The House of Deputies Committee on the State of the Church is asking church leaders to complete two online surveys:  one about the Church Pension Fund and the other about the Episcopal Church’s social justice work. The data that the committee collects from the surveys will be used to prepare its report on the state of the church for the 79^th General Convention in 2018.

“The State of the Church committee is canonically mandated to prepare a report on the state of the Episcopal Church for the House of Deputies, which we send to the House of Bishops after we have approved it,” says the Rev. Gay Clark Jennings, President of the House of Deputies. “Based on the concerns I’ve heard raised in my conversations with deputies and other leaders at General Convention and as I travel around the church, in 2015 I asked the group to focus on the state of the church in three specific areas:  multicultural ministries, justice and advocacy ministries, and the Church Pension Fund.”

Deputy Winnie Varghese of the Diocese of New York chairs the committee, which includes 16 deputies from across each of the Episcopal Church’s nine provinces see here. https://extranet.generalconvention.org/governing_and_interim_bodies/interim_bodies/652/roster More information about the committee’s work during the 2015-2018 triennium is available at Deputy News here.  http://www.deputynews.org/529-2/

The survey about the Church Pension Fund, available in English and Spanish, is designed to collect responses from lay and ordained people who work in the church regardless of whether they participate in the Church Pension Fund or the Church Medical Trust.

The survey about social justice work, also available in English and Spanish, aims to gather information about the ways that dioceses and congregations are involved in advocating for a fairer and more just society.

“We want to know more about how the church is advocating for economic justice, fair wages, and other justice issues,” says Deputy Laura Russell of Newark, who is part of the committee’s working group assessing social justice work. “Likewise, we want to know about where the church is not just feeding and assisting people in need, but also working against the structures that perpetuate racism, poverty, and hunger in our societies.”

The surveys, which will be available online until August 18, are available using the links below:

Church Pension Fund Survey

The survey is located in English here. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SotC-Pension

The survey is located in Spanish here. https://es.surveymonkey.com/r/FondodePensiones

For more information, email Evan Garner at evan@stjohnsdecatur.org.

Social Justice Survey

 The survey for diocesan representatives to complete in English is here. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SocialJustice-dioceses

The survey for diocesan representatives to complete in Spanish is here. https://es.surveymonkey.com/r/justiciaEncuesta

The survey for congregational representatives to complete in English is here.https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/socialjustice-congregations

The survey for congregational representatives to complete in Spanish is here.https://es.surveymonkey.com/r/congregaciones

For more information, email Laura Russell at LARussell@legal-aid.org; Evan Garner at evan@stjohnsdecatur.org.