With approval for a $30 million renovation of the Episcopal Church Center, study of a church-wide capital campaign, authorization to begin a major youth initiative, and a national advertising campaign to begin in the fall, members of Executive Council set the Church on an optimistic and autonomous course toward 2006 and beyond when they met in Burlington, Vt., June 11-14.

The third renovation proposal brought to council within three years met with unanimous approval after a computer slide-show presentation coordinated by council member Josephine Hicks of North Carolina. Using photos to demonstrate the condition of the 42-year-old building, Ms. Hicks explained how liberal use of asbestos during original construction, failure to modernize, and stricter Manhattan building codes implemented after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center make it difficult to reconfigure work areas, expensive to maintain the physical plant, and in technical violation of safety and accessibility codes.

Council also approved creation of a task force to "develop a comprehensive plan to seek new funds for mission" in the form of major gifts which would not compete with dioceses, congregations, and other church-related organizations. The resolution approving creation of the task force also encouraged Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold "to seek prospective gifts as an early test of feasibility."

Communications Director Dan England demonstrated some pilot 15-second television advertisements for council. Mr. England explained how Church Center executives hoped to leverage the $750,000 approved for advertising by General Convention last summer into a nationwide campaign of some duration by using those funds as seed money for a grassroots advertising campaign. Shortly before Executive Council met, each bishop received a letter from Bishop Griswold asking for appointment of a diocesan advertising coordinator along with a promise of $1,000 to be used creatively on local advertising efforts after the appointment has been made.

Last summer General Convention authorized $1 million for youth ministry, but left unspecified how the money was to be used. Council clarified that process, endorsing priorities established by the Advisory Committee on Young Adults and Youth, which met in May. The policies state in part that priority should be given to broad-based projects effecting "structural and substantive change." Council also approved the first request for some of those funds, a total of $108,050 for two years of peer ministry program development in youth and campus ministries.

In other matters, council asked General Convention to schedule a church-wide conversation on marriage when it meets in Columbus, Ohio in 2006. It also called on rectors of churches to engage with local Boy Scout leadership about its policy of excluding homosexual persons as scout members or leaders, and rebuked the State of Ohio for prohibiting domestic partnership benefits.

Council also approved a $250,000 gift of solidarity and support to the Anglican Church of Canada and learned that the Rt. Rev. Michael Ingham, Bishop of New Westminster, would be the Canadian liaison to council. Bishop Ingham incurred the displeasure of Anglicans worldwide, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, after his diocese implemented a same-sex blessing policy in 2002.

Steve Waring