Instead, authority shifts away from an executive person and toward an executive committee . The language of shared authority and empowerment of the laity is fine on the surface, but nothing in particular is accomplished other than the obfuscation of power and the creation of yet more bureaucratic ineffectiveness. The nature of government by committee is clear. In most cases committees either follow the lead of a strong executive, submit to the leadership of its strongest voices or fumble along with no clear leadership at all. Ownership of responsibility is inherently confusing and obscured in committee decisions.
Accountability is virtually impossible in a committee system.
Its members are strangers to the Church at large and can remain virtually anonymous. Elected by General Convention, members of Executive Council are necessarily strangers to those who elect them. For many of its years, its existence and function have mattered very little. Since the 1960s, however, the church has become more 'federal' in appearance and in its programmatic efforts. This appearance of a federal programmatic church continues, but the reality is that there is a ground swell throughout the church to return to and resume a greater reliance upon the local parishes and congregations, and when necessary dioceses and provinces as the locus of the primary ministry, mission and program of the church.