TEC: $3.8 Million Budget Deficit

David Virtue reports:

WHEN the Executive Council of The Episcopal Church meets in Parsippany, N.J. next week, high on the agenda of issues will be ways to get dioceses to boost their contributions to the national coffers. The Rev. Gay Jennings will present a report from the Diocesan Commitments Task Force saying that there is a $3.8 million budget deficit and that strategies are needed "for increasing participation and accountability by dioceses that are not fully meeting their commitment to the budget for The Episcopal Church." The culprits by and large are revisionist dioceses, like the Diocese of Newark that doesn't have enough income to support itself let alone the national church. Josephine Hicks, chair of the administration and finance committee and sponsor of the approved resolution, said the council is seeking ways of making formal contact with, not sanctions against, those dioceses that are not donating to the program budget of the General Convention at the recommended assessment formula! A number of orthodox dioceses are also withholding monies from the national church coffers but for very different reasons. What all this amounts to is a gentle arm-twisting, not a gun to the head. Yet.