The Episcopal Church’s Executive Council, at its first meeting since the July General Convention, held orientation activities for newer members and approved a streamlined budget process mandated by the convention.

About half of the council members are new and the Oct. 17-20 meeting in Phoenix saw presentations on church governance, finances, socially-responsible investing and the council’s responsibilities. Since General Convention was postponed to 2022 from 2021 due to COVID concerns, Executive Council is working on a two-year biennium structure, instead of the usual three-year triennium between conventions.

The council’s Joint Standing Committee on Governance and Operations advanced the churchwide budget process reform endorsed by General Convention via Resolution A048. The process would eliminate the Joint Standing Committee on Program, Budget, and Finance, instead allowing Executive Council to present its budget proposal directly to General Convention through a standing budget committee, reported Episcopal News Service.

In relation to A048, Executive Council passed a resolution that calls for a special virtual meeting in November to vote on a proposed amendment to the council bylaws that would create the new budget committee. The Governance and Finance Committees previewed some of the proposed elements of the new committee during the meeting, with the finalized version to be voted on next month, according to the ENS report.

More details of Executive Council’s meeting are here.

Additional coverage of the meeting is here.