Executive Council Tackles Revenue Shortfall; Greets Evidence of Membership Increase
Episcopal News Service. March 5, 1992 [92053]
Facing a significant revenue shortfall for the 1992 national program budget, the Episcopal Church's Executive Council responded as any local vestry would -- it adopted a plan to meet the immediate crisis and began to address long-range concerns.
While council members were resigned to cut the national program budget as the economic recession buffeted the church, they were also buoyed with positive signs in the recent parochial reports that registered a net increase in membership during 1990.
"We are focusing on enabling the dioceses and parishes for ministry, and we celebrate the fact that the ministry of local congregations is growing ever stronger," said Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning in his address from the chair to the February 24-28 meeting in Milwaukee. (See full text of address in the Newsfeatures section.)
Browning challenged council members to take seriously their role as planners for the wider church. "We are responsible for discerning the signs of the times," he said. "We need to map the terrain as we plan for the future."
The Executive Council must continue to address concerns of the local church, Browning said, "facing and prudentially anticipating the economic realities. We must pay attention to where the needs are and how we can respond. We must look at the problems, knowing that we are called to be part of the solution."
Browning noted that the first significant step to trim operating costs took place last fall, when the national staff was reduced by 52 positions. "The reorganization and downsizing that took place last fall after General Convention have committed us to making creative changes in how we do business," he said.
In an extensive report to the 38-member council, church treasurer Ellen Cooke said that responses from 75 of the church's 119 dioceses indicated an approximate $3 million shortfall in contributions to the national program.
Cooke presented an annotated summary of each diocese in the church, citing three factors that contributed to reduced financial support: dioceses and parishes were funding more local projects, the national economic recession was squeezing funds at all levels of the church, and four dioceses were withholding funds to register dissatisfaction with perceived liberal trends in the church.
In response to a plan outlined by the presiding bishop and refined by the council's standing committee on administration and finance, the council unanimously adopted an amended budget for 1992 that included
- support for the current national staff at 100 percent of the budget adopted by the 70th General Convention. (However, 10 vacant positions on the staff will not be filled unless additional funds are received.);
- support for overseas and domestic dioceses at 95 percent of the budget -- including the diocesan ministries of the Episcopal Council on Indian Ministries and Coalition 14, black colleges, ecumenical partners (National Council of Churches, World Council of Churches, and the Anglican Consultative Council), direct support of partnerships with dioceses in the Anglican Communion, and Episcopal Life;
- support for program priorities at 65.4 percent of the 1992 budget. (A reallocation of funds based on program priorities will be proposed by the presiding bishop and his staff, and will be presented for approval at the next meeting of the council in June.)
Although the full details of the reallocation will not be complete until late March, the chair of the committee on administration and finance, Canon Roswell Moore of Northern California, suggested that national programs that support "resource material development, networking, and direct grants to dioceses" may feel the budget cuts most directly.
One member of the council warned that the budget cuts could have a drastic impact on the church's mission. "I think every sensitivity must be utilized that [the budget cuts] are not a further erosion of confidence that the Episcopal Church be identified with the downtrodden," said the Rev. Austin Cooper of Cleveland.
In a move similar to letters written by parish stewardship committees, the council voted to send a message to all bishops and deputies of the church expressing gratitude for the "sacrificial commitment of the dioceses in accepting their apportionment," but recognizing "a sense of frustration by some dioceses" that feel excluded from access to the decision-making structures of the church at the national level.
However, the council expressed "deep regret" that, after budgets have been adopted by the General Convention, "some dioceses would choose not to accept their apportioned fair share as a form of protest" and that "some dioceses are unilaterally determining their own methods of establishing their fair share for the support of the national church in contradiction to the plan for apportionment and assessment adopted by the General Convention."
Several council members warned that a decision by dioceses to withhold funding sets a bad precedent for stewardship. "This is destructive to the polity of the Episcopal Church," said Bishop Charlie McNutt of Central Pennsylvania.
Despite the shaky economic picture, 1990 parochial reports showed that the Episcopal Church had reversed a decades-long gradual decline in membership. New statistics show that the church increased membership from 2,442,172 to 2,446,050 -- or an increase of.5 percent. (See separate story.)
Calling the figures "bits of encouragement," Canon Roswell Moore pointed out that financial contributions per household per week increased across the board, and "church school enrollment is up across the country."
"There is a great deal of vitality in the life of this church, an enormous amount of energy," Browning said during a conversation with the press. "Turning a curve [in the membership decline] witnesses to that fact. I think the increase will continue," he said.
Browning credited "a focus and understanding of the baptismal covenant and the ministry of the laity during the last decade" for the membership growth.
Many council members credited a retreat prior to the Milwaukee meeting for laying the groundwork to make tough decisions. The three-day retreat, part of the council's long-range planning process, sought to tap faith stories and stories about local mission in a process to establish long-range goals.
Bishop Ruston Kimsey of Eastern Oregon, chair of the council's standing committee on planning and development, said that the retreat "created an environment to listen to God and one another in ways that build trust...that would help us decide on future issues for the church." He said that the retreat affirmed the baptismal covenant as the "linchpin and barometer for mission discernment issues and how they affect the budget for the next triennium."
"There is no substitute for coming together in prayer, silence, Bible study, and the sharing of faith journeys to build trust," Kimsey added. "The council put in practice what we long to see in the church -- as many voices as possible speaking to one another in that kind of environment."
One result of the retreat, Kimsey said, was a recognition that the council needs to develop a closer relationship with dioceses. "We need to hear first-hand what is happening on the local level, and how we on the national level can affirm that mission."
After five ballots, Bishop Mark Dyer of Bethlehem (PA) was elected to serve as the episcopal representative to the Anglican Consultative Council. Dyer will fill the position previously held by Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning. Bishop James Ottley of Panama will serve as alternate to Dyer.
In other action, the council adopted resolutions
- calling upon the United States government to halt repatriation of Haitian refugees and granting them Temporary Protected Status;
- joining the Anglican Church of Canada in opposition to the proposed James Bay II Project, a vast network of hydroelectric power plants that would threaten environmental destruction and damage the culture and livelihood of indigenous peoples;
- urging dioceses, clergy, vestries, and local congregations to encourage cable TV companies to carry the Vision Interfaith Satellite Network (VISN); and
- approving invitations to 18 persons representing Anglican and ecumenical partners to attend the upcoming Partners in Mission Consultation next spring.