summer in Indianapolis, at least two may impact our diocese significantly: (a) The resolution adopted by our 228th Diocesan Convention memorializing General Convention to establish a Commission on Missional Structure which, if adopted, could eventuate in a complete re-structuring of TEC in 2015 and become a model for the restructuring of the Diocese of Pennsylvania in that same year; (b) Resolution C-056, authorizing in our parishes and missions the blessing of same-gender unions, has numerous theological, liturgical, pastoral, and legal implications. Our Diocesan Liturgical Commission is sponsoring on Tuesday, February 21, at the Cathedral, a conference led by the Rev. Dr. Patrick Malloy, Professor of Liturgics, General Theological Seminary, on those implications.

In conclusion, 2012 will see us not only continuing to engage many of the challenges we faced in 2011, but also experiencing greater creativity, innovation, risk-taking, loss, and new vitality. There are days I conclude that though we are now a smaller church, we are more truly the church. There are other days when I see signs that we are actually reversing the decline and meeting Christ’s great commission to make disciples. But a day never goes by without my giving thanks to God for the privilege of serving Jesus Christ through the Episcopal Church in our beloved diocese.