The Episcopal Church is on track for a budget surplus of $200,000 at the end of 2025, Chief Financial Officer Chris Lacovara told the Executive Council on October 20. The savings reflect Church Center staff restructuring and decreased expenditures on travel and consultants.
Although the full benefit of both initiatives will be felt in 2026, they are expected to lead to $3.5 million in annual savings for the next three years, Lacovara said in his report. The extra funds will help mitigate a projected revenue shortfall of $2 million per year, driven by lower dividends from church investments and increased assessment relief for dioceses. They will also help fund the Presiding Bishop’s initiatives for dioceses. Lacovara said no current programs were halted to generate the annual savings.
On October 21, the Rev. Canon Scott Gunn, co-chair of the General Convention Reinvention Steering Committee, discussed the group’s recommendations with the council via Zoom. The proposal reimagines General Convention’s daily schedule into three parts: mornings for worship and formation, afternoons for deliberations on resolutions, and evenings for rest and fellowship among participants.
“How will we get everything done in the afternoon?” Gunn said. He emphasized that “it is possible” and shared several ideas from the committee, including:
- Categorizing resolutions based on their purpose, such as GC for Governance and Canons, and LM for Liturgy and Music
- Proposing updates to the rules of order and canons, and implementing pre-filled resolution reviews
- Updating legislative software and establishing required resolution templates
The executive director of Forward Movement referred to a graphic—which showed the number of resolutions and how they flow to the houses—to illustrate how those steps could be simplified. He said fewer than five percent of resolutions are rejected—which, Gunn said, “begs a conversation.”
The committee also proposed consolidating constitutional and canonical amendments and having each legislative committee produce a consolidated Churchwide Directive resolution. That idea prompted a question from council member Heidi Kim of the Diocese of Minnesota, who cited the labor intensiveness of such a task.
“This sounds like a lot of work to consolidate all these resolutions,” Kim said, expressing concern about the burden it could place on some so that others can spend more time in worship and formation.
As the suggestions remain tentative, it is not yet clear how or whether they will be implemented.
“Everyone in the committee believes resolutely that … nobody wants to take away deliberation transparency or the beauty and power of the church’s deliberation process,” Gunn said. The committee also suggested creating a Book of Common Discernment, compiling the church’s most significant statements so that every Episcopalian may understand the church’s stance on key issues.
Although there are proposed changes to how the General Convention is conducted, the dates on which it will be held are set.
General Convention—the national legislative body of the Episcopal Church—meets every three years as a bicameral legislature comprising the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies. The 82nd General Convention will be held in Phoenix on July 3–8, 2027.
Dioceses First
In plenary remarks to the Executive Council and in conversations with the Realignment Committee, Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe has consistently emphasized the importance of investing in and supporting dioceses.
“We’re working to create a roadmap for ways we can continue to free up our resources, particularly money for mission and diocesan investing, real estate, and financial expertise,” Rowe told the council during his report. “Many dioceses now say they need to survive and thrive.”
He said he does not want national ministry to become “a program, conference, and resource-producing machine,” adding: “That doesn’t mean we won’t ever host a meeting or publish resources, but in general, we find that dioceses and our partners around the church do those things better than the churchwide staff could.
“We want to invest in what is already working, rather than do the work at a level that nearly always struggles to be relevant to local context,” he said.
Rowe acknowledged the benefits of a national profile and spoke about a forthcoming visibility campaign in 2026, centered on a “church website that works.” He said he is cautious about using words like brand and identity in describing efforts to raise awareness of the national church.
As for its purpose, Bishop Rafael Morales Maldonado of Puerto Rico, who also serves as bishop adviser of the Virgin Islands, offered a succinct phrase during a committee meeting: “facilitator for the diocese.”
“We need to remember that each diocese has a different context,” Maldonado said. “And when we have the Episcopal Church helping the different contexts, we can do spectacular things.”
Maldonado said the seminary in the Diocese of Puerto Rico has been licensed as a university and is now pursuing accreditation. Part of its purpose is to prepare clergy not only for the local diocese but also for those in the mainland who want to lead or work with Hispanic populations.
Maldonado’s remarks affirmed what Rowe said about how strengthening partnerships with dioceses can help the church function more effectively.
“If we’re going to develop Spanish-speaking formation material, I’d rather go to Rafael in Puerto Rico and say, ‘Can you have your seminary do this work?’ rather than have somebody in my office do it and have it translated,” Rowe said. “That’s what I mean by giving it to dioceses.”
The Presiding Bishop admitted that implementing his perspective may be iterative. Bishop Mark Lattime of Alaska, chair of the Realignment Committee, welcomed the direction.
“I’m very, very happy to hear the perspective—the methodology that you’re bringing to this—by looking at partnerships and building capacity at diocesan levels,” Lattime told Rowe. “We need to let that work, I think.”
“And then we need to evaluate and see if it does,” Rowe replied.
Realignment Committee Report
On the afternoon of October 21, the council adopted several resolutions, including one mandating the creation of a committee on disability and deaf inclusion. Additional proposals were expected from the Governance and Operations Committee on selecting locations for future Executive Council meetings.
Lattime was the final committee chair to address the Executive Council, reiterating the committee’s mandate. One key update was a revised organizational chart reflecting changes made since realignment, including the elimination of 14 staff positions.
The new organizational chart shows several vacancies—at least one already posted on the Episcopal Church website, and others that are being filled. Lattime described it as a work in progress. The chart now has a flatter structure, with fewer people reporting directly to the Presiding Bishop. It is marked for internal use only, for security reasons, but has been shared with the House of Bishops and bishops’ executive assistants.
During a committee meeting the previous day, a discussion arose about the role of former Presiding Bishop Michael Curry as chief evangelist—though not an official title, one that has been warmly received. “We want him to do as much of it as he wants to do,” said Rebecca Wilson, chief of strategy for the Episcopal Church.
Caleb Maglaya Galaraga is The Living Church’s Episcopal Church reporter. His work has also appeared in Christianity Today, Broadview Magazine, and Presbyterian Outlook, among other publications.
