Episcopal Press and News

Income Side of Budget Discussed by Council

Diocesan Press Service. May 3, 1973 [73127]

GREENWICH, Conn. -- "What new methods to raise more money are feasible in the year 1973?"

This was a question that was raised by Walker Taylor, Wilmington, N.C., at the meeting of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church. Mr. Taylor, chairman of the Council's Finance Committee, said that the amount in the proposed 1974 budget for development -- $69,800 -- is not much money for the development office's objective of "dealing directly with new methods of fund raising."

Mr. Taylor said that one suggested plan for raising funds immediately is to ask 1,000 persons to give $1,000 each.

The Rev. John B. Coburn, New York City, president of the General Convention's House of Deputies and chairman of the Council's Development Committee, said, "We have spent almost all our time on the expenditure side of the budget and hardly any time at all on the income side of the budget. We all know we have probably reached about the limit of income that is going to come to the national church through the regular quota system."

He said the Executive Council should "make it clear" to the General Convention "that we are not concerned simply with holding the line or just doing a certain kind of programmatic job, but that we are really taking seriously our responsibility to lift the sights of the church in regard to exploring ways to give Episcopalians the opportunity to give in a way that they are not giving to a single procedure of income raising." He said the Council should "begin to think of financing the work of the church in ways other than just a quota system."

Bishop John M. Allin of Mississippi said, "Each of us should look at the budget and say, 'Is there a way we can use the money available to us in a way that would raise more money?' "

"Are we really so committed to doing certain things," he asked, "that we are blind to the possibility that we might use money in such a way that we could raise four times as much?"

The Council adopted a resolution which requested its "Development and Finance Committees to prepare alternative procedures in addition to the apportionment voted by General Convention by which parishes, dioceses and the national church may be helped to increase their income." A report will be given to the Council by these Committees at its September meeting in Louisville, Ky.