APSO Shares Vital Planning Role
Episcopal News Service. March 3, 1977 [77080]
RIPLEY, W. Va. -- The bitter cold that struck much of the eastern United States this winter provided an added incentive as members of the ecumenical Commission on Religion in Appalachia (CORA) met in February to set projects they will undertake this year.
The poverty-stricken Appalachians have suffered more from the disastrous winter than many areas and the 18 denominations that make up CORA had to face that added burden -- as well as their normal burden of too little money -- as they sought ways to minister in the region.
The Episcopal Church participates in CORA through the Appalachian People's Service Organization (APSO), a coalition of dioceses ranging from upstate New York to the Georgia border. The members of APSO share planning and program and have been a major factor in the growth of Appalachian ministries. In the past, the Church has provided funds for this area through the General Church Program, diocesan budgets, the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief and the United Thank Offering.
To the people at the CORA meeting, the process by which projects were determined was as vital to their ministry as the actual funding. The Rev. James Bingham, Morganton, N.C., a spokesman for APSO, explains that the process allows the projects seeking money to determine among themselves and with the denominations to determine how much each would get.
He noted two benefits to this process: "First, the projects see themselves as linked rather than competitive. Secondly, the accountability is at an unheard of level. The projects keep an eye on each other since they realize there is never enough to go around."
He noted that the sharing eliminates duplication and helps each unit to concentrate on its strengths and rely on others for help in different fields.
The approved project lists will be available shortly, Bingham said, and then the denominations will set about trying to raise the needed money and get the projects built into the budgets that are already being prepared for the fiscal year 1978.