wfn.org | [ENS] PB&F presents budget to joint session

["Mika Larson" <mini_mika@earthlink.net>]

August 6, 2003

PB&F presents budget to joint session
$146 million projected for next triennium

by James Thrall

[ENS] To the rocking strains of "[Money] Can't Buy Me Love" and "It's
Been A Hard Day's Night" by the Beatles, volunteers passed out copies of
the proposed national budget for the next triennium to deputies and
bishops gathered for a joint session Wednesday afternoon.

"As we say in Detroit, this is where the rubber hits the road," said
Bonnie Anderson, of the Diocese of Michigan and chair of the Joint
Standing Committee on Program, Budget and Finance (PB&F) that presents
the proposed budget to convention. Deputies and bishops will vote
separately to approve the budget during their regular legislative
sessions Thursday.

Anderson praised the hard work of her committee, which adjusts a
suggested budget from Executive Council in response to emphases that
emerge at General Convention. She said the former chair, Vince Currie of
Central Gulf Coast, used to use Mark 6:31 to describe the committee's
labors: "For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to
eat."

The budget of almost $146.4 million reflects the basic principles of
"diversity, inclusivity and sharing of power" that underlie the five
budget priorities of young adults and youth, reconciliation and
evangelism, congregational transformation, justice and peace and
partnerships with other churches of the Anglican Communion, other
denominations and faith groups, Anderson said.

She observed that the priorities intersect and overlap, "creating a
holistic approach to our mission," which she called "relational, like we
are."

As an example, she pointed out that ministry with young adults and youth
"permeates our ministry in congregational transformation" as well as in
reconciliation and evangelism. "It goes into our priority for peace and
justice as we try to eradicate the sin of racism which hurts and
marginalizes our young people of color," she said.

The budget breakdown therefore will "show you where the money will be
'housed' in the budget," she told the bishops and deputies, but "the
actual implementation of the ministry that the funds support will begin
to enable a more relational, comprehensive method" of addressing the
priorities.

In his comments opening the session, Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold
urged the bishops and deputies to "look beyond" the figures to see how
they "reflect very specific and concrete ways in which we are committing
ourselves to engaging God's mission." 

First, "Executive Council and now PB&F have sensed the needs and the
great energies among us for mission," he said. "The priorities on which
this budget is based reflect those needs and those energies."

Diocesan contributions to the national budget are expected to be 21
percent of the diocesan income, after a $100,000 exclusion. The fact
that 61 percent of dioceses are giving at that 21 percent level or
higher "says a very great deal about the health and vitality of our
church and our clear understanding that we are members one of another,"
Griswold said. "We are not a series of freestanding bodies but one body
of many limbs engaged in one mission, one work, one holy project,
namely, the unleashing of God's reconciling love upon our desperate and
needy world."

Griswold said he is "profoundly grateful" for the "sacrificial
generosity" of those dioceses that meet their asking and "also for those
dioceses and their congregations that are seeking to move toward the 21
percent goal." 

He proposed a challenge, suggesting that "if every diocese currently
giving below the 21 percent asking were to give their full
apportionment, we would be able to fund every resolution before the
convention."

He also stressed that his awareness of "the generosity and sense of
commitment to our common mission that is being expressed by the people
of this church" makes him "all the more sensitive to the need for
careful stewardship on your behalf as the mission is expressed through
national programs."

Bishop Russell Jacobus of Fond du Lac, vice chair of PB&F, used slides
to illustrate how the budget would be affected if all dioceses
contributed at at least the 21 percent level. The currently projected
income of $146,395,000 would jump to $160,646,816, or more than the
$158,070,169 requested in all General Convention resolutions. "We would
have to find new initiatives to spend the surplus of $2.5 million."

Nineteen dioceses increased their giving between their pledge for the
year 2000 and the year 2003, Jacobus said. He singled out five dioceses
- Central Gulf Coast, Connecticut, Los Angeles, Minnesota and Newark -
as giving consistently above the 21 percent level.

Anderson said that while PB&F has not changed the total amount of the
budget they were given by Executive Council, they are proposing moving
funds between areas of the budget.

Budget increases

Increases totaling $1,454,000 are proposed in:

-- Ministries With Young People, $1,000,000 
-- Overseas dioceses, $150,000 
-- Jubilee Ministries grants, $150,000 
-- Multicultural and multilingual liturgies for "new" populations,
$130,000 
-- General Board of Examining Chaplains, $24,000
-- Budget decreases

Reductions totaling $1,424,000 are proposed in:

-- Program ministries support, $200,000 
-- Communication, $300,000 
-- Office of the Presiding Bishop, $50,000 
-- House of Bishops, $48,000 
-- House of Deputies, $25,000 
-- General Convention site and facilities, $50,000 
-- Committees, Commissions, Agencies and Boards, $290,000 
-- Archives, $50,000 
-- Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations, $50,000 
-- Office of Pastoral Development, $41,000 
-- Office of the Chief Operating Office, $30,000 
-- Human Resources Department, $30,000 
-- Controller's Office, $15,000 
-- Treasurer's Office, $75,000 
-- Telecommunications, $100,000 
-- Building Services, $100,000
-- Budget allocations

As proposed, the $146,395,000 budget for the triennium allocates funds
to the following areas:

-- Canonical (includes such ministries as the Office of the Presiding
Bishop, Office for Ministry Development, Ecumenical and Interfaith
Relations), $28,115,000 
-- Mission Program (includes such ministries as Anglican and global
relations, ethnic congregational development and women's ministries,
peace and justice ministries, ministries with young people), $46,618,000

-- Mission Block Grant Partnerships (includes such ministries as
overseas partnerships and covenants, ecumenical appropriations,
Episcopal Relief and Development), $30,393,000 
-- Office of Communication (includes such ministries as media services,
Episcopal Life, Episcopal Book and Resource Center), $15,702,000 
-- Corporate (includes such ministries as Office of Chief Operating
Officer, Treasurer's Office, Human Resource Management,
Telecommunications), $25,567,000

Income

Income for the triennium (equal to allocations) is projected from the
following sources:

-- Diocesan commitments, $90,487,000 
-- Investment and interest income, $30,831,000 
-- Other income (includes government grants to Episcopal Migration
Ministries and income earned by Episcopal Life, Episcopal Parish
Services, and Episcopal Book and Resource Center), $25,077,000