The General Convention Standing Commission on Domestic Mission and Evangelism

NEW:  The 2006 Blue Book Report of the present SCDME (a MS Word file) may be downloaded by clicking here.  It calls for more action, and by whom.

This rest of this website presents the work of: the 1997-2000 Standing Commission on Domestic Mission and Evangelism (SCDME), which was the first such Standing Commission, the last triennium's 2001 -2003 Standing Commission.  The work of the present 2003-2006 Standing Commission is reported in its Blue Book Report (to download, see link above)..  Material of the earlier 2000-2003 SCDME is presented just below, and that of the original SCDME is presented below that.

2000-2003 SCDME

Introduction

A Standing Commission of the General Convention is a body comparable in concept to a committee of the US Congress: it exists to research issues within its scope of authority and responsibility, and then, when applicable, to propose any legislation deemed appropriate relative to those issues.  

The number of members of each Standing Commission, and the number from each order of ministry (bishop, priest/deacon, or lay) is established by the national Canons.  The bishops are appointed by the Presiding Bishop, and the others by the President of the House of Deputies.  All members have equal votes when a Standing Commission votes.  (The specific canon describing the SCDME may be found on the Episcopal Church website by clicking here - then scroll down to subsection 4). Each Standing Commission prepares a report for General Convention containing a description of its work, and any recommended legislation.

The 1997-2000 SCDME proposed resolutions to the 2000 General Convention which dealt with:

• doubling the membership of the Episcopal Church by the year 2020 ("The 20/20 Vision"), and
• establishing a Task Force to write a strategic plan for achieving this goal.

With modifications, these resolutions were adopted unanimously in the House of Bishops and virtually unanimously in the House of Deputies, making them official actions of the Episcopal Church, and establishing the 20/20 Vision as the priority of the Episcopal Church.

More information concerning these resolutions, including their precise wording as adopted, may be found on the website of the Episcopal Network for Evangelism (ENE) by clicking here.

Work of the 2001-2003 SCDME

The first meeting of the new SCDME was held February 19-22, 2001 at Virginia Theological Seminary, Alexandria, Virginia. Half of the members were members of the 1997 SCDME and half of the members are new.  The SCDME was also joined by a liasion member, The Rev. Kwasi Thornell, who is a member of the Executive Council.

Minutes of the meeting will be posted here when they becopme available.  Briefly, the members introduced themselves, heard a report about the work to date and plans of the 2020 Task Force from a member of the Task Force who is also a member of the SCDME, and began planning  the SCDME's work for the 2001-2003 triennium.   The website of the Task Force may be found by clicking here.  

One of the actions agreed upon in the first meeting was that designated members of SCDME would visit certain other Standing Commissions and other Interim Bodies.  Two of these visits have been made and reported upon:

• Visit with Standing Commission on Ministry Development (click here for report)
• Visit with Standing Commission on Stewardship and Development (click here for report)

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1999-2000 SCDME

This website presents the final version of the Blue Book  report of the Episcopal Church's Standing Commission on Domestic Mission and Evangelism (SCDME) to the 2000 General Convention, including the proposed resolutions and explanations, plus the Commission's meeting minutes, membership, etc.

The SCDME is proposing a goal and a plan for doubling the membership of the Episcopal Church by 2020.  We have also prepared recommended resolutions to begin implementing this goal and plan.  We believe that, if adopted, these resolutions will reenergize the Episcopal Church in its mission "to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ" (BCP p. 855).

The Blue Book report is posted on this website in order to:

• help coordination between the SCDME and others who are proposing legislation for the 2000 General Convention, and
• to allow the church at large to have inputs to this work. 

The following are links to:

• our Blue Book report to the July 2000 General Convention, including resolutions
• the background of the SCDME
• the work done by the SCDME (our meeting minutes)
• a list of members of the SCDME with e-mail addresses.
• the Episcopal Church Center's webpage on this Standing Commission

Draft Resolutions Were Posted

The first set of draft resolutions was produced at the June 1999 meeting of the SCDME, and was posted on the website.  While not many comments were received, the ones which were submitted were very helpful.  We believe that we were the first Standing Commission to publicly post draft resolutions, and to solicit and receive e-mail comments on them.

Background of the SCDME

The SCDME was formed in the restructuring effort approved at the 1997 General Convention. Approximately speaking, it combines the responsibilities of two predecessor Standing Commissions:  

• Evangelism, and
• The Church in Metropolitan Areas

A Standing Commission of the General Convention is a body comparable to a committee of the US Congress: it exists to research issues within its scope of responsibility, and then, when applicable, to propose the legislation deemed appropriate.  At the General Convention itself,  there are also legislative committees made up (only) of voting members of the General Convention: Bishops and Deputies.  However, Standing Commission members are not necessarily members of General Convention.  The number of members of each Standing Commission, and the number from each order of ministry (bishop, priest/deacon, or lay) is established by the national Canons.  The bishops are appointed by the Presiding Bishop, and the others by the President of the House of Deputies.  All members have equal votes when a Standing Commission votes.  (The specific canon describing the SCDME may be found on the Episcopal Church website by clicking here - then scroll down to subsection 4). Each Standing Commission prepares a report for General Convention containing a description of its work, and any recommended legislation. (In Episcopal Church talk, the document containing the final reports of all the Interim Bodies is known as "The Blue Book Report."  The deadline for the 2000 Blue Book Report was January 15, 2000.  It will be published about May 2000.)

Members of the SCDME are listed here.

Work done by the SCDME

Ultimately, the work done by the SCDME will be measured by what resolutions the SCDME brings to the General Convention, by what the General Convention does with those resolutions, and by what effect those resolutions have on the church and the world.   A description of how our work proceeded is contained in the minutes of our meetings, which are listed below.

To see the minutes of a meeting, click on the date of the meeting.

• March 1998, Minneapolis, MN  Of particular interest: at the Convocation of ECUSA's Interim Bodies, the SCDME proposes a goal of doubling the membership of the Episcopal Church by 2020.  Attendees from other Interim Bodies are electrified.
• June 1998, Pasadena, CA.  Of particular interest: the comments of the Rev. Professor Eddie Gibbs, a professor at Fuller Seminary,  on the Church of the 21st Century, and what changes the Episcopal Church must make to be faithful and effective in carrying out the Church's mission.
• November 1998, near Houston Texas  Of particular interest: the SCDME attended the Diocese of Texas's conference for Bishops and senior diocesan staff, and was highly impressed -- Bp. Payne is using vision-based leadership followed up by collective learning and improving, and the diocese has begun to grow rapidly.
• March 1999 Telephone conference call.  (preparation for June 1999 meeting).
• June 1999, Mundelein, IL  --  This meeting produced draft resolutions (see below) for consideration by the July 2000 General Convention.
• November 1, 1999, Telephone conference call.  Preparation for November 21-23 meeting.
• November 21-23, 1999 near Houston Texas  The SCDME again attended the Diocese of Texas's conference for Bishops and senior diocesan staff, and again was highly impressed.  We also finalized the contents of our report and our resolutions.   We then worked on our strategy for getting our legislation passed through forming alliances with as many other Episcopal organizations as possible.  One resolution, for a capital fund, is jointly sponsored by this Commission and by the Standing Commission for Stewardship and Development.

SCDME Coordination with the Episcopal Network for Evangelism

The Episcopal Network for Evangelism (ENE) is an all-volunteer organization which exists to support the 20/20 goal.  It is not officially connected to the SCDME.  The ENE maintains a website of information on evangelism in the Episcopal Church, and operates an e-mailing list of about 400 persons interested in evangelism.  The ENE website and list are intended to help (a) dioceses, (b) congregations, and (c) individuals improve their efforts in evangelism.  To visit the website, click here. (The convener and webmaster of the ENE is one of the members of the Standing Commission.)

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