Presiding Bishop's Fund Makes Grants
Diocesan Press Service. December 18, 1975 [75449]
GREENWICH, Conn. -- The Board of Directors of the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief, meeting here immediately prior to the regular December 16-18 meeting of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church, gave an 11-month financial report for the Fund and announced several new grants.
In its formal report to the Executive Council, the Board said that as of December 1, 1975, a total of $2,694,490.04 had been available for allocation during 1975. This figure includes an unexpended balance of $294,376.34 from 1974, and $51,798.80 in interest accrued from short-term investments.
The Board also has oversight of the balance of $768,892.17 from a $911,000 gift of the Diocese of Rochester to the Fund, made earlier this year.
The report cited total disbursements through November of $1,942,273.47, including disbursements from the Rochester gift. This amount was expended in grants, in support of the work of the Episcopal Church's Hunger Task Force, for promotional materials, and for partial underwriting of the Fund's administrative costs.
The Board announced the following new allocations:
* SUDAN -- $4,000 for flood relief, channeled through Church World Service and the World Council of Churches.
* TANZANIA -- $7,000 to the Diocese of Western Tanganyika (Anglican Province of Tanzania) for the provision of a service center for refugees from Burundi.
* TANZANIA -- $28,000 to the Diocese of Southwest Tanganyika (Anglican Province of Tanzania) for a women's training center in education and home economics.
* MISSIONARY DIOCESE OF HONDURAS -- $12,709 to purchase powdered milk for a drought relief feeding program.
* PORTUGAL -- $4,000 for relief services being conducted by Portuguese churches for refugees returning from Angola. This figure represents the Episcopal Church's share of a $170,000 National Council and World Council of Churches appeal.
* LEBANON -- $2,500 emergency response for life-sustaining and other drugs, basic foodstuffs, blankets, etc., for both Christians and Muslims in desperate need in the present civil crisis. This grant will be channeled through Church World Service and the World Council of Churches.
* MISSIONARY DIOCESE OF PANAMA AND THE CANAL ZONE -- $500 in emergency relief for Chilean refugees.
* CHURCH WORLD SERVICE -- $2,000 as the Episcopal Church's share in the Ireland Program, an ecumenical project to train community leaders. The Board also reported a special grant of $75, 000 to the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church for use in the General Church Program budget, to help defray administrative costs of the Fund in 1976. A spokesman for the Fund emphasized that the grant was for the coming fiscal year only and voiced the hope that this was "not a precedent-setting action." In its report the Board reaffirmed the "principle of placing salaries and supportive costs for the staff members of the Fund in the General Church budget, " and not in the Fund.
[To access the attached Statement by the Board, please contact the Archives. --Ed.]