Executive Summary
The Episcopal Partnership for Global Mission is envisioned to be a working partnership among Executive Council, congregations, dioceses, and voluntary agencies that enables all Episcopalians to participate in God’s global mission through their membership in the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society. It will intensify the contributions of the existing Episcopal Council for Global Mission by drawing diverse mission efforts into a recognized relationship with General Convention and Executive Council. Affirming a shared theology of mission, the partnership will implement tested covenants, carry out defined functions, foster crucial relationships in the church and the Anglican Communion, and operate with a very modest budget.

Historical Background of the EPGM Proposal
This proposal offers a means to implement the 1997 General Convention’s directive that Executive Council initiate development of an Episcopal Partnership for Global Mission (EPGM). Convention stated that the partnership’s purpose would be “to strengthen the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society and its work with other mission groups to increase churchwide participation and cooperation in the sending and receiving of missionaries on an international basis” (Resolution A204s).

The vision for EPGM arises out of the world mission community’s experience of the Episcopal Council for Global Mission (ECGM), a group founded in 1990 to foster cooperation and mutual learning, rather than competition, among mission organizations. ECGM now has more than 40 member organizations, which include voluntary societies, parishes, dioceses, and entities of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society (DFMS) such as the Anglican and Global Relations Cluster, the United Thank Offering, and the Presiding Bishop’s Fund for World Relief.

In response to a proposal that “missionary appointments will no longer be made and funded on a normative basis” by the DFMS, the 1994 General Convention called for a comprehensive theology, strategy, and structure for the church’s international mission work (Resolution D016). The D016 Working Group, which included members of the Standing Commission on World Mission and ECGM, offered the 1997 General Convention a partnership model that was modified at convention to become A204s.

A group called the EPGM Planners has met to develop this proposal. It includes members of Executive Council (Ms. Diana Dillenberger-Frade and the Rev. Dr. Sandye Wilson), the Episcopal Council for Global Mission (Ms. Beverley Allison, the Rev. Dr. Ian Douglas, and Ms. Judith Gillespie), the Anglican and Global Relations Cluster (the Rev. Patrick Mauney), and the Standing Commission on World Mission (Ms. Janet Lewis-Andersen, Ms. Edwina Thomas, and the Rev. Dr. Titus Presler, convenor).

EPGM Purpose Statement
The Episcopal Partnership for Global Mission is a working partnership among the Executive Council, congregations, dioceses, voluntary agencies, and networks that enables all Episcopalians to participate in God’s global mission through their membership in the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Episcopal Church.

Theological Affirmations of EPGM
The theological foundation for mission vision and practical partnership among EPGM members is the theological statement developed by the D016 Working Group and affirmed by ECGM and by the 1997 General Convention as a basis for EPGM membership.

God has lovingly and joyfully created heaven and earth. Human beings, however, have become alienated from the Triune God, turning away from God and one another. God, in love, seeks to heal the divisions that drive us apart. In the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God provides the way by which all creation can be reunited with our loving and merciful Creator. In dying for us, Jesus Christ redeems us to new life. In him the Reign of God is made real and accessible for all. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, the Body of Christ present in the world today proclaims and lives out Jesus’ work of reconciliation and redemption. The mission of the church is thus to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ (Catechism, Book of Common Prayer, p. 855). As God sent Jesus into the world, we too are sent into the world.

The history of salvation from creation to the present day demonstrates that God is a sender. The Holy Scriptures are the definitive chronicles of the work of the sending Triune God. They tell of prophets and apostles, women and men of faith, impelled to speak and act in God’s mission. The truth of Scripture is that from the Triune God, Creator of all, God the Word is sent and made human to accomplish reconciliation and redemption, and God the Holy Spirit is sent to empower God’s people to participate in and bear witness to God’s reign.

God’s mission of reconciliation and redemption is the work of the church. In mission God the Holy Trinity takes God’s believing people as a partner. Commissioned in baptism, and enabled by the Holy Spirit, Christians are invited to be recipients and channels of God’s transforming grace. We do this through: prayer and worship, repentance and forgiveness, the proclamation of the Good News of God in Christ, loving service, and struggles for justice and peace (Baptismal Covenant, Book of Common Prayer, pp. 304-305)

God’s mission carries us across frontiers to encounter the new and the unfamiliar in our own communities and beyond. Every Episcopalian is called to cross frontiers, local or global. Mission is both “domestic” and “foreign.” We thus participate in God’s mission in the Episcopal Church, in the United States, within the Anglican Communion, and beyond. As we are called to go, so are others called to come and bear witness to Christ among us. We are both givers and receivers in God’s mission.

As missionaries, Christians are nourished by God’s Word and sacraments, and sent into the world in God’s name to bring hope, healing, and justice to a sinful, divided, and broken world. The God who is known in the Old and New Covenant works both through the established and through the surprising and unpredictable. The variable strategies and structures of the church have always been a response to new circumstances. As the world and its cultures change, so too should the vehicles by which God’s people present the gospel at home and to the ends of the earth.

EPGM Covenants
The four Covenants have been tested through a decade of experience in ECGM and are proposed as ongoing commitments of EPGM.

Partnership in Mission—In a spirit of respect and cooperation within the Body of Christ, we covenant to accept as a norm the receiving of appropriate invitation/permission from the relevant Anglican ecclesiastical authority, before engaging in a program or sending persons into an area where an Anglican body exists.

Theological Diversity—Desiring to avoid untested assumptions about one another, we will seek to understand our various mission theologies by committing time and resources to listen and talk together with honesty and mutual respect.

Unreached Peoples—We want to promote a vision throughout the Anglican Communion to work for the extension of the church among groups where the gospel of Christ is not known, both within Anglican dioceses and beyond Anglican dioceses.

Information Sharing—We covenant to share mission information on projects and procedures relative to recruiting, screening, selecting, training, and placing missionaries. We further covenant to explore ways of coordinating our activities in order to encourage cooperation and discourage unhealthy competitive attitudes in the world mission field.

Functions of EPGM
1 Affirm, facilitate, and provide recognition to all Episcopalians serving as missionaries.
1.1 Executive Council will recognize individually, as Episcopal Church missionaries, all missionaries sent by member organizations of EPGM, provided that mutually agreed upon standards are met and that EPGM ensures that comprehensive liability insurance is carried by member organizations and by EPGM.
1.2 EPGM will convene a consultative process to compare existing standards for qualifications, financial support, cross-cultural training, accountability, pastoral care, sexual misconduct prevention, health and liability insurance and re-entry, and from this process develop mutually agreed upon standards in these areas.
1.3 EPGM will oversee member organizations’ compliance with such standards.
1.4 EPGM will convene consultations on guidelines for short-term mission ventures.

2 Assist and encourage the sending of missionaries to the Episcopal Church USA from the Anglican Communion and wider church.
2.1 EPGM will establish for the receiving of missionaries from other churches standards for invitation by episcopal authority, hospitality, financial support, itineration, cultural orientation, housing, and insurance.
2.2 EPGM will coordinate networking among its organizations about missioners available for itineration in ECUSA.

3 Coordinate, publicize, and promote mission education across the Episcopal Church.
3.1 EPGM will establish a Mission Education Working Group from member organizations.
3.2 EPGM will coordinate development of mission education resources.
3.3 EPGM will acknowledge, celebrate and advance ECUSA’s unique and rich contributions to missiology (scholarship devoted to mission history, theology, and practice).
3.4 EPGM will help the church understand the new realities of Christianity’s strength in the global south.

4 Convene those working in particular geographic areas or people groups in order to develop coherent long-range strategies.
4.1 EPGM will plan consultations with international partners.
4.2 EPGM will develop pockets of expertise in geographical areas and issues of concern.

5 Advance new missionary approaches.
5.1 EPGM will encourage missionary outreach that promotes the development of self-supporting, self-governing, and self-propagating churches that honor the various cultural expressions of historic Christianity.
5.2 EPGM will develop new strategies in cooperation with ECUSA’s international partners, that are light in organization and responsive to needs.
5.3 EPGM will convene topical consultations in light of emerging needs, global developments, ecumenical conversations, and missiological thought.

6 Recognize that much of the global mission outreach of the Episcopal Church is carried out through congregations, dioceses, and voluntary societies and that the greatest opportunity for mission growth may be through such structures.
6.1 The EPGM story will be told through verbal presentations and written materials.
6.2 EPGM will establish a communication chain (such as a website) among EPGM member organizations, international partners, and others to facilitate referrals and cooperation.
6.3 EPGM will establish a speakers bureau.

7 Be a resource for the Standing Commission on World Mission (SCWM) in its task of proposing world mission policy for the General Convention.
7.1 Joint meetings will be held of SCWM and EPGM at least once in each triennium.
7.2 SCWM will be a member of EPGM.
7.3 EPGM will suggest to General Convention’s presiding officers candidates for SCWM membership.

8 Increase funding for global mission.
8.1 Increase funding within the General Convention Program Budget through a line item for EPGM in the AGR budget.
8.2 Seek funding beyond the General Convention Program Budget for agreed upon world mission projects across the church.

9 Affirm ecumenical partnerships in the one world mission of Christ.
9.1 Publicize existing world mission partnerships as models for local ecumenical cooperation.
9.2 Encourage ecumenical partnerships and participation in ecumenical associations of mission agencies in such areas as training, education, in-field collaboration, mission teams, and joint appointments.

Structure of EPGM
EPGM is a network of mission organizations, not individuals. An organization eligible for membership is one that sends missionaries, receives missionaries, educates for mission, advances mission strategies, or raises funds for international mission. Each organization subscribes to the EPGM Covenants. Each organization pays annual dues according to a sliding scale based on its operating budget, and membership entitles it to send two representatives to the EPGM annual meetings.

EPGM operates as a collaborative network. Major EPGM initiatives are developed through discussion at the EPGM annual meetings, but other initiatives arise through collaborations among members responding to emerging needs. EPGM leadership is non-hierarchical, and decision-making is by consensus rather than voting.

EPGM is guided by its Steering Committee, which is responsible for overseeing the network’s operations and unity, ensuring the maintenance of standards, encouraging the member organizations and implementing new ventures decided by the membership. Eight Steering Committee members are chosen by lot among all member representatives at the EPGM Annual Meeting. They serve for two years, with half the members chosen each year. The Convenor and Co-Convenor are chosen by the Steering Committee from among their own members, and the Co-Convenor succeeds the Convenor in the following term. The Steering Committee may ask a former Convenor to serve as a consultant.

The Partnership is assisted by a paid Administrator, whose role is to implement the directives of the Steering Committee and Convenor, to whom the Administrator is accountable. EPGM continues the non-profit status of ECGM as an organization under Section 501c3 of the Internal Revenue Code.

As a network, EPGM exercises accountability through mutual responsibility and interdependence in world mission in a number of central relationships: