Council Adopts $31.6 Million Budget
Episcopal News Service. November 20, 1986 [86246]
NEW YORK (DPS, Nov. 20) -- The Executive Council of the Episcopal Church has approved a $31.6 million Program Development budget for 1987; a $4 million increase over current spending plans. At the same meeting, however, Council made it clear that it hopes to revamp budget making and the way in which the Church raises its funds in the future.
The budget is based on estimated apportionment income from the dioceses of $24.6 million which marks an increase of slightly less than $2.3 million over the 1986 apportionment. The increase for next year was set at $1.5 million, which will be the smallest in five years.
It is partly that last figure and partly a sense that funds are dictating priorities -- rather than the opposite -- which led Council to vow that it will devote time at its next two meetings to exploring the entire budget process with an eye to approaching the 1988 General Convention in Detroit with a realistic plan for meeting mission needs into the next decade.
Most of the new funds are spread in small increments among the existing staff units. The only major increase is in world mission funding, which will rise $2.5 million from $9.4. This will be reflected in some new staff and in added support for overseas ministries, Anglican Communion, Partnership programs, support for Episcopal dioceses outside the United States and some increases in ecumenical commitments. As in recent past years, much of the budget increase overall will be absorbed in staff costs and the fixed costs of operation for the Center.
On the income side, the major sources -- apart from income from the dioceses -- are trust fund investments, which are expected to be little changed over the current year, and income reserved from the 1985 budget balance, which will amount to $700,000. In line with Council action last June, a recovery from the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief to cover its administrative and staff costs is now counted as part of the budget.
Creating the budget this year followed the pattern that has been in effect for all of the 1980's. Income is projected based on the formula approved by General Convention of a fixed percentage of parish net disposable budget income -- a formula known to the Church well in advance -- and estimates of the income from other sources. These projections are derived in consultation with officers of the Convention's Program Budget and Finance Committee. At the same time that the income is being ascertained, other staff are developing their asking plans. These, this year, amounted to almost $34.7 million.
By canon, Council must produce a balanced budget. As the next step, then, unit administrators, executive staff and Presiding Bishop Edmond Lee Browning and senior executive George McGonigle spent two days in conference paring down the askings. These were then taken into a conference of senior staff and two members of each Council committee which produced the final -- balanced -- recommendation.
This proposal was mailed to Council members before they gathered for the meeting last week at the Church Center. The budget proposal was formally introduced the first day, and the Council committees spent much of that first day considering it before it was passed, unchanged, in a late afternoon vote.
It was during those committee sessions and the final passage that many on Council voiced the hope -- also voiced by Browning -- that the new staff and Council can develop a process that allows a close scrutiny and testing of mission needs and priorities in collaboration with staff and Convention officials before actual dollars are assessed. The current system has permitted an increased level of Council, staff and Convention interaction, to the point where historic rows of the 1960's and 1970's are unknown. What emerges is a true consensus budget, but one that leaves little room for radical innovation. Now, the new Council has a year of experience behind it, Browning's "year of listening" is drawing to a close and his senior staff is complete and taking control. It seems likely that all of this will result in a reshaped sense of mission which will emerge slowly as the Council makes plans to engage the Church in its call at the Detroit Convention 20 months from now.
One factor that may help reshape the way the Church raises and allocates funds is a sense that the formula that has worked so well throughout the decade is reaching the limit of its useful life.
Stewardship executive the Rev. Thomas Carson told the Council that under the formula, there would be no new money for national program for either 1988 or 1989. This is because the formula sets a cap on the percentage that can be realistically assessed. Although giving to parishes has increased dramatically, so have local costs and local response to mission and ministry needs. Therefore, less of the money is reaching dioceses, but they are still assessed on the basis of what the parishes take in.
As currently operating, the formula was created to erase inequities among the dioceses and make their planning easier. Although it meant a heavy strain on many dioceses, the response has been increasingly positive. Now, only a few dioceses fail to meet their assigned apportionment. However, it was known at the start of the decade that the formula would have to be re-addressed at some point.