'Slow, agonizing death' Or 'Is anyone doing anything?'

Another interesting post from the Crusty Old Dean, this time he's having a go at the Episcopal Church's next budget: It's All Over But the Shouting: Annotated Budget.  


Noting the "the pain, distress, confusion, and lack of trust in our governance that this process has created", Dean Ferguson says that he is

past asking for any semblance of accountability for mistakes made, or for putting any kind of procedures in place to make sure past errors can be corrected.  As predicted in a previous post, there will be absolutely no accountability of any kind for anything that has happened thus far.  

I confess that I haven't thought much about TEC's governance or about the national church's budget in my brief time as a priest.  I am way too worried about my local ministry to be bothered.  Hell, I find worrying about the structures and processes in my local congregation so "painful, distressing, confusing, and distrustful" (to paraphrase the Dean), that I don't feel like looking for more trouble.  But I am becoming more and more convinced that the Church as I know it is working solely in survival mode and/or is in some kind of a death spiral.  When we focus on administration, buildings, and maintaining programs that merely keep those of us already here around (otherwise, they would have been reaching out to people all along, right?), what else is happening?


I am frustrated....  I desperately want to focus on being a missionary priest in a culture that no longer takes Christianity seriously.  Sad thing is, I need that paycheck and a pension (oh, and the health insurance, can't forget the health insurance).  And I really don't know if the Presiding Bishop (who I met and liked immensely) or any of the others in charge at 815 (that is, the Episcopal Church Center at 815 Second Ave., New York) are doing well by the Episcopal Church or not.  Unfortunately, the slow, agonizing death of the United Methodist Church sounds all too familiar (and my friends in the ELCA, the PCUSA, and elsewhere report the same story).  What is 815 or General Convention doing to empower the local dioceses and congregations to live out our mission?  Anything?  Anything at all?