[Episcopal Church Office of Public Affairs press release] The Taskforce for Reimagining The Episcopal Church (TREC) has issued a message following the October 2 churchwide meeting.

We want to thank everyone who participated in our churchwide meeting last Thursday evening. More than 140 people attended in person at Washington National Cathedral and over 4,000 people tuned into a live webcast of the meeting.  English and Spanish language recordings of the entire meeting can be found on TREC’s website:reimaginetec.org.  A recording with a closed captioning transcript will be posted as soon as it is ready.  We are grateful to Washington National Cathedral and to Trinity Church, Wall Street for supporting this meeting and our work.

Following the churchwide meeting, members of the taskforce met in Washington, D.C. for two days to review the questions and feedback that we received prior to, during, and after the churchwide meeting.  Questions and comments were received via Twitter, Facebook, web-posts, email, blogs, and in-person discussions. 

We are very grateful for the thoughtful responses and inquiries about our work, and we appreciate the challenges to the thinking that we have published to-date.  During this final in-person meeting together, we found ourselves in deep and prayerful discussion about issues of discipleship, shared leadership, and change as we continued to shape our final recommendations.

TREC’s final report will be sent to the General Convention office by the end of November, and it will be released to the Church as soon as Spanish and French language translations are complete.  TREC’s final report will contain specific recommendations to the 78th General Convention in Salt Lake City, Utah in July 2015.

We ask for your continued prayers as we complete our work:

Holy Spirit, who broods over the world, fill the hearts and minds of your servants on the Taskforce for Reimagining The Episcopal Church with wisdom, clarity and courage.  Work in them as they examine and recommend reforms for the structure, governance and administration of this branch of the one holy catholic and apostolic Church.  Help them propose reforms to more effectively proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ, to challenge the world to seek and serve Christ in all persons—loving our neighbors as ourselves and to be a blazing light for the kind of justice and peace that leads to all people respecting the dignity of every human being. Be with The Episcopal Church that we all may be open to the challenges that this Taskforce will bring to us—and help the whole church to discern your will for our future.  In the name of Jesus Christ our Mediator, on whose life this Church was founded.  AMEN