The Legislative Committee on Structure at General Convention heard from 19 speakers in favor of providing funding for provinces. In a meeting on July 7, there were no speakers present to support dissolution of provinces. In all 70-75 spectators and speakers overflowed from the committee's hearing room.

Advocates backed the Executive Council's approval of $600,000 to support either the paying of provincial coordinators (often a volunteer job or add-on duty for diocesan staff) or some other means to coordinate mission and ministry within individual provinces.

The Rt. Rev. J. Clark Grew, Bishop of Ohio, said that in Province 5, comprised of mostly small Midwest dioceses, the provincial structure allows the dioceses to pool their resources.

Joel Novey, from the Diocese of New York, called provinces "the safety net of this church."

Beth Panilaitis, a youth delegate from Province 1, said that attending provincial youth gatherings are "a good thing to open youths' eyes to see what the whole church is about."

During the question and answer period for the committee, the Rev. Canon Gene Robinson, who serves both the Diocese of New Hampshire and Province 1, responding to a number of questions, made clear that the distribution of funds would come through Sonia Francis's office at the Episcopal Church Center. He said many provinces are prepared to fund dollars in addition to the $600,000 proposed by the Executive Council, some "more than dollar for dollar." His suggestion is to allow provinces to negotiate for distribution of funds according to need, rather than splitting the money evenly among Provinces 1-8. Then, he said, provinces would have "accountability to one another."

At a committee discussion meeting Saturday morning, members rephrased the resolution to fund assistance to provinces, in part, "... to further empower mutual partnership in mission and ministry by approving $200,000 for each of the next three years to assist the provinces in funding provincial program coordinator or program coordination."