09/04/2026
GEMN BOARD CALLS FOR EPISCOPAL CHURCH'S MISSIONARY-SENDING PROGRAMS TO BE CONTINUED
At its August 4 meeting, the GEMN Board approved the statement below concerning the future of the Episcopal Volunteers in Mission program and the Young Adult Service Corps. In response to an invitation to submit comments, the statement was sent to the Rev. Twila Smith, Senior Ministry Network Officer and Director of the Chapel of Christ the Lord in the Office of the Presiding Bishop. The GEMN Board invites responses and reflections from readers – write to [email protected].
GEMN BOARD CALLS FOR EPISCOPAL VOLUNTEERS IN MISSION & YOUNG ADULT SERVICE CORPS PROGRAMS TO BE CONTINUED
The purpose of the Global Episcopal Mission Network is to gather, inspire and equip people to participate in God’s global mission. Our core values are humility, inclusion and companionship. The network includes dioceses, agencies, congregations, seminaries, religious orders and individuals. Among its roles is advocacy for global mission in the church.
GEMN’s Board of Directors is aware that the Episcopal Volunteers in Mission program (EVIM) and the Young Adult Service Corps program (YASC) are being reviewed by the Episcopal Church leadership staff concerning their future.
The Board recommends strongly that these programs be continued and that they not be scaled back or discontinued. We offer the following reasons:
• Persons on Location Offer Christ’s Missional Presence – We live in an era when human interaction is increasingly moderated by the virtual realities of electronic communication and artificial intelligence. We also live in an era of increasing international polarization that has cultural, political and religious ramifications. People sent and received in mission offer, instead, personal and incarnate gospel presence over boundaries of culture, race, language, religion, nationality and economics. Today and for the last several decades, they do so in a spirit of companionship, in which they walk alongside, learning and growing with their companions – being with, not doing for. They do so in a spirit of pilgrimage, where the missional journey catalyzes growth in understanding who the triune God is and what it means to be human in community with others and with God. To discontinue EVIM and YASC on account of imperial attitudes of earlier generations of missionaries would be anachronistic, for companionship and mutuality have been keynotes of Episcopal missionary training and practice for decades.
• Longer-term Missioners Develop Relationships at Depth – Short-term mission teams from congregations, dioceses and agencies have broadened the base of cross-cultural engagement in the Episcopal Church. Their ministries have contributed much to companions and have enriched the spiritual experience of participants. The one-year commitments of YASC missioners and the three-year commitments of EVIMs, which can be extended when appropriate, provide opportunity to develop relationships at greater depth than those of short-term teams. People living and working for extended periods of time develop cultural, linguistic and religious knowledge that deepens relationships, makes their work more effective, and enhances relationships between the churches that are involved. In addition, longer-term missioners can provide support to short-term teams visiting in their areas.
• EVIM and YASC Enhance Inter-Anglican Understanding – Over the past 30 years, relationships between the Episcopal Church and some other Anglican provinces have been severely strained by controversies related to women’s ordination and human sexuality. The ensuing alienation has not been helped by a decrease in the number of Episcopal missioners serving in other Anglican provinces. When our Anglican companions experience Episcopalians living among them and devoting themselves to ministries in pastoral care, education, health care, creation care or justice work, they are less likely to view the Episcopal Church according to preconceived stereotypes.
• YASC is Fertile Ground for Future Church Leaders – In the 25 years since the founding of the Young Adult Service Corps in 2001, a high proportion of “YASCers” have taken on major lay and clergy leadership roles in the Episcopal Church. Their exposure to churches and other religions in other societies influenced this vocational development, and their current ministry is enhanced by their cross-cultural experience. Two striking examples are Bishop Austin Rios of the Diocese of California and Bishop-elect Adam Shoemaker of the Diocese of Long Island, the first two YASCers to be elected as bishops. Moreover, as the church continues to seek ways to engage young people, YASC is a key opportunity, alongside the Episcopal Service Corps.
• Aid Cutbacks Call for More, not Less, International Engagement by the Church – The dissolution of USAID by the current federal administration has had major negative impacts on vulnerable populations around the world, as have aid cutbacks by other rich Western nations. By comparison, the contributions of, say, 100 Episcopal longer-term missioners can seem insignificant and thus dispensable in filling the gap. Jesus’ parable of the mustard seed proclaims the opposite, that God’s realm begins with small things and grows miraculously. Moreover, a continuing Episcopal Church commitment to personal missional presence can be for our companions and for ourselves a sacrament of Christ’s solidarity amid world crises of hunger, war, displacement, climate change, and disease. EVIM and YASC can only enhance the Episcopal Church’s effort to have a “planet-wide” impact in its work.
• Sending Missioners Internationally is Best Handled on a Churchwide Basis – Until the 1970s, international mission was handled exclusively by DFMS. Since then, the Companion Diocese Movement and the involvement of congregations and new mission agencies have democratized global mission initiative in ways that we in GEMN celebrate. We likewise celebrate the church’s current emphasis on decentralization and on equipping dioceses for their ministries. Shifting responsibility for sending longer-term missioners to the dioceses, however, is not practical. Sending missioners is complicated, for it involves recruitment, screening, training, placement, administrative assistance in field, crisis management, returnee support and the like. Staffing infrastructure, pension support, health insurance, liability and other matters come into play. This is best managed on a churchwide basis, as it has been for almost 200 years, since the founding of DFMS in 1835. While dioceses have done well with companion diocese relationships, sending longer-term missionaries is likely to be a bridge too far for them, at least at this time.
• EVIM and YASC Deserve Priority in Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society (DFMS) Finance and Staffing – In the more distant past, missioners sent by DFMS were fully supported by DFMS as “appointed missionaries.” Beginning in the 1970s, those on a separate track of “Volunteers for Mission” (VFM) raised much of their support from congregations, dioceses, friends and family. This self-support model currently applies to EVIMs and YASCers, which minimizes the impact on the DFMS budget. Yes, the churchwide budget is under pressure from decreasing income and multiple needs, but for the reasons cited above it is appropriate that EVIM and YASC be prioritized for DFMS’s support in staffing, training, health insurance and travel. The 2025-27 Episcopal Church budget adopted by the 81st General Convention, and adopted by Executive Council in November 2024, included $515,000 for EVIM and $275,000 for YASC. These amounts represent 0.36% and 0.19% of the total budget of $143,191,158 – a very small investment for a very large return. We are aware that the number of applicants for these programs has declined in recent years. We believe analysis of the reasons for this decline can lead to a reinvigorated approach to recruitment.
• Missioners are Central to the Identity and History of DFMS – Conditions and priorities change over time, so an argument from history may be regarded as not so persuasive, yet it is still important. The term “missionary” in the name of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society signals that sending people on mission has been important since 1835. Some Western missionaries of the past have reflected the colonial attitudes of their imperial nations, including the USA. Yet the mission movement has nevertheless contributed much globally, particularly in education and healthcare, and especially in recent decades missionaries have worked in servanthood and companionship. As Christians we serve a missionary God who invites us to join God in mission on a global scale. As God’s mission culminated in becoming incarnate in Christ Jesus, so we are called to serve incarnationally with people around the world. EVIM and YASC express faithfulness to that call.
For these reasons, the GEMN Board calls for the EVIM and YASC programs to be continued and to receive support from the General Convention budget and from the church at large.
The Rev. Dr. Nancy Searby, President – Global Mission Advocate, Diocese of Virginia; Episcopal Relief & Development Ministry Partner, Diocese of Virginia
The Rev. Dr. Paul Rajan, Vice President – Chair, Global Mission Commission, Diocese of Newark; Member, Standing Commission on World Mission; Global Mission Advocate, Diocese of Newark
The Rev. Sister Sarah Margaret, SSM – Former Society of St. Margaret missionary in the Diocese of Haiti; Director of Associates, Society of St. Margaret
Mr. William Kunkle, Treasurer – Former DFMS missionary in the Dominican Republic; Executive Director, Province IX Development Group
The Rev. Canon Gail Avery – Chair, Global Mission Commission, Diocese of New Hampshire; former Maritime Missioner to Seafarers; Global Mission Advocate, Diocese of New Hampshire
The Rev. Dr. Meredith Crigler – Co-Chair, Global Partnerships in Mission, Diocese of Texas; Global Mission Advocate, Diocese of Texas
The Rev. Canon Robin Newman – Chair, Tanzania Task Force of Global Mission Commission, Diocese of New York; Honorary Canon, Diocese of Central Tanganyika; Global Mission Advocate, Diocese of New York
The Rev. Karla Reyes – Chancellor, Diocese of Honduras
The Rt. Rev. Alan Scarfe – Retired bishop of Iowa in companionships with Nzara, Eswatini and Brechin; former human rights activist in Romania; former Slavic Gospel Mission trainer of missionaries
Ms. Dulce Schuyler – Member, Global Partnerships in Mission, Diocese of Texas; Lay minister in the Diocese of Costa Rica
The Rev. Canon Helen Van Koevering – Chair, International Anglican Women’s Network; former missionary in the Diocese of Niassa, Mozambique
The Rev. Allan Wallace – Chair, Global Mission Commission, Diocese of Indianapolis
The Rev. Canon Dr. Titus Presler, Executive Director – Former DFMS missionary in Diocese of Manicaland, Zimbabwe, and missionary in Diocese of Peshawar, Pakistan; Honorary canon theologian, Diocese of Central Pennsylvania; Global Mission Advocate, Diocese of Vermont
