As a result, says the report, conflict in the church primarily results from uncertainty over mission and tentativeness in leadership. "When Episcopalians disagree, confusion over means and ends is the most likely cause. Put starkly, while spirituality proves to be a key motivator, by themselves spiritual criteria is insufficient to clarify appropriate ends and the practices that attain them."

"While there is a consensus about the need for leadership development in the Episcopal Church, for clergy and laity, our research revealed confusion about leadership roles. We hear that instead of conducting ministry on behalf of others, clergy must become the mentors of the ministry of others - helping them to discern their gifts, to train for ministry and to support laity in the practice of their ministry. Lay people say they are uncertain how to live into their baptismal promises and must feel their way into more active leadership roles. Confusion about role and authority often leads to frustration."

The report said that while most respondents saw their congregations increasing in strength, they were critical of judicatories and the national church. They described their links with wider structures as ineffectual and growing weaker.

The report identified seven areas of weakness in the Episcopal Church.

1. The ideals of spirituality and community that predominate do not translate into coherent approaches to mission.

2. There is no clear relations between one's internal sense as a leader and leadership's external ends - the actions or practices to which those ends should give rise.

3. Despite the creative energy generated by references to spirituality, the implications of this interest for the church's identity lack clarity. The spiritual dimension is not clearly fused to practical dimensions of church life.

4. Current spiritual energies reflect incoherent grounding in historic Christian, and more particularly, Anglican belief and practice.

5. Alarmingly, there seems to be no theology of leadership among Episcopalians.

6. Incoherence magnifies the impact of conflict in the church.

7. By themselves, spiritual criteria are insufficient to clarify appropriate ends and the practices that might attain them.

The report offered no declarations about how to renew the church, but concluded that the present state of the church amounted to "creative incoherence" and that Episcopalians longed for, but were not getting, a focus on mission and much needed patterns of evangelism and education and a fresh attention to families, children, and people in need.

The Foundation’s purpose is to nurture the formation of religious leaders and develop the financial means necessary for the support of competent, compassionate and faithful ministry.

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