Linguistic Diversity and Evangelism
Resolution text
Resolved, That the Executive Council, meeting in Linthicum Heights, Maryland from June 10-13, 2019, mindful of the considerable linguistic diversity within The Episcopal Church and its worshipping communities, and desiring to equip our worshipping communities with appropriate Scriptural and liturgical resources to worship in their native languages (including sign languages for hearing impaired communities) as an important way to advance the spread of the Gospel, requests that The General Convention Office have staff or an appropriate contractor analyze information from the 2018 Parochial Reports to report to Executive Council and the wider church about the number of congregations who host or conduct worship in a language other than English (including sign language for hearing impaired congregations), the languages used, and to the extent the data can be readily gathered, information on whether these congregations have prayer books authorized by The Episcopal Church or another province of the Anglican Communion in their language, and whether these congregations have the full Scriptures in their native language; and be it further
Resolved, That to the extent reasonably feasible, it is requested that the above report include the number of congregations lacking either or both (a) Scriptures in their native language and (b) an authorized version of the BCP in their native language, together with estimates of the cost and effort needed to assure that these Scriptural and BCP resources are made available to such congregations and to those intending to begin mission work in these linguistic communities, and be it further
Resolved, That if a full report is not available, we request an interim report two weeks in advance of the October Meeting using currently available data.