Diocesan Council Job Description
Overview
The Diocesan Council:
- Serves as an advisory group to the Bishop and the Diocesan staff on financial and other matters.
- Oversees the development of the Diocese’s operating fund budget and recommends the budget to Diocesan Convention for approval.
- Provides guidance and oversight for the Diocese between conventions.
- Works in committees to support Diocesan staff and Diocesan ministries.
- Serves as liaisons to parishes of the Diocese.
Expectations
Diocesan Council members serve for a three-year term; some are elected by Convention and others by the Mission Area Councils. Members are expected to participate actively in Diocesan Council meetings; to serve as liaisons to one or more Council committees that address spiritual and material stewardship oversight of various ministries; Lay Council members must be confirmed adult communicants of the Episcopal Church in good standing. Clerical Council members must be canonically resident in the Diocese of Ohio.
Diocesan Council meets approximately eight times each year. One meeting, usually held the first weekend of December, is a Friday night/Saturday meeting. Most other Council meetings are held at Trinity Commons on Thursdays from 12:30 pm-4 pm, but approximately two meetings each year are held on Saturdays from 10 am-3 pm at other parishes in the Diocese. In inclement weather, meetings can be held by conference call.
Gifts, Experiences and Skills
The Diocese will benefit from Diocesan Council members who can see the big picture; have interpersonal and communications skills that help create a collegial, accountable environment; possess a general working knowledge of basic financial matters; and the structure of the Episcopal Church. Diocesan Council members should be committed to fostering the welfare of all parishes and affiliated ministries in the Diocese.
Recent Accomplishments
In addition to preparing and recommending the operating fund budget, Diocesan Council has recently developed resolutions to enact the recommendations of the Mission Strategy Task Force and monitored the implementation of Natural Church Development. Council’s Finance Committee has recently reviewed the Diocesan assessment process to assure fairness and ease of compliance for parishes.
Episcopal Community Services Job Description
Overview
Episcopal Community Services (ECS) is responsible for the support of outreach ministries throughout the Diocese of Ohio. ECS reviews proposals for Bishop’s Annual Appeal funds awarded through ECS and structures and implements the resulting grant awards. Episcopal Community Services also reviews proposals and awards grants from the Church Home Fund.
Expectations
Episcopal Community Services members serve for a three-year term. Members must be adult communicants of the Episcopal Church in good standing.
ECS meets every other month in full committee at Trinity Commons. Grant teams meet by conference call, and subcommittees meet as agreed upon by their members. Lay members must be confirmed adult communicants of the Episcopal Church in good standing. Clerical members must be canonically resident in the Diocese of Ohio.
Gifts, Experiences and Skills
The Diocese will benefit from Episcopal Community Service members who have a passion for outreach and commitment to working with the other members of the committee.
Recent Accomplishments
Episcopal Community Services has recently reassessed its grants process and examined the relationship of advocacy and systemic change to the Diocese and ECS grant funding.
Standing Committee Job Description
Overview
The Standing Committee:
- Serves as the Bishop’s Council of Advice, bringing diocesan concerns to the Bishop’s attention and responding to the Bishop’s own thoughts and concerns;
- Deals with property matters. All parish decisions to sell or encumber property must be approved by the Standing Committee.
- Gives consent to candidacy and ordination of deacons and priests and to the election of bishops in other dioceses of the Episcopal Church.
- Is involved with disciplinary matters pertaining to clergy
- Designs and manages the search and election process when a new bishop is needed.
Expectations
Standing Committee members serve for a four-year term. Members are expected to commit to working collaboratively with the Bishop for the welfare of the Diocese. Occasionally, members are asked to attend Diocesan regional meetings. Lay Standing Committee members must be adult communicants of the Episcopal Church in good standing. Clerical members must be entitled to a seat at Diocesan Convention.
The Standing Committee meets at 9:45 am at Trinity Commons on the third Monday of the month, except in December, when the meeting is usually one week earlier. Meetings are usually, but not always, adjourned by 12:30 pm. With the consent of the President of Standing Committee, members who live some distance from Cleveland may, on occasion, join the meeting via conference call.
To assist transition, the Nov. Standing Committee meeting begins with a joint session between outgoing and newly-elected members. New members also receive a summary of the previous year’s minutes.
Gifts, Experiences and Skills
The Diocese will benefit from Standing Committee members who are constructive; who know both when to listen and when to speak; and who will respect the diverse views both of this body and of the diocese. The Standing Committee benefits from having members drawn from parishes that are diverse in size and location.
Recent Accomplishments
Recently, the Standing Committee has discussed the value of regional confirmations; worked with the Commission on Ministry to continue improving the care of those in the ordination process; consented to various episcopal elections throughout the Episcopal Church; and consented to parish requests to alienate church property.
Trustee Job Description
Overview
The Diocesan Trustees, a group of five laypeople and clergy, manage and have fiduciary responsibility for the Diocese’s Joint Investment Fund and Real Property of the Diocese:
Joint Investment Fund (JIF)*
Working with an investment advisor, the Diocesan Trustees:
(a)Establish an investment policy for JIF and monitor adherence to the policy
(b)Review financial performance of JIF and evaluate performance of individual investment managers
(c)As appropriate, make decisions on investment manager replacement, including interviewing new manager candidates
(d) Set the spending rule for the Fund
(e) Work with Diocesan staff on promoting the endowment and planned giving initiatives
Real Property of the Diocese
Working with the Bishop, the Diocesan Trustees make decisions about the disposition of, and other appropriate actions related to, the real property of the Diocese in missions, parishes and at the Diocese itself.
*JIF includes (1) endowment funds of the Diocese, (b) funds derived from parishes receiving aid or extinct parishes, and (c) other Diocesan funds and funds of parishes, parish organizations and other not-for-profit organizations affiliated with the Episcopal church. JIF is valued at over $36 million.
Expectations
Diocesan Trustees serve for a five-year term. The Diocese expects that a Trustee will attend all meetings and be prepared to discuss and make decisions, as appropriate, on agenda items in materials sent to them beforehand or provided at meetings.
Trustee meetings are held quarterly, normally on Tuesdays from 4 pm-6 pm, at Trinity Commons in March, June, September and December (other meetings are held as necessary). New members elected at Diocesan Convention attend their first regularly scheduled meeting in December.
Gifts, Experiences and Skills
The Diocese will benefit from having Trustees who:
- Can evaluate complicated business-related issues
- Possess knowledge of finance/investing or the law, or both
- Have experience providing input for decision-making at both the local church and diocesan levels.
Diocesan Disciplinary Board
Overview
If there is a case involving potential Clergy misconduct, the Diocesan Disciplinary Board is the pool of individuals from which people are selected to serve as members of a Conference or Hearing Panel. The current Title IV canons seek to provide for appropriate and transparent accountability when clergy have committed some sort of infraction or misconduct. It also seeks to be built upon a model of reconciliation and healing, as opposed to confrontation. The Panel is comprised of five clergy and four lay members, each serving a 3-year term.
Expectations
The Clergy members of the Board must be canonically and geographically resident within the Diocese, have been ordained to the order from which they were elected for five or more years, and not be, either at the time of election nor the five years prior to election, under sentence or pastoral direction.
The lay members of the Board shall be Adult Communicants in Good Standing in the Diocese.
Gifts, Experiences and Skills
- Facility to understand, interpret, and apply the canons of the Church.
- Ability to weigh varied and potentially conflicting evidence in discerning what has transpired, whether it is an infraction of the canons, and what an appropriate response might look like.
- Ability to base decisions upon intellectual analysis, even in an emotionally charged context.