The Episcopal Church Reports to the 80th General Convention Otherwise known as The Blue Book Volume 1 Reports of the Committees, Commissions, Agencies, and Boards to The General Convention of The Episcopal Church Baltimore, in the State and Diocese of Maryland July 7th – 14th, 2022 Copyright © 2021 The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America Office of the General Convention 815 Second Avenue New York, New York 10017 Preface A.D. 2021 A few years ago, a meme appeared showing a neighborhood map with a drawing of a steepled church building labeled, “This is not a church.” Nearby were drawings of streets, shops, hospitals, and houses – each one with the caption, “This is the church.” If we didn’t already know, the years since the 79th General Convention have certainly surprised us with that insight. When a pandemic causes the cessation of public worship and a severe limitation of traditional sacramental and public ministries of the church, existential questions become as common as musings on the weather. What is the church when familiar milestones and measures become meaningless? What is the church when people are sick and dying around the world, and social divisions impede healing and comforting the sick and dying? What is the church when racial injustice is exposed at every level and in every structure of society? What is the church when truth becomes as fluid as Pilate’s fateful pondering? We will continue to answer these questions, but the global crisis caused by the emergence of Covid-19 concentrated our minds. I will leave historians to evaluate how faithfully The Episcopal Church lived, witnessed, and served during the pandemic, but it does seem clear that we quickly adjusted to emerging realities. We found ways to feed the hungry – physically and metaphorically – and learned that a mask could reveal our care rather than conceal it. We may have baptized technology some years ago, but the pandemic confirmed it as worship, education, and ministry found unexpected pathways on the internet. We kept hope alive in a thousand and one ways, as we encountered and accompanied the Living Christ along trails we were discovering. We also adapted to ensure the quotidian tasks of the General Convention continued: work, research, mission, study, and action mandated for our interim bodies were creatively accomplished. The findings and recommendations of that ministry will be found in the virtual pages of this Blue Book. I give thanks for every faithful Episcopalian who began the triennium with a roadmap to accomplishing our goals, and are finishing the quadrennium with the facility of experienced cartographers. As you read of their work, I hope you will join me in thanking them for their creativity and achievement. To paraphrase the words of Miranda, “How much good is here; how beautiful humankind can be. O brave new world that has such people in it!” The Rev. Canon Michael Barlowe, D.D. Secretary of the General Convention and Executive Officer Acknowledgements Although preparation for the triennial gathering of the Church at General Convention is but a part of the work of the extraordinary people in the Executive Office of the General Convention (GCO), the changed work conditions necessitated by the Covid-19 pandemic posed unique challenges and difficulties. Superintending the many puzzle-pieces, parts, and processes that come together to support the Church’s collective decision- making, while working remotely on newly-available platforms, has raised the odds. But throughout it all, the GCO has persevered with software testing, survey development, Blue Book preparations and editing, contract negotiations and renegotiations, ahndotel volunteer coordination, a summer of online elections, and hundreds of other activities that come together to prepare The Episcopal Church for gathering in General Convention. Therefore, eI hyop ou will join me in thanking the amazing staff of the General Convention: • Betsey Bell, Executive Assistant to the Executive Officer (tenure began 2020) • Marian Conboy, Executive Assistant/Deputy for Legislation (retired 2020) • Iris DiLeonardo, Data Specialist and Meetings Assistant • Jennifer Gonzalez, Administrative Assistant • Patrick Haizel, Deputy for Administration and Operations • Molly James, Deputy Executive Officer • Brian Murray, Governance Technology Specialist • Fiona Nieman, Deputy for Convention and Meeting Planning • Twila Rios, Manager of Digital Information Systems • Carrie Surbaugh, Digital Editing and Publications (until 2021) • Brendon Hunter, Digital Editing and Publications (began 2021) • David Michaud, Consultant Lori Ionnitiu, for many years the General Convention Manager, left the GCO in 2018 and we thank her for her long service to The Episcopal Church. Mark Duffy and the staff and board of the Archives support the General Convention, its officers, and its many activities and their excellent work is most appreciated. Finally, to the Presiding Bishop and the President of the House of Deputies; to the members of the Executive Council and the Interim Bodies of the General Convention; and to other staff of The Episcopal Church: thank you for your faithfulness and commitment to the ministries of the General Convention. May the blessings of God’s mission continue to inspire. TABLE OF CONTENTS VOLUME 1 Preface Acknowledgements Directory of Proposed Resolutions ......................................................................................... iv Executive Council Reports Executive Council Report ............................................................................................. 2 Subcommittee Reports Joint Standing Committee on Governance and Operations ............................ 15 Joint Standing Committee on Mission Beyond the Episcopal Church ............. 19 Joint Standing Committee on Mission Within the Episcopal Church ...............32 Joint Standing Committee on Finance ............................................................ 35 Committees Reporting Through Executive Council Joint Audit Committee of the Executive Council and the DFMS .................... 40 Assessment Review Committee ..................................................................... 45 Executive Council Investment Committee ...................................................... 50 Executive Council Economic Justice Loan Committee ................................... 53 Executive Council Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility ................. 56 Executive Council Conant Fund Grant Review Committee ............................. 85 Executive Council Constable Grant Review Committee ................................. 86 Executive Council Roanridge Trust Grant Review Committee ....................... 90 Scholarship Grant Committee ......................................................................... 93 Executive Council Committee on Anti-Racism & Reconciliation ..................... 95 Executive Council Committee on HBCU ..........................................................115 United Thank Offering Board ......................................................................... 120 Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue in the USA .............................................. 125 Moravian Episcopal Coordinating Committee ............................................... 127 Presbyterian Episcopal Dialogue Committee................................................. 130 United Methodist Episcopal Committee ........................................................ 156 Report on Resolutions Referred to Dioceses ............................................................ 149 House of Bishops Reports House of Bishops Committee on Pastoral Development .......................................... 153 House of Bishops Committee on Theology ............................................................... 156 Presiding Bishop's Council of Advice ......................................................................... 158 House of Deputies Reports House of Deputies Committee on the State of the Church.......................................160 President of the House of Deputies Council of Advice ............................................. 191 Agencies & Boards Reporting to General Convention Board for Transition Ministry .................................................................................... 194 i Board of the Archives of the Episcopal Church ......................................................... 198 Board of Trustees for the Church Pension Fund ....................................................... 222 Board of Trustees of the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church ... 249 Court of Review ......................................................................................................... 253 Disciplinary Board for Bishops .................................................................................. 258 Episcopal Relief and Development Board of Directors ............................................. 261 Forward Movement.................................................................................................. 265 General Board of Examining Chaplains .................................................................... 269 Other Reports to the 80th General Convention Presiding Officers' Advisory Group on Beloved Community Implementation ......... 279 Report for the Presiding Bishop's Staff .................................................................... 290 VOLUME 2 Joint Standing Committee