The diocese, which has 122 parishes, including 33 in South Hampton Roads, plans to spend $1.35 million this year. Last year, it budgeted $1.76 million , but saw revenue fall short by $200,000 when some parishes did not fulfill their previous pledges.

Charles G. Pfeifer , the diocese’s treasurer, said spending cuts included elimination of the only full-time staff member of the Anglican Center for Theology and Spirituality. The center, based in Norfolk, was created in 2002 to offer Episcopalians opportunities for spiritual growth.

Pfeifer said the diocese also eliminated contributions to the Jackson-Field Home, in Jarratt, and to an ecumenical prison chaplaincy program in Virginia.

Last year, the diocese gave $50,000 to the girls’ home, which assists abused girls, and $40,000 to the chaplaincy program.

Pfeifer said that as much as two-thirds of the diocese’s revenue drop may be due to conservatives who are withholding contributions as a way of protesting the national denomination’s approval last year of a gay New Hampshire man, the Rev. V. Gene Robinson , as a bishop. Southern Virginia Bishop David C. Bane Jr. voted to oppose Robinson’s ordination.

The shortfall reflects less giving by individual Episcopalians as well as by certain parishes where leaders resolved to cut donations to the diocese, Pfeifer said.

Protesters who are withholding cash as a way of also punishing the national Episcopal Church might consider themselves successful: The diocese will send only $100,000 to the denomination’s national office, half of the amount sent last year.

Few dioceses have cut their denominational contribution as deeply, said Kurt Barnes , treasurer of the Episcopal Church.

Major exceptions are the dioceses of Dallas and Pittsburgh, which have refused to send any money.

Barnes also noted that some dioceses’ ability to give had been hurt by bad regional economies.

Nationally, a slump in revenues has forced the denomination to reduce its income forecast for this year by about 7 percent. Barnes said contributions from dioceses account for 60 percent of the national organization’s revenue.

With revenue falling, national church leaders approved a 5 percent spending cut that sliced into administrative operations as well as national programs promoting urban churches, summer camps for children and anti-poverty programs, Barnes said.

Last month, Bane sent a letter to all Episcopal clergy and parish treasurers in the Southern Virginia diocese asking that they consider increasing their pledged contributions to the diocese.

Bane said last week that the diocese had “hit bottom” financially and that Episcopalians needed to revive their sense of community and fiscal stewardship.

“It’s time for those of us who want to work for the future to get to it,” the bishop said.

Some local parishes, such as the Church of the Messiah in Chesapeake, are supporting an alternate organization, the American Anglican Council, which opposes ordaining homosexuals.

In January, that group established the Network of Anglican Communion Diocese and Parishes as an advocate within the Episcopal Church for conservative views.

Reach Steven G. Vegh at 446-2417 or steven.vegh@pilotonline.com

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