From the Senior Warden

Dear Parishioners,

Recently, questions have arisen about our parish's involvement, including financial, with the proposed moratorium on the death penalty in North Carolina.

To sum up our role, the vestry in October 1999 endorsed enactment of a moratorium on capital punishment in North Carolina until a study could be done on the equity of the death penalty and its application in North Carolina. In 2000, the vestry provided $25,000 for a study by the UNC School of Law on administration of the death penalty in North Carolina. This year, at the May vestry meeting, we agreed to provide another $5,000 to $8,000 for a follow-up study. We also voted to provide $10,000 to People of Faith Against the Death Penalty, the main advocacy group seeking an end to capital punishment in North Carolina and a moratorium on its use. One of our Johnson Interns for the coming year will work for People of Faith as part of his service commitment under the program. The funding in 2000 and this year comes entirely from two large gifts made to the parish by a parishioner who asked that these amounts go for the designated death penalty uses.

It is always a delicate matter for churches to take on issues of the times, because by taking any kind of position we run the risk of offending members of our congregation who hold different viewpoints. But I think it is the responsibility of the Church to provide leadership in addressing the moral issues of our day. That is certainly the case with the death penalty. It is a matter on which many of us may disagree, but it is an issue of moral dimensions on which it is appropriate for the Church to take a position.

Our reasoning is this: Our baptismal covenant calls on us to respect the dignity of every human being and to commit ourselves to strive for justice and peace among all people. There is continuing evidence that the death penalty is applied unjustly in the United States and in North Carolina. The 2001 UNC study, which we helped fund, found that the likelihood of receiving the death penalty is affected by race of the victim. The study looked at all 4,000 cases of homicide in North Carolina in the years 1993-1997 and found that defendants whose victims were white were 3.5 times more likely to receive the death penalty than those whose victims were non-white.

We have ample cause for our involvement. The Episcopal Church on at least five occasions has adopted resolutions opposing capital punishment, including one in 1999 that “urges the provinces, dioceses, parishes, missions and individual members of this Church to engage in serious study on the subject of capital punishment and work actively to abolish the death penalty in their states.” Our diocese of North Carolina, through its annual convention, has several times upheld this position, and the last three bishops of the diocese have gone on record opposing the death penalty.

The Chapel of the Cross has taken an active leadership role in this effort. The ground-breaking UNC study that we funded has been cited in The New York Times, The Washington Post and other national media. State Senator Ellie Kinnaird, a parishioner, was the chief sponsor of the moratorium legislation that passed the state Senate this year, and we're hopeful that it passes the House next year. Vestry member Dick Taylor, executive director of the N.C. Academy of Trial Lawyers, is a leader of the legislative lobbying effort.

I would like to make clear that none of the funding that is going to the death penalty activity comes from parishioners' pledges. The contributions in 2000 and again this year came from one parishioner who stated his desire that the funding go for capital punishment work. Those amounts were part of larger gifts that support many other missions of the parish.

The vestry considers it important that we communicate openly with the parish about these matters of potential controversy. We welcome your comments and input, via mail,
e-mail, telephone, or otherwise.

Yours in Christ,

Ted Vaden

Senior Warden

People of Faith Against the Death Penalty
www.pfadp.org

Episcopal Church USA
www.episcopalchurch.org