The Anglican Communion and The Episcopal Church’s relationship with it is the focus of the three-day meeting of Executive Council which began in Stockton, Calif., on Jan. 29.
 
The meeting is being held in the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin to show council’s support for Episcopalians in the area who are reorganizing after the majority voted during the annual convention in December 2007 to affiliate with the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone. Council members are scheduled to spend time hearing about the progress made by the diocese.
 
The proposed budget for 2010-2012 and The Episcopal Church’s preliminary response to the proposed Anglican Covenant are the most significant “action” items appearing on the preliminary agenda. Council is responsible for preparing a preliminary budget for approval by General Convention, which meets in Anaheim, Calif., in July.
 
The Episcopal Church is scheduled to forward $713,880 in assessment funds to the Anglican Consultative Council this year. During the last triennium The Episcopal Church committed to contributing slightly more than $2 million in assessment funds. That amount represented 27 percent of the ACC operating budget, making it the second largest donor province after the Church of England.
 
In her opening remarks, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said the church is facing a budget shortage due to the performance of the endowment, which lost an estimated 30 percent of its value during the recent stock market downturn, making budget cuts possible. The budget was scheduled to be discussed during a plenary session Friday afternoon.
 
The council is also scheduled to hear a report this afternoon from its Covenant Response Group, which is charged with drafting a response to the current version of the proposed Anglican Covenant. The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Covenant Design Group has asked provinces to make a preliminary response to the following questions before the ACC meeting in Jamaica in May:
  • Whether they believe in principle that they can commit to the covenant;
  • What provincial process is required for the commitment, and
  • What changes to the current draft would give them the greatest chance of being able to approve a covenant.
 
Among other business, council also received an update from Bonnie Anderson, president of the House of Deputies on the Feb. 22-27 Conference of the Anglican Churches in the Americas in Mutual Responsibility and Mission. The meeting is designed to permit participants “to equip better our churches for mutuality and interdependence in God’s mission,” according to a previous Executive Council resolution authorizing creation of a work group to help plan the event.
 
Episcopal News Service contributed to this report.
 
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