A096 Task Force on Equipping a Church Grounded in Justice as Christian Ministry

Resolved, the House of Bishops concurring,

That the 81st General Convention direct the appointment of  a new task force be created for a term of six years or two triennia, to carry on and deepen the work begun by the Task Force on Imagining a Church Grounded in Social Justice as Ministry (Mandate A078- of the 80th general Convention) with a diverse group to include 2 bishops, 2 priests, 2 deacons, and 10 laypersons, and recommend the appointment of some members from the previous A078 Task Force in order to maintain some continuity. The new Task Force can begin immediately to address the work enumerated below and report to the 83rd General Convention; and be it further

Resolved, That the work of the newly created task force include the following in order to

a) consider what the church must look like if we put our vocation to love our neighbor and to be repairers of the breach at the center of our work;

b) continue the work of the previous task force in reaching out to local, diocesan, and churchwide groups that are doing social justice and racial reconciliation work focused on systemic change, in order to understand what resources and gifts we already have in this work and where the gaps are;

c) work with churchwide staff to support the creation of a digital hub to connect to and provide a one-stop place for church members to reach existing justice resources;

d) develop an experiential model for listening to and documenting the experiences of justice workers at our local levels; and

e) liaise with relevant interim bodies on consideration of these questions and how to address the institutional barriers to change in the church;

f) be charged with making recommendations to the 83rd General Convention for specific ways that the Church can equip and train local leaders to do justice work and coordinate networks of justice work across our provinces and churchwide;

And be it further

Resolved, That the General Convention requests the Joint Standing Committee on Program, Budget, and Finance to consider a budget allocation (excluding meeting expense already in GCO budget) of $40,000 to primarily address the development of a digital hub including accessibility, training, and maintenance for the implementation of this resolution.

Explanation

At the outset, to focus on the concept of social justice, the Task Force built the framework for its work, by agreeing to view social justice through an integrative lens encompassing environmental and racial justice. As a result, the efforts of this Task Force led to the following Statement of Need for the Church and Recommended Next Steps.

The importance, scope, and change impact of this mandate requires substantive analysis and robust rationale for application throughout The Episcopal Church (TEC).  Given the abbreviated timeframe to accomplish this (less than 11 months), the Task Force has focused on building a strong beginning and foundation to move the concept forward.  The initial findings point to a need, a willingness, and an activism to include Social Justice as a Christian Ministry.  Innovative thinking and open minds can bolster the support of identification of concrete activities, resources, and steps leading to institutional change.

For that reason, the Task Force under the guidance of the Task Force Chair Bishop Marc Andrus and Ms. Sarah Lawton, crafted this new resolution designed to address the following:

  • Establish a new task force focused on prioritizing and subsequently completing the planks of the initial  mandate that the current task force was not able to complete.
  • Designate the new task force with a mandate for specific and achievable recommendations for institutional change within our faith tradition supporting social justice as a christian ministry  including but not limited to: (a) areas of governance and structure, (b)prayer and liturgy, (c) catechesis and lifelong discipleship formation for all especially for the laity, (d) ensure consistency with an equitable and inclusive polity

As described above, several insights were identified through the focus groups and meetings that were conducted.  Preliminary learnings as a basis for the proposed new task force recommends that the task force begin with a focused work plan and include the following:

  • There is much good justice work happening already across our church! For which we give thanks.
  • Our local leaders, in congregations, chaplaincies, and other ministries, want to be equipped and trained to do justice work.
  • People in our local ministries want to be better networked across provinces and the whole church to improve collaboration along with shared access to resources, and to overcome siloing across different issues (such as creation care, racial justice, economic justice, LGBTQ+ justice) – understanding that siloing is itself a tool of white supremacy culture.
  • A how-to-guide to equip our local leaders and improve networking and collaboration should be an outcome of the new task force.