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Dioceses Seek Sharp Reduction in Assessments to Church Center
Page 1 of the Episcopal Church's 18-page budget for 2023-24
By Kirk Petersen
THE LIVING CHURCH
May 3, 2024
A group of dioceses have launched a coordinated effort to reduce the assessment they are expected to pay to the Church Center from 15 percent to 10 percent, over a period of years, arguing that the dioceses can make better use of the funds for mission and ministry.
In an online legislative hearing April 30, the joint Committee on Governance and Structure heard testimony for and against the idea, put forth in separate but similarly worded resolutions from the dioceses of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, and Oklahoma. Most of the resolutions call on General Convention to make an immediate reduction from 15 percent to 13.5 percent, and all of them set an eventual 10 percent target, by either 2030 or 2033.
The Rev. Everett Lee, a deputy from the Diocese of Oklahoma, said: "A top-down approach is not the structure that the church needs. We're network-driven and network-based, and we ought to support that work and the way in which we are gathered."
"We need governance and administration, clearly, for some things -- but we sure do have a lot of it," said the Rev. Tim Baer, also an Oklahoma deputy.
Committee members were skeptical. "Where would you suggest we cut $2 million per annum to do this?" asked the Rev. Patty Downing. The annual budget is about $100 million. Downing also chairs the Executive Council's joint budget committee, which spends many hours poring over budgets line by line.
"I would look at every part of the budget in governance and administration that is not going towards mission and ministry," Baer replied. "There are probably some efficiencies there and ways to restrategize and rethink how we do some of what we do."
Testimony alternated between deputies favoring the proposal and those opposed. Nathan Brown, a lay deputy from the Diocese of Washington, noted that the assessment used to be 21 percent, and had already been reduced to 15 percent over time.
"I worry about the severe impact that a further cut of the assessment will have for the ability of the church as a whole to address churchwide ministry and mission needs, and to provide DFMS staff fair compensation for their work and providing them with appropriate benefits." The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society (DFMS) is part of the 19th-century name given to the corporation that manages the Episcopal Church.
Two deputies from the Young Adult Caucus testified against the proposal. It would "reduce our ability to invest in the future," said Laura Curlin, lay deputy from the Diocese of California. "I would also note that one person's overhead is another's missional priority."
The Rev. Mark Nabors, a 33-year-old priest from Arkansas, pushed back. "This is not an attack on our beloved church or our important work together. We're all big fans of that. But this resolution is simply asking the larger church to do the same difficult and discerning work that our parishes and diocese have already had to do."
The committee took no action on the resolutions, but will vote on whether to recommend passage at some point before the General Convention in late June. Unlike in the United States Congress, a General Convention committee cannot kill a proposal outright, but a recommendation can be influential.
