The Executive Council’s January meeting provided a foretaste of a potential drama over the selection of the next executive officer of the General Convention, who is the third-ranking officer of the church.
The council also approved a $143 million budget for the next triennium, voted to continue negotiations toward a new permanent home for the Episcopal Archives, and took a first step toward cleaning up a racist provision in a long-disused grant program.
General Convention Executive Officer
The Rev. Michael Barlowe has announced that he will retire in August after running his fourth General Convention. During a plenary session, council member Annette Buchanan of the Diocese of New Jersey asked him to explain how his successor would be chosen.
President of the House of Deputies Julia Ayala Harris quickly shut down that topic, saying that legal advisors to the presiding officers are researching the issue, and that it would not be appropriate for Barlowe to discuss the selection of his successor.
Ayala Harris, who was chairing Executive Council because of the absence of Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry, elaborated in the closing plenary session the following day. She indicated this is one of many important issues that have been on hold because of the unavailability of the presiding bishop, and that she expected to be able to provide more specific information at the Executive Council’s April meeting.
The process will be closely watched by council members, as it has echoes of the controversy over the appointment of Jane Cisluycis as acting chief operating officer in February 2023. A third of the council voted against her appointment after Buchanan and other members raised objections. Dissenters cited reasons such as the lack of a formal search committee, and concerns over whether a diverse enough pool of candidates had been considered. Because of the controversy, Cisluycis was named to the role on an acting basis, to allow the new presiding bishop to participate in filling the job permanently.
Church officials declined to discuss Barlowe’s succession in detail, but did provide the pertinent canonical references. The following is based on TLC’s analysis of the language of the canons.
The question of a successor is complicated, because Barlowe wears several hats.
He is secretary of the House of Deputies. In that capacity, under Canon I.1.1.a, his successor will be elected by the House of Deputies — presumably during General Convention in June, although the office is not scheduled to be vacant at that time.
Then under Canon I.1.1.j, the successor “shall, by concurrent action of the two Houses of the General Convention, be made Secretary of the General Convention” with certain specified duties. The words “concurrent action” implies that the two houses must vote to approve, while in contrast, the word “shall” implies they have no discretion to block the appointment.
Barlowe also serves as General Convention executive officer, a role that continues full-time between General Conventions. This is his most substantive role — he has a staff of about 10 and his published salary in 2022 was $240,051.
His successor as executive officer will be appointed jointly by the presiding bishop and the president of the House of Deputies (currently Curry and Ayala Harris), with the “advice and consent of the Executive Council” (Canon I.1.12).
The executive officer and secretary positions do not have to be held by the same person, although currently they are. If they are different persons, the secretary would serve “under the general supervision of the General Convention Executive Officer,” according to the same canon.
The August timing of Barlowe’s retirement has potential implications regarding which persons (as opposed to which officers) appoint his successor. Curry’s successor as presiding bishop will not take office until November 1, raising the apparent possibility that on his way out the door, Curry could appoint a senior executive that Curry’s successor would be stuck with.
Ayala Harris, on the other hand, could theoretically be voted out of office at General Convention in June, although no other candidates have yet declared themselves. The new president of the House of Deputies would assume office at the closing gavel of General Convention — before Barlowe’s retirement.
Finally, Barlowe also is secretary of the Executive Council, with seat and voice but no vote in council meetings. Under Canon I.4.2.c, the secretary of general convention serves ex officio as secretary of the council.
Budget for 2025-2027
Without further debate, the Executive Council on January 28 passed a $143 million budget for the 2025-2027 triennium, and the 29-page budget was published for all to see on the General Convention website.
Council member Joe McDaniel followed through on his previously reported intention to vote against the budget unless the investment draw was increased to devote more funds to mission, but the voice vote otherwise sounded unanimous.
Barlowe announced that the council’s “Blue Book” report also is newly available online.
Dozens of committees, task forces, governing bodies and others will file reports to the General Convention known as Blue Book reports, and they will be posted online on a rolling basis. In terms of page numbers, they cumulatively will stretch into the low four figures.
The Executive Council Blue Book weighs in at 168 pages, 72 of which are devoted to a company-by-company report from the Committee on Corporate and Social Responsibility. CCSR engages with companies in the church’s investment portfolio as it “strives to assure that the investments of the Episcopal Church align with the values of Jesus Christ.”
Other major sections of the report deal with topics such as the council’s anti-racism efforts, and the ongoing work of the various council subcommittees.
Looking Ahead to General Convention
It was the third straight Executive Council meeting chaired by Ayala Harris because of Curry’s health issues. Curry has had multiple surgeries in the past year related to subdural hematomas and the need to remove a noncancerous mass on an adrenal gland. He missed all or most of Executive Council meetings in June and October 2023.
The council has offered repeated prayers for Curry’s recovery, but there has been no discussion of his health status. Public Affairs Officer Amanda Skofstad said she expects there will be a health update in the coming week.
The council met in Louisville, Kentucky, five months before the same city will host the 81st General Convention in June. Barlowe, as the person with primary responsibility for arranging the triennial extravaganzas that bring upwards of 10,000 together for an Episcopal family reunion, said he has already visited Louisville seven or eight times. He urged council members to take advantage of any down time to explore the city.
“It is a wonderful city [with] a rich history of all sorts of things — both really tragic things that we must never forget, and also opportunities for looking to a future where people do work together,” he said.
“Tragic things” was an oblique reference to an incident that was discussed explicitly at other times in the four-day meeting: the March 2020 police shooting of Breonna Taylor, an unarmed Black woman, in her own apartment, about three miles from the council meeting at the Galt House hotel.
That shooting was followed two months later by the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and the twin tragedies prompted Executive Council to make $150,000 grants each to the Diocese of Kentucky and the Diocese of Minnesota, for racial justice efforts.
Barlowe described Louisville to the council with obvious enthusiasm. “One of the things that I will encourage you to do,” he said, “is to go to the Muhammad Ali Museum. It is extraordinary. I knew a lot about Muhammad Ali. At least I thought I did. But I had no idea about the courage that it took for someone, Muhammad Ali, to give up so, so much” as a matter of conscience.
“And he paid a huge price. Some of you will know that. Go to that museum and you’ll learn more of it. It’s not just a boxing museum.” Ali, who died in 2016, refused to be drafted during the Vietnam War in 1966, and was essentially banished from boxing for three years in his late 20s — prime years for an athlete. Ali was born and raised in Louisville, and in addition to the museum, he is memorialized in the name of the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport.
Barlowe also noted that Thomas Merton, an American Trappist monk and mystic, had a profound experience of God in Louisville, and that there is civil rights walk in the downtown area. Of the latter, he said “It’s humbling. It’s extraordinary. It is one of the thin places that one encounters spiritually.”
The Archives May Finally Get a Home
After extended discussion in both open and closed session, the council approved a resolution authorizing Cisluycis to continue negotiations toward housing the Episcopal Archives at the DeKoven Center in Racine, Wisconsin. DeKoven. Founded as Racine College in 1852, the 11-acre complex was later an Episcopal boarding school and convent, and has been a retreat and conference center for several decades. It is named for James DeKoven, a leader in the Episcopal Church’s Catholic revival of the nineteenth century, who served as warden of Racine College for the final twenty years of his life, and is buried on the grounds.
The archives collection has been a treasure chest without a home for years. It was housed at the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin without charge for many years, then moved to a temporary location in Austin after the seminary needed the space.
There was extended discussion about how the location had been selected and what comparable sites were considered. The council continued the discussion in executive session, because it involves ongoing financial negotiations.
The council then declared the executive session over and immediately held a vote, without allowing time for news media, staff, and others to return to the room. TLC walked in as the vote was being conducted, and subsequently had to inform Skofstad and David Paulsen of Episcopal News Service that the vote had already been taken and was nearly unanimous.
The sole nay vote came from the Rev. Devon Anderson of Minnesota, who said she objected to advancing the project without an understanding of how it will be financed. If negotiations are successful, Executive Council will have an opportunity to vote on the move at its April meeting.
Opening Grants to Non-Whites
The council voted to change the terms of the Emily Rittenhouse Trust Fund “so that the income be used for the education of children of Episcopal clergy who serve Sioux communities.” The fund originally was established in 1932 to benefit “children of white missionaries” in the Rosebud Agency in South Dakota.
Bishop Scott Hayashi, a council member and former Bishop of Utah, explained that the grant had fallen out of use because of the untenable restriction. The change will have to be approved by a court because the fund includes more than $100,000.
