Bishop Allin Calls for New Funding Process
Episcopal News Service. February 18, 1976 [76066]
GREENWICH, Conn. -- The Rt. Rev. John M. Allin, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, told the Executive Council that he believes "our present budget and funding process" from the national to the local level in the Church" is a major stumbling block to our missionary expedition to the many fronts where the need for Christian service and witness is anticipated. "
Addressing the February meeting of the 41-member Council, Bishop Allin said that his extensive travels to all parts of the Church "have convinced me totally" that the membership of the Episcopal Church is "ready to experience a renewal of spirit, of faith, of personal engagement and corporate commitment, of responsible stewardship and increased giving to empower Christian mission. "
He added that he believes what is lacking" is not the will to offer and share" but the "practical logistics and strategies" to involve all members of the Episcopal Church "in offering their services and financial resources to the multiple needs and opportunities for Christian mission throughout this country and the world."
"Our present method of funding the Church's mission. . . is not only inadequate but divisive," he said, seeming to place the "national budget" in competition with budgets at the diocesan and local levels.
Bishop Allin said that "unless we replace the present process for supporting the mission and operation" of the Episcopal Church, "our empowerment and support programs will evaporate due to lack of funds."
"This," he said, "must not happen."
Bishop Allin listed six necessary realities for effecting the required changes in the budget and funding process: recognition that the estimated income for the next four years as projected is "inadequate "; "the total mission of the Church" must be accepted by all; the finding of additional resources must be "our common commitment"; the budget must not inhibit but rather "be used to keep us in balance and measure our gains "; available resources must be used "to acquire what is needed"; and the Church must operate "like the community of faith we are called to be."
Feb. 18, 1976
The Rt. Rev. John M. Allin, Presiding Bishop
My travels as the Presiding Bishop throughout the Church during these last months have convinced me totally that our Church people are ready to experience a renewal of spirit, of faith, of personal engagement and corporate commitment, of responsible stewardship and increased giving to empower Christian mission.
I am equally convinced, and believe myself not to be alone in the conviction, that our present budget and funding process in this Council, in the General Convention, and in the majority of dioceses and congregations of this Church is a major stumbling block to our missionary expedition to the many fronts where the need for Christian service and witness is anticipated.
I am further convinced that what we most lack is not the will to offer and share the Christian life we have received, rather our inhibiting limitations are caused by a lack of practical logistics and strategies to enable the people of this Church to participate more directly and with greater choice in offering their services and financial resources to the multiple needs and opportunities for Christian mission throughout this country and the world.
Our present method of funding the Church's mission by annual apportionments and such earnings as our investments produce in a given year, plus any happenstance gifts we are able to secure, after much apology, is not only inadequate but divisive. The so-called "National Budget" of the Church receives minimum ownership from most people in diocesan leadership and much less from those in the pew. Moreover, the "National Budget" is considered to be competitive with diocesan and local budgets. Instead of being recognized accurately as a measuring instrument to regulate the expenditure of funds currently available to us, the Budget actually has become for us and the Church the inhibiting, hobbling, substitute for a statement or expression of many goals which the whole Church might be working to achieve during the whole course of a year, through a triennium, or in a longer period of time.
Furthermore, we are so conditioned by the limitations of the so-called "National Budget" that the ability of Council and staff to provide assistance, coordinate area talent and strengthen our Church members in their efforts to fund the Church's mission in their local situations, as well as sharing in the support of mission through the world, is keptto a minimum. Oscar Carr's stewardship team has done some excellent work under the existing limitations. We are a long way, however, from freeing up all of our Church people to enable them to recognize that the multiple and varied expressions of Christian service and witness in every place are all part of the one mission of the Church.
Needed now is another style, a different and more inclusive method to engage all of the people in this Church in the services and support of all the Church's valid and worthwhile endeavors in every place.
Unless we replace the present process for supporting the mission and operation of this Church, we will not only fail to meet the growing needs and additional opportunities in mission, but our present efforts will become increasingly impaired. Our empowerment and support programs will evaporate due to lack of funds and this must not happen.
It will happen unless we develop a different, more inclusive and more flexible method of operating.
I believe we can make the necessary changes to renew the efforts and support of the whole Church in total mission. To accomplish this, I believe the following are necessary:
- We must use the best possible means available to enable all Church members, including the Deputies to General Convention and the members of the Program and Budget Committees to recognize that present estimated income for 1976 and for the next triennium is inadequate.
- All of us must accept responsibility for the total mission of this Church, not just some particular expression we consider of special importance.
- Our common commitment must be to find more resources within the Church and the world in order to increase and strengthen every valid effort of mission and ministry.
- The budget must be used to keep us in balance and measure our gains, not to limit our fund-raising efforts, inhibit our planning, and become a substitute for the goals that should be achieved.
- We must be flexible in our corporate decisions to use what resources we have available in order to acquire what is needed.
- We must operate like the community of faith we are called to be, rather than as brokers attempting to provide guarantees for minimum support to increasingly limited programs.
We have an operating budget for the time being. Until more funds become available, we are doing everything possible to provide the best service possible to every area where the Church is committed and needed. When I say we, I mean the Executive Council and the whole staff. Here and now, however, let all clearly hear (I am not just talking about you and me, I am talking about the whole Church) that one of the Church's most pressing needs is for a renewal throughout our entire membership which will strengthen the ministry of every member and free Episcopalians to give to Christ's mission to the world in more direct proportion to what they have and control of this world's goods.
Our Lord Jesus Christ has told us that, "It is more blessed (i.e. happier) to give than to receive. " I call on you now to join with me in greatly increasing the happiness throughout this Church and in sharing that happiness wherever possible throughout the world.