The Diocesan Dialogue
Current Issue
October 2007

DMP Hears about Church Reorganization

Recommendations for reorganization of the national church— shaped with input from bishops, General Convention deputies, Executive Council members, and staff through five months' work by two task forces—were presented to Domestic Missionary Partnership by one of its officers who also chaired the study project for the reorganization.

He said the creation of "a creative thing, a more flexible organization," four new Centers for Mission: Advocacy Center, Evangelism and Congregational Life Center, Mission Leadership Center, and Partnerships Center including a Diocesan Services unit.

Other highlights include steps to create "an inspired workforce," and satellite offices launched in several cities to operate in collaboration with the Church Center, located at 815 Second Avenue in New York City.

Making the presentation to DMP, as he had at the Episcopal Church Center, was the Rev. Canon Robert Nelson, a former U.S. Energy Department executive who has served for six years as canon to the ordinary in the Diocese of Nevada. He chaired the reorganization's "Working Group on Organizational Effectiveness."

He is also secretary of DMP.

Most of the Episcopal Church Center staff members, Nelson said, "will find that their work continues, albeit in a different structure. In some cases, staff will be moved to other organizational elements and work will be of a different nature requiring some realignment of people and resources."

Nelson said the reorganization is rooted in a Mission Statement adopted for the Church Center "to further God's mission, interpreted by the General Convention" ... joining "with our dioceses, congregations and organizations in the vision of a vital and hopeful church."

He explained that one of the presenters at the Episcopal Church Center was Linda Watt, the Episcopal Church's chief operating officer and a vice president of the DFMS called to serve in 2006 following her tenure as U.S. Ambassador to Panama. She is a member of Grace Church in St. George.

Nelson outlined the concept of satellite offices "extending beyond the several places in which DFMS employees currently work" including the Church Center and also the Office of Government Relations in Washington D.C.; the Episcopal Migration Ministries Office in Miami; the Episcopal Church Archives in Austin, Texas; and the Episcopal Life advertising and circulation office in Ambler, Pennsylvania.

He said satellite offices—with staffs of about three persons each— are planned for Los Angeles and Atlanta, with conversations continuing with regard to a Midwest location, and to explore opportunities in Seattle. The plan leaves room for consideration designation of other sites in the future.

He noted that the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori has indicated she will be in New York only one week a month, and that Watt will be in charge of operations "the rest of the time."

Nelson called the Rev. Bud Holland, coordinator of the national church's Office for Ministry Development, a "hero" for missing the announcement of the new structure at the Episcopal Church Center and attending the DMP meeting instead.

Holland said that the restructuring followed patterns that his office had been following for several years in collaboration.

Bishop Keith Whitmore of Eau Claire also praised Holland and the reorganization plan. He noted that the approach visualized in the plan was similar to that used by DMP.

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