From Sam Hodges at General Conference:

The plan to restructure the general church is undergoing, well, restructuring. Jay Brim of the Connectional Table—shown in conversation with North Georgia lay delegate Joe Whittemore (left)—said this morning that the Interim Operations Team proposal for creating a 15-person board to oversee program agencies of the church is now dead.

He said Bishop Greg Palmer, a leader of the IOT effort, sent an email yesterday acknowledging that there would have to be a bigger governing board.

Mr. Brim supports a 45-member board that would have proportional representation from the Central Conferences.

At a Connectional Table briefing today, delegates from Africa raised numerous questions about the restructuring of the general church, suggesting they need more time to study the various proposals.

David Muwaya, a delegate from the East Africa Conference,  told me afterward that he would support pushing back a decision on restructuring until 2016. He said many delegates from Africa haven’t had the Internet access to study proposals as thoroughly as other delegates.

 

Comments

[Creed Pogue]

Two enormous problems with the IOT proposal are the complete disconnect between the issues identified in the CtA report and the "solutions" they are presenting. The other is the sheer logistical difficulties of trying to govern a $150 million a year enterprise of over 45,000 branch offices spread across four continents with a fifteen member board (I'm not so sure that 45 would fly much better).

I wonder where we would have been if we had taken the hard look at the general agencies in light of the CtA report and made the difficult decisions to end a number of them instead of simply reshuffling them. Or, if we said that each episcopal area will have a member on each of the major boards (GBGM, GBOD, GBCS, GBHEM) so there is greater accountability, connectionalism and interpretation of the work of the general agencies with the people in the pews who pay the bills.

[Kevin]

In the military they have a saying. "no plan survives first contact with the enemy". Maybe there is a corollary for General Conference. It looks like Bishop Palmer and Mr. Brim are trying to modify the plan on the fly.