Fiddling while the Titanic Burns

HA! I know I mixed "sayings" in the title - what do you expect, I'm not a Rocket Surgeon!

The title does speak to my continued frustration. Our Blue Book (which has the reports from all the Commissions, Committees, Agencies, and Boards (CCABs) as well as pre-filed resolutions) sent to all deputies before GC has an eye opening report from the "State of the Church" standing committee. In it they honestly report on decline in membership and attendance of the Episcopal church (which echoes that of other mainline denominations). It is a very sobering look at the "facts", the real data, and calls us to WAKE UP and deal with this reality. Yet there is no question here that all the time and energy is spent, still, on issues dealing with sexuality.
Which I am not going to talk about, today, on here. For a very balanced and well thought out post on this, see David Johnson's blog here.
We did pass, in the House of Deputies, a brilliant strategic plan put forth by the office for Latino/Hispanic ministry, asking for 3.5 million dollars to fund a plan to reach out to Hispanics in our country, with materials to help, best practices, church plant funding, education and training - it is very well done. You can read it online here.
This is the kind of thinking we need and the kind of project I can support. Yes, it was passed in the HoD, but with very little fanfare or discussion, other than several deputies who testified how badly we need it. I would love to see this same kind of plan for mission, evangelism, and growth for the whole church, not just "targeting" the Latino/Hispanic community (which I support), but a large coordinated well planned effort to grow all of our church as well.
I say that not only, or even mostly, because we are shrinking along with the other mainlines. But because Jesus gave us the Great Commission, to go and baptize and teach and make disciples, and when we are distracted from that work, when we spend way more time on insular fighting, we lose our witness to a hurting world. We have something profoundly wonderful to offer, let's talk about how to do that across the church.
Next post I will have some comments about how things run (or don't) around here. I am a little disturbed by how committee assignments are made, the way certain visitors are allowed to address the HoD (with certain opinions on the hot issues, without the balance of other opinions being offered), etc. Meanwhile, please, please keep praying for all of us - lots of difficult stuff yet to come.