Pre-General Convention: Quota System
Diocesan Press Service. August 7, 1964 [XXIII-7]
The 61st General Convention will be asked to decide whether or not to discontinue the present quota system for financing the world-wide work of the church beginning in 1968.
The House of Bishops and the House of Deputies will have before them a resolution from the Joint Committee on the Study of Quotas, asking for this discontinuation and for the adoption of the "Partnership Plan."
Under the quota system, an individual congregation is assigned a quota based upon current expenses. This money then goes to support the work of the diocese or missionary district and of the national church. The proposed "Partnership Plan" would be based upon a voluntary system of giving a proportionate share of money received. In a resolution of the 1961 General Convention on this matter, vestries were urged toward "the goal of giving one-half of the ordinary income of their parishes to work outside their parishes on national, diocesan and local programs."
This Committee was appointed by a resolution of the last General Convention to "study the whole matter of support of the Missionary Program by Dioceses, to report back to the next General Convention with suggested canonical changes designed to make possible a Financial Partnership Plan between Dioceses and National Council."
This action was taken out of a growing realization that the Church's stewardship of God's material gifts has been inadequate and unworthy, states the Committee's report. According to the latest available figures the Episcopal Church stands ninth in giving per member for all purposes, with an average of $69. 80. In giving for others the Episcopal Church is sixth with an average per member of $14.36.
The present quota system was established in 1922. Its primary strength is "that it rests on a fair division of responsibility based on what parishes and missions spend on themselves. It has always been presented as a minimum obligation for the world mission of the Church, and never as a maximum. Whatever its deficiencies, it has brought a steady increase in giving to the work of the whole Church."
Its weaknesses are that the quota frequently becomes a maximum, is looked upon as a tax, and does not develop a sense of partnership between the local congregation or diocese and the world-wide Church, thus destroying the principle of Christian stewardship.
In a study made by the Division of Research and Field Study on what individual congregations do with quotas assigned to them, it was found that giving to the mission of the Church was only 23.38% of the current parochial expenditures, that there is widespread incidence of quota delinquencies, and that there is a trend away from the quota system and toward voluntary giving in many dioceses.
The Committee also recommend that National Council be asked to provide a person on its staff during the next triennium to make available information on the "Partnership Plan"; to share the experience of those who have adopted this plan; and to work closely with the Joint Committee on the Partnership Plan which would succeed the Joint Committee on the Study of Quotas.
Finally, the Committee reminds themselves and the whole church that "no method (of giving) will succeed unless it is based on a deep and genuine offering of ourselves, with a sense of total stewardship to God, who is our Creator, Judge, Redeemer, and King."