Presiding Bishop's Fund Adopts '76 Budget, Announces Current Grants
Episcopal News Service. February 19, 1976 [76073]
Greenwich, Conn. -- The Board of the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief, meeting here immediately prior to the February 18-19 Executive Council meeting, adopted a working budget of $2,812,576 for 1976. This figure represents funds received and anticipated in general and designated contributions, special world hunger contributions, and the balance of a gift from the Diocese of Rochester to be used for the "disaster-stricken of the world."
Following criteria established by the Board, the budget allocates 50 percent of its total for rehabilitation and development, or general response; 30 percent for immediate relief, or crisis response, including the resettlement of refugees from many parts of the world; 10 percent for educational programs through such programs as the Episcopal Church's Hunger Task Force and the Domestic Hunger and Poverty working group of the National Council of Churches; and a maximum of 10 percent for administrative and promotional costs, including authorization for the services of a consultant to make an objective analysis and evaluation of the agencies through which the Fund has traditionally operated.
Included in the rehabilitation and development category are rural health programs, community and agricultural projects, technical assistant to underdeveloped nations, post-disaster rehabilitation, responsible family planning programs under church auspices, and leadership training projects. Many of the grants in this category are channeled through ecumenical agencies.
Mrs. Howard O. Bingley, executive director of the Fund, noted that "significantly larger amounts" are earmarked in the 1976 budget for "response to rehabilitation and development work within the Episcopal Church at home and overseas, and throughout the Anglican Communion." This principle was evidenced by a Fund grant of $100,000 to the Appalachian People's Service Organization (APSO), for Episcopal Church sponsored development programs in the depressed areas of the eastern U.S. APSO is sponsored by 13 Episcopal dioceses.
The Fund received record-breaking contributions in 1975, totaling $2,674,363.59. Mrs. Bingley expressed the hope that the giving momentum would be sustained in 1976 as the Church continued to develop its consciousness of the root causes of hunger and poverty around the world.
The Board announced the following additional grants:
Emergency Grants:
Cyprus -- $2,000 for shoes for refugee children; channeled through Church World Service (CWS).
Guatemala -- earthquake disaster relief: $20,000 to the Missionary Diocese of Guatemala; $90,000 for the ecumenical relief efforts of CWS.
Lebanon -- $4,000 in emergency relief for Anglican Arabs.
Diocese of Olympia (state of Washington) -- $5,000 to cover transportation costs of ecumenical emergency food program.
Diocese of Southwestern Virginia -- $2,000 for an inner city afterschool program sponsored by St. Paul's Church, Lynchburg.
Rehabilitation, Development, and Education Grants:
Africa Legal Assistance Project -- $10,000 to the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights under Law, Washington, D.C., for a program to enhance the rights of blacks in South Africa.
Colombia -- $15,000 for farm animals, supplies and equipment for a rural development program; channeled through CODEL, a consortium of Anglican, Roman Catholic and Protestant mission agencies.
Lesotho -- $7,500 in scholarship aid to an agricultural training program for school dropouts; through Agricultural Missions, Inc.
Louisville United Against Hunger -- $1,000 support for ecumenical program to generate response to domestic and overseas hunger.
Meals For Millions Foundation -- $3,600 in scholarship aid to train overseas food technologists.
Missionary Diocese of The Northern Philippines -- $750 for farm animals, supplies and related costs for the St. Anne's Mission cattle development program at Besao.
Panama -- $2,925 for the Goodwill Industries sewing machine project, to train the handicapped for employment; through CWS.
South Africa (Anglican Diocese of Grahamstown) -- $10,000 for a community development project.
Turkey -- $6,000 to help cover living costs for a field worker at the Diyarbakir development project; through CWS.
Church of the Province of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi & Boga-Zaire -- $12,215 for Boga-Zaire health projects; $34,000 for Christian Rural Service Program; $100,000 for ranch development; $10,000 to the Anglican Province's development program, to cover part of the cost of two vehicles for field appraisal work (through CWS).
Virginia -- $3,000 to assist in sponsorship of the Tidewater Hunger Conference.
Diocese of Zambia -- $9,000 for vocational training at the Waddington Training Center, Lusaka.