Present: Bishop Edward Salmon (chair), Bishop Larry Maze; clergy Reynolds Cheney, and Daniel Riggall; lay Louie Crew (secretary), Scott Evenbeck, Bruce Garner (vice chair), and Germaine Hoston.

Absent: Mary Fong.

Visitor: David Crean, our writer

We met to review the latest draft of our Blue Book report as prepared by our writer, Dr. David Crean. We spent all of Wednesday, January 8th, bringing the report to its final state. Dr. Crean will file it for us, to arrive at the General Convention Office by the January 15 deadline..

We spent the morning of January 9th drafting resolutions to accompany our report:

1. Resolved, the House of __ concurring, that this 72nd General Convention request the Church Center staff to disseminate the materials and resources that the Standing Commission on Human Affairs has assembled and this report to the bishops and to the directors of Christian Education or their equivalent in every diocesan office.

2. Resolved, the House of __ concurring, that this 72nd General Convention direct the Committee on Program, Budget, and Finance to provide $1,000 to complete the study guide on the principles of successful models for ministry to accompany the report.

3. Resolved, the House of __ concurring, that this 72nd General Convention direct the Executive Council and the Church Center Staff to develop a network of, and maintain an inventory of, outreach ministries in the church.

   EXPLANATION: Many parishes and dioceses in our church are engaged in a wide variety of what can be termed "outreach ministries." Their experiences, whether successful or unsuccessful, are a valuable resource to other parishes and dioceses exploring ways to be involved in similar endeavors. The maintenance of an inventory of outreach ministries would make those resources readily available to all who wished to use them and would help prevent duplication of effort and repetition of mistakes on the part of those exploring such ministries in their own areas.

4. RESOLVED, the House of _____ concurring, that this 72nd General Convention direct the Executive Council and the Church Center staff to develop and implement a comprehensive educational program on planned giving for the Church.

   Be it further RESOLVED that this 72nd General Convention direct the Executive Council and the Church Center staff to develop a comprehensive program to encourage our members to see the tithe as the minimum standard in their estate giving.

   EXPLANATION: The next decade will witness the largest transfer of wealth between generations in history. We have an obligation to provide our parishioners with the advice, counsel, and resources needed to make decisions regarding the disposition of their estates that will be beneficial to them, to their loved ones, and to the church. The material resources we have are, in effect, on loan from our Creator. We are charged with the stewardship of those resources for both our own generation and subsequent generations.

5. RESOLVED, the House of _____ concurring, that this 72nd General Convention request the Church Pension Fund to develop a domestic missionary strategy to ensure that clergy recruited from elsewhere to do ministry here have pensions adequate for them to live in the United States after retirement.

   Be it further resolved, the House of _____ concurring, that this 72nd General Convention direct the Church Pension Fund to explore reciprocal agreements among retirement funds in other branches of the Anglican Commission.

   Explanation: The Church Pension Fund is now considering a strategy to encourage our missionaries elsewhere to have adequate compensation. This resolution seeks to enable a similar strategy to support those from elsewhere who do vital ministries in the United States.

6. RESOLVED, the House of _____ concurring, that this 72nd General Convention request the Evangelism Office at the Church Center to create and implement a domestic missionary strategy to reach out and embrace God's miraculous creation of peoples diverse in ethnicity, economic circumstances, and gender who have hitherto been marginalized in our society and not included in the Episcopal Church. This evangelistic effort should commit itself especially, but not exclusively, to Asian-Americans, Native Americans, African Americans, Latino-Americans, and other ethnic minorities.

   Explanation: At the advent of the second millennium since the birth of our Lord, the United States faces an intensified wave of international isolationism and xenophobia, as well as the cumulative decline of public commitment to support those most vulnerable in our society. In our baptismal covenant we pledged ourselves to "seek and serve Christ in all persons" and "strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being" BCP 305) and in our corporate membership in His Church are committed "to go out to all the world and proclaim the good news" (Mark 16:15) of God's love for all human beings as children of God. We have fallen short dramatically in this endeavor. The needs of our ethnic ministries are in at crisis proportion.

7. Proposed Budget for the Coming Triennium

   Income                1998          1999          2000
   Appropriated by
   General Convention    $17,333     $28,400       $17,333
   
   Expenses
   Commission Meetings   $17,333     $28,400       $17,333
   
   

8. Resolution for the Budget Appropriation

   RESOLVED, the House of _____ concurring, That there be appropriated from the Assessment Budget of the General Convention for the expense of the Standing Commission on Human Affairs the sum of $63,066 for the triennium 1998-2000.

• Commission on HIV AIDS
• The Committee for Dialogue on Human Sexuality
• ESMA Episcopal Society for Aging. We will include their resolutions as an appendix to our Blue Book report.
• The Standing Commission on the Church in Metropolitan Area
• Racial Ethnic Ministries
• Episcopal Commission on Indian Ministries
• Commission on the Development of Ministry

We will pass along to the next commission the statement of the sexuality commission.

Respectfully submitted,

Louie Crew, Secretary, lcrew@andromeda.rutgers.edu