Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
This
is a survey sponsored by Episcopal Relief & Development about the proposed
Global Anglican Relief and Development Alliance (GARDA).
During
Lambeth 2008, the Bishops of The Anglican Communion recognized the worsening
issues of global poverty and recommended that Anglicans find ways to work
together more effectively for international relief and development.
Lambeth Palace then convened a representative group of Anglican professionals
from the field of relief and development. Out of that meeting grew a proposal
to form a Global Anglican Relief and Development Alliance, or GARDA, to
encourage enhanced collaboration and mutual accountability among Anglican
relief and development agencies and related community and Church organizations
working in development.
The
GARDA concept was endorsed at the level of the Primates Meeting and at the
Anglican Consultative Council in 2009.
Episcopal
Relief & Development was part of the Steering Committee that shaped the
GARDA proposal, and has been asked to prepare a formal response to this
proposal on behalf of The Episcopal Church. To this end, we are inviting
you to read the GARDA proposal and answer a survey of 18 questions. We
are formally sending this survey to the Episcopal Church Center staff,
Executive Council, The Standing Commission on World Mission, Episcopal Relief
& Development staff, the Episcopal Relief & Development Board of
Directors, and also offering it to any other interested members of our Church
for their feedback.
Please
respond by Wednesday, January 20th, 2010.
The
results of the survey and other discussions about GARDA will be collated into a
formal response to the Anglican Communion Office by the end of February, 2010.
Where
you feel you have specific insights to offer, then please respond accordingly.
You do not have to respond to every question. The entire GARDA proposal is
linked below. However, the sections where specific feedback is needed are
included in the body of the survey. It is therefore not necessary to read the
entire GARDA document, which is quite lengthy, unless you would like to.
While
we ask for identifying information at the opening of the survey, this is purely
for internal purposes to ensure that we have a representative sample of
interested constituencies. We will not disclose any personal information of
any respondent in the formal reply to the Anglican Communion Office. Your
answers are therefore confidential and you should feel free to be candid. If
you would prefer to offer your reflections verbally, please contact my office
at 212-716-6029 and we will arrange to have someone speak with you.