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ECP: THE GIVING CHURCH
 
 [A REPORT-SHARING ON ECP’S PARTICIPATION IN TEC GENERAL CONVENTION]


6th June 2009, the Prime Bishop and the Chancellor flew to Anaheim, California to attend the 76th General Convention of The Episcopal Church [TEC] as invited overseas guests. The Prime Bishop had with him an amount of $5,000, the total contributions from the various local congregations of the ECP intended as their gift and token of friendship and solidarity with the TEC, as it convenes amidst the challenging times of a global economic recession.
 
The Prime Bishop had no inkling that the ECP gift was to become a major highlight in the sermon of TEC Presiding Bishop Katharine Schori at the first Eucharist of General Convention. When Prime Bishop Malecdan, upon the Presiding Bishop’s invitation, walked up to the Convention altar to offer the gift, it became one of the finest moments in the history of ECP-TEC relations. The Prime Bishop’s words of greetings electrified General Convention and not a few persons later proudly confided that their eyes welled with tears as they listened to him talk about the evolution of the ECP from that of a missionary church to an autonomous province – from a RECEIVING CHURCH to a GIVING CHURCH.

The gift made the ECP, through the Prime Bishop, an instant “celebrity” in General Convention. The presentation on sustainability that the Prime Bishop and the Chancellor made at a brown bag luncheon immediately following that opening service had overwhelming attendance and was described in a news article from Episcopal News Service as “standing room only”. Mr. Peter Ng, TEC Asia-Pacific Partnership Officer, in an email sent a week after the closing of Convention, said “people here are still talking about that great presentation.”
 
The ECP’s gift and presentation at General Convention generated an enormous amount of goodwill that lead to the following partnership explorations:
 
1]         Companion relations between SATS and the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas [where the PB finished his masteral degree]. The Prime Bishop attended a dinner for alumni of the said seminary and had discussions with its Dean Douglas Travis where the latter expressed interest in student and faculty exchanges, short-term courses for SATS faculty and other possible programs. The relations shall be firmed up at a seminary deans meeting happening towards the end of the year where SATS Dean shall be in attendance.
2]         Affirmation of the on-going explorations of companion relations between EDS and the Diocese of Nevada. The explorations started at Lambeth Conference in conversations between Bishops Alex Wandag and Dan Edwards and followed up at a meeting in Las Vegas between Mr. Patrick Pelenia and the undersigned in March 2009 that consequently resulted in a resolution by the EDS Diocesan Convention formally initiating the relationship. The next step is a visit by two clergy persons from Nevada Diocese to EDS in August and the counterpart resolution of the former at its Convention in October 2009. 
 
3]         Exploration of companion relations between EDNP and the Diocese of Lexington. The Rt. Rev. Stacy Souls and the PB agreed on a visit to EDNP in October 2009 by a group from Lexington Diocese to be lead by the former for the initiation of the relationship.
 
4]         Affirmation of on-going explorations for companion relations between EDSP and the Diocese of Olympia that is built around the issue of climate change. The ECP group had the opportunity to meet Bishop Greg Rickel who expressed full commitment to pursue the partnership relations. Under this prospective partnership, both dioceses shall work hand in hand in addressing the problem of climate change. The Diocese of Olympia is implementing the Genesis Covenant which calls for the reduction by the diocese and its local churches of carbon emissions by 50% in a period of ten years. The EDSP shall complement this program by planting trees corresponding to the value of actual reduction of emissions by the partner diocese.
 
            General Convention has adopted the Genesis Covenant and is therefore expected that the same will be implemented in all its dioceses. The prospective relationship between EDSP and the Diocese of Olympia is therefore seen as a possible model for other dioceses.
 
Aside from these diocesan and institutional initiatives, there were also commitments made by parishes as follows:
 
5]         Rev. Timothy Kimbrough committed to recommend to the Vestry of the Church of the Holy Family in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the setting up of a Virginia Hebbert Memorial Fund in the amount of $5,000 to $10,000 to be given to the ECP Centennial Fund. The late Virginia Hebbert was a missionary to the Philippines in the 1960s assigned to (then) St. Luke’s Hospital and is considered by one former patient as a miracle healer who nursed him back to life after he was written off as having incurable cancer by his doctors.
 
6]         St. James Episcopal Church [through Ms. Lyn Johnson] in the Diocese of San Diego committed to include All Saints Elementary School as one recipient of its Fall Fund Campaign. 
 
Furthermore, General Convention easily passed two resolutions on the Philippines, as follows: Resolution A032 urged the United States government to use its considerable influence (including withholding of military aid) to champion human rights and thus encourage an end to extra-judicial killings and disappearance in the Philippines. Resolution A190 commended the ECP on the faithful and sacrificial accomplishment of financial and missional autonomy and directed its Executive Council to work with JCPC to develop a charter for future cooperation that may include but not be limited to the formation of a Joint Consultation on Philippine Companionships under a bi-lateral agreement to promote partnership in mission between the two fully autonomous Provinces of the Anglican Communion (the Episcopal Church and the Episcopal Church in the Philippines) for the sake of their common heritage and history.
 
The Rev. Mark Harris, presently a member of TEC Executive Council and a member of the World Mission Committee, remarked that during the pre-Convention meetings of the said Committee there were objections and/or reservations to Res 190 accordingly because, having graduated from being a “covenant” church, the ECP should now be considered as a partner Anglican Church, like all other Anglican Churches, and therefore there is no need for a special bilateral relationship. However, after the giving of the gift and the ECP presentation, the Committee came in full force to support the resolution, noting that, indeed, there is a great potential for a new paradigm, hitherto un-blazed.
 
The transformation of relationship from “COVENANT” to “COMPANIONSHIP” as envisioned by the Joint Committee on the Philippine Covenant [JCPC] has made a great step forward with the approval of Resolution A190 as well as the generation of a new climate of understanding and appreciation of the ECP as a “GIVING CHURCH”. Pending a similar approval of the said resolution by its Provincial Synod in 2011, the ECP should now seize the moment and intensify its explorations for a more fruitful and meaningful “companionship” relations with TEC.
 
(This report was submitted by Atty. Floyd Lalwet, staff of JCPC, to Executive Council at its meeting of 30 July 2009.)