Restructuring
of ethnic ministry unit draws scrutiny
by Pat McCaughan
Arthur Williams |
"The four ethnic desks will continue," said Williams, who retired Dec. 31 as Ohio's suffragan bishop and began the part-time interim position Jan. 1. He emphasized that the voices of ethnic Episcopalians will continue to be heard within the national church.
"I certainly would not have taken the position otherwise," said Williams. "I am as committed as the Presiding Bishop for those concerns to continue to be heard. Each desk will have a staff person and there will be a full-time director. The difference is that, in addition to advocacy, there will be a congregational development component."
Less clear is the way the process will now evolve.
A ‘dreadful' process
Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold announced the staff changes at the February 22, 2002 Executive Council meeting in San Antonio. He said the ethnic ministry unit would be refocused on congregational development and clergy recruitment rather than advocacy.
Carole Jan Lee, a member of the national church's Executive Council (EC) and of the council's People of Color Caucus, called the process flawed because people of color weren't included. She said the caucus, in particular, felt left out of the process and considered it doomed to failure from the start because of its approach. "[The plan was,] if they hired a Hispanic to head the department, then they would look for people of the other three ethnic groups to fill the other positions," she said. "So, the process has been, whatever ethnic group the director is, they'll hire three others from the other groups. But nobody applied for the director's position. So all the [incumbent] staff people have been in limbo. It's been dreadful, a poor personnel practice that shows insensitivity to people's lives."
Brian Grieves, director of Peace and Justice Ministries, said the practice of hiring a director who also has a programmatic work load is not new. "Since the 1994 budget cuts, program managers have supervised in addition to carrying their own workload. But," he added, "I don't know what the plan for ethnic ministries will be. Art Williams will come to help the Presiding Bishop and the program staff sort out what are the ministries of all of the ethnic desks, what makes sense for them to focus on for the future, related to the rest of the structure of the church."
Grieves acknowledged the long delay in filling the position and said Williams was recruited to begin in January because "it was only fair to the incumbents not to drag the process out any further. They had been told of the changes in February 2002." He said that Williams will conduct field consultations with constituent groups, to find out what they are thinking and feeling.
But Lee said that the lack of communication continues and that requests from the EC's People of Color Caucus to be kept informed of the process have not been honored.
"There have been so many bad feelings engendered about the way people have been treated. It's hard to undo. Three people are leaving and one is staying. That part I don't understand at all," said Lee, referring to the Dec. 31 retirement of Winston Ching, Missioner for Asian Ministries, and the year-end departures of Lynn Collins, Missioner for African American Ministries, and John Roberston, Missioner for Native American Ministries. Daniel Caballero, Missioner for Hispanic Ministries, remains on staff.
"They (the national church) have been wanting to do so much toward eliminating racism and practicing diversity, but the senior staff and management team are nearly all white," said Lee. "If they can't feel the need for sensitivity, who's going to bring it to their attention?"
Time to reflect church's ‘new majority'?
Emmett Jarrett, national coordinator for the Episcopal Urban Caucus, agreed that it's time for the church's hierarchy to actively reflect its "new majority."
"There is a general understanding that the majority of people in the U.S. and among Christians, even among Episcopalians, are going to be people who used to be called minorities. They are the new majority and they need to set the agenda, not a top-down, white-male hierarchy," said Jarrett.
"I'd also like to see all of these people working on the fact that the U.S. is working on the process of starting World War III. Changing staff and reshuffling bureaucratic structures is not helpful to enabling the people of God to resist and to be in solidarity with the poor and oppressed," he said.
"The church needs to be a prophetic witness against the war, against racism. In 1991, the Urban Caucus and deputies for the consultation introduced the church's program to become a church for all races and a church without racism. We renewed it in 2000. There's still another seven years to go on that.
"That's the important work of the ethnic desks, to be raising up the ministries out there and they are out there, in Latino, Asian, Native and African American communities," Jarrett said. "We will become a new majority church whether we like it or not and the structures we put in place now ought to be encouraging, anticipating and helping it happen."
Williams hopes to do just that. In his work with Ethnic Congregational Development, he plans to connect with the ethnic communities and networks to strengthen, grow and develop ethnic congregations, while maintaining an advocacy role within them.
A native of Providence, R.I., Williams is the former chair of the national editorial committee of Lift Every Voice And Sing II and of the Justice and the Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) Committee, and vice president of the Union of Black Episcopalians (UBE). He was also a co-chair of the committee that drafted the Pastoral Letter on Racism in the 1990s.
Carol Gallagher, bishop suffragan of Southern Virginia and the first native woman to be elected a bishop in the Anglican Communion, enthusiastically welcomed Williams' appointment and said she plans to be part of that ongoing collaborative process.
"It is important for the church to take responsibility and leadership in the area of inclusion and to make sure the voices of a lot of different people are heard in the church. We hope to find a way to make that continue to happen," she said.
Peter Ng, a former member of Executive Council and parish administrator at Church of Our Savior in New York City's Chinatown, also praised Williams' appointment. "We have tremendous respect for Bishop Williams," said Ng. "We look forward to working with him and to developing strong ethnic congregations."
