P. B. Fund Board Makes $250,000 in Grants
Episcopal News Service. April 23, 1976 [76151]
GREENWICH, Conn. -- The Board of Directors for the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief, meeting here April 19-20, received a progress report on earthquake rehabilitation work in Guatemala; heard a presentation on tie work of the Appalachian People's Service Organization (APSO); discussed a preliminary report on administrative costs for the Fund; and allocated over $250,000 in grants.
The Rt. Rev. Edmund L. Browning, executive for national and world mission, gave the Board an eyewitness progress report on rebuilding in Guatemala in the wake of February's earthquake. Bishop Browning said that the primary concern of Guatemala's Bishop Anselmo Carral is ministering to the needs of the people, with the rebuilding of damaged or destroyed churches a secondary worry.
The Presiding Bishop's Fund has two officially sponsored coordinators working on the Guatemala disaster. Robert M. Ayres, Jr., of San Antonio, Tex., is coordinating direct U.S. Episcopal Church response; and the Rev. Raymond K. Riebs, rector of St. Jude's Church, Burbank, Calif., is on special short-term assignment in Guatemala to work with Bishop Carral in rehabilitation efforts, particularly the building of low-cost homes in critically hit areas. Fr. Riebs is scheduled to return to the U. S. April 30.
The Board reported that as of March 31 the Fund had received $249,877.75 earmarked for Guatemala, in response to a special appeal from Presiding Bishop John M. Allin.
In the area of domestic need, the Rev. R. Baldwin Lloyd, executive director of APSO, outlined the work of the major development programs, sponsored directly by the Episcopal Church through APSO and ecumenically through the Commission on Religion in Appalachia (CORA), for the urban and rural poor of the Appalachian Mountain states. At its February meeting the Fund's Board allocated $100,000 for the development work of APSO.
Bishop Furman W. Stough of Alabama, speaking for the Board's special work group on administrative costs, gave a preliminary progress report on the Board's attempt to determine a realistic figure of what it costs to operate the Presiding Bishop's Fund, including identification of overhead costs in agencies to which the Fund contributes. Bishop Stough said that his work group was also making a cost analysis of such items as staff time shared with other offices, such as communication and finance, at the Church Center in New York. The Board affirmed the principle that when these costs are accurately determined, they should be fully revealed to the Church.
The Board also passed a resolution allocating a maximum of $80,000 for Fund operating costs in 1977, if these monies cannot be provided by the Executive Council in next year's General Church Program budget.
The Board also made the following grants, totaling $251,034.53:
Chicago -- $10,000 for St. Augustine's Center for American Indians, Inc., emergency food project. The grant is earmarked for the purchase of food, contingent upon the Center's preparation of a viable distribution plan. St. Augustine's is a social agency of the Diocese of Chicago.
Missionary Diocese of Costa Rica -- $4,250 for a Chilean Refugee Day Care Center, and $3,750 for the Bo Cuba Nutrition Center for poor families. Both grants will be matched with equal amounts from Church World Service.
Missionary Diocese of El Salvador -- $34,000 to the CREDHO legal aid program for peasants and the underprivileged in urban areas.
Gambia (Diocese of Gambia and the Rio Pongas, Province of West Africa) -- $50,000 for the Anglican Vocational Training Center at Farafennieh; funded in conjunction with the Primate's World Relief and Development Fund of the Anglican Church of Canada.
Georgia -- up to $5,000 to the Citizens' Coalition on Hunger, to provide temporary assistance to those in need, primarily in the Atlanta area, and to create educational programs, to be matched with contributions from the Dioceses of Atlanta and Georgia.
Haiti -- $4,000 to Service Cretien d'Haiti for a women's cottage, industry project, channeled through Church World Service.
Hawaii -- $3,000 toward operating costs of the Immigrant Service Center, St. Elizabeth's Church, Honolulu. The center aids immigrants (mostly Asians) in finding housing, employment and community services, and in learning English.
Malawi (Dioceses of Lake Malawi and Southern Malawi, Province of Central Africa) -- $34,865 to the Anglican Medical Board to assure 1976 budget for the work of Anglican hospitals and clinics, which represent 70 per cent of the medical facilities in the country.
Missouri -- $3,000 as a two-year grant to the Food Crisis Network, St. Louis. The Network, composed of 57 emergency food distribution systems and centers, provides food for more than 10,000 destitute persons per month.
Mississippi -- $20,000 to Madison County Churches United for Disaster Relief, recovery program for Canton tornado.
North Carolina -- $10,000 to the N. C. Hunger Coalition for food stamp outreach, legislative alert and monitoring.
Religious TV Associates -- up to $10,000 in ecumenically shared production costs for an educational film on reconstruction work in the Sahel region of Africa, in the wake of the Sub-Saharan drought.
Church of the Province of the Sudan -- up to $12,000 for a landrover for one diocese of this newly created Province of the Anglican Communion, where transportation is a critical need as the country rebuilds after civil war.
Washington State -- $20,000 to the Hunger Response project; enabling funds for a program of ecumenical food distribution in the Dioceses of Olympia and Spokane.
The Board also gave approval for grants to three educational agencies working in the hunger field:
Bread for the World -- $5,000; Food Research and Action Center -- $7,500; and the Interreligious Task Force on U. S. Food Policy -- $10,000. The Board also approved the following interim emergency grants:
Arizona -- $1,000 to the Salt River Indian Community, Scottsdale, for emergency feeding of the elderly in the Pima-Maricopa Tribe.
Arizona -- $1,500 to the St. Nicholas Indian Center, Tucson, to help meet emergency food needs for eight Indian groups in the Tucson area.
Interchurch Medical Assistance -- $169.53 in shipping charges for medical supplies sent to the Diocese of the Southern Philippines.
Diocese of Mississippi -- $2,000 in emergency relief following the tornado in Canton.