So is this a more “Anglican” budget, intended to endear ECUSA to the rest of the Anglican Communion?
Yes and no. For one thing, although the Executive Council had proposed a reduction in the Church’s support for the Anglican Communion Office from the past triennium’s $1,160,000 to $850,000, the PB now proposes to give the ACO just $500,000. At the same time, she proposes to use the savings in what would have been given to the ACO to enlarge the budget of the Church’s own Anglican Communion office by some $500,000 over what the EC had proposed for it (see lines 192-97). This will be touted as “a greater commitment” to the Anglican Communion, but it is all in moneys to be spent by the PB in adding new staff and in entertaining visiting primates and other Communion dignitaries.
Then again, the PB proposes to raise $1.5 million in new funds for the relief of Haiti, by getting “faithful Episcopalians” to donate to match, on a 2 for 1 basis, the $774,000 already budgeted for such relief (lines 18 and 83). This will certainly please the clergy and laity who have been working there to help Haiti recover from its catastrophic earthquake—but should something be budgeted which apparently has not even yet been committed, or pledged?
Other money “found” since the EC met has resulted from a refinancing of the Church’s outstanding debt at a lower interest rate (line 329), but achieved by pledging the Church’s donated stocks and bonds as security. This allows the PB to project a payment on principal of $1.5 million per year for the next three years. Indeed, this successful achievement by her Treasurer and his staff may well have contributed to the impetus for a new draft budget.
However, the PB was not content to book just concrete savings. As noted earlier, she decided to put in phantom pledges in order to redress the budget as “mission-oriented,” and thus in the process to offer bread and circuses to her constituency.
Read it all.
Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • - Anglican: Analysis • Episcopal Church (TEC) • Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Stewardship
Posted June 26, 2012 at 6:30 am
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The URL for this article is http://www.kendallharmon.net/t19/index.php/t19/article/43626/
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2. Ralinda wrote:
Pendennis, I did not see Nigeria on the list of attendees. Do you have a link? June 26, 10:54 am | [comment link] |
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3. pendennis88 wrote:
You are right, I misremembered. Nigeria is not on the list of attendees. Sudan, Zambia, Burundi, Tanzania, Botswana, Ghana, Central Africa and Malawi are, in addition to two bishops from Kenya. Here is the link and below is the list: • The Rt. Rev. Jane Alexander, Diocese of Edmonton, Canada |
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4. Pageantmaster [KJS to Coventry] wrote:
Flim Flam budget replaces Bunkum budget. Some days I sit and think. Other days I just sit!! June 26, 3:58 pm | [comment link] |
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It looks as though they have decided to re-direct some of their past funding of the ACC to TEC’s more direct efforts to co-opt the global south provinces. It makes sense, with the ACC essentially destroyed as an instrument of unity, that they need not spend much on it anymore, and TEC clearly feels that it needs to buy influence in the global south. I suspect that the recent indaba session on SSBs in Canada, which several bishops from otherwise orthodox provinces (e.g., Nigeria and Kenya) attended was part of this effort. That did not get much attention, and they will probably continue to try to fly under the radar. I would hope the GAFCON folks are watching carefully.
June 26, 9:06 am | [comment link]