Loading...Trustees and Council will be sending a balanced, $1.3 million preliminary budget for 2012 to all churches in the Diocese of Kentucky next week, making it available for their consideration some two months earlier than usual in preparation for the first Autumn convention.
Presented by the budget committee chair, Angela Koshewa, and co-chair, the Rev. Karl Lusk, the budget was approved Tuesday night (August 16, 2011) during the trustees’ meeting. They met in the newly renovated parish room at St. Andrew’s Church in Louisville, where the diocesan convention will be held Nov. 11-12, 2011.
The preliminary budget of $1,310,305 was approved with slight modifications as recommended by the budget committee. It will be emailed to church leaders next week along with forms requesting congregational giving. (Congregational pledges are due to the diocesan office by September 30, 2011.)
Funding for the preliminary budget is chiefly based on anticipated congregational pledges of $1,007,381 and commitments of $137,598 from Bishop Dudley and $153,000 from endowment income.
Proposed expenditures
Among the budget expenditures for 2012, the diocese has committed $487,851 to fund the four diocesan departments: Evangelism and Congregational Development, Jubilee and Justice, Finance and Stewardship, and Christian Formation, which includes allocations to mission funding, youth and young adults programs, the All Saints' Center, summer camps and campus ministries.
The trustees approved giving The Episcopal Church and ecumenical outreach $138,421, which includes $118,526 to the Church (about $10,751 less than last year). The reduced giving to The Episcopal Church was a cause of concern for the Rev. Amy Coultas, a trustee who noted that “we are not leading by example” when we do not meet our pledge apportionment to the wider church. Agreeing with her, the board approved the reduced amount but with the caveat that giving will be increased as diocese receives additional revenue.
To produce this budget, the budget committee met more than five hours on Monday, which does not include the many hours put into it by the budget chairs and controller Becky Meyer in the preceding days.
To send a balanced budget meant making some significant reductions. It was noted that two staff positions are not funded in 2012. Because of the financial shortfall this year, decisions were made this summer to lay off the bishop’s assistant, Mike Hutchins, at the end of June, and the office manager, Betty Williams, whose last day with the diocese will be August 31. Because churches do not participate in unemployment insurance, both have received extended compensation.
No new programs were funded in this year’s budget, including requests to fund a reading camp at All Saints Center estimated to cost $18,000, nor was a request to fund Cursillo scholarships and a proposal to resume publishing a modified quarterly magazine or newspaper. Diocesan leaders are investigating other sources of funding for the reading camp and restoring a print publication.
The budget also will not fund an internship for the diocesan office through a new youth service program. The young adults internship program is locally supervised by the Rev. Amy Coultas, the cathedral’s canon. Alternative funding, however, has been found to cover the cost for the diocese’s intern. The internship program is one of 19 across the Episcopal Church to receive a grant from Trinity Episcopal Church Wall Street. It will bring seven young adult Episcopalians in discernment to serve in several Louisville area Episcopal churches and outreach programs. Each sponsoring church and organizations is funding the cost of its own intern.
Lusk told trustees and council members that decisions to not fund, or to reduce, the budget requests were not made easily. “This is a survival budget,” he said. “In many, many areas, it is a maintenance budget, and that grieves me.”
For the first time, members of the diocese will have an opportunity to discuss the preliminary budget at budget hearings held prior to convention. A series of budget hearings are scheduled to meet in October at each of the diocese’s five deaneries, which are convocations of clergy and laity from churches organized according to their geographic locations.
After explaining the intent of the deanery hearings, Bishop Terry White summed up the work before them as he concluded the discussion, noting simply: “We’ve done a lot on expenses. Now’s the time to work on income.”
Special Marmion loan offer approved
Prior to discussing the budget, Trustees and Council approved a proposal that could be financially helpful to both the diocese and churches with current Marmion loans or plans to obtain one in next couple of years.
The diocese is offering to reduce Marmion interest rates as a reward to those congregations and missions that commit to giving at least the 15 percent canonical pledge to the diocese annually and to enroll in 2012 in The Episcopal Church’s health insurance plan, which will become mandatory for all Episcopal churches and organizations in 2013.
In good faith, the Church’s Medical Trust has already revised the 2012 rates to a very competitive level in anticipation that the diocesan group would increase by 75% of its participation by December 2012. As an example, the family coverage premiums have been reduced by 25 percent or an annual savings of approximately $7,500. Detailed information about the new rates will be emailed to church wardens, treasurers and parish administrators by the end of August.
In explaining the benefits of the diocesan offer, Finance Committee Chair David Brooks noted “every organization in the diocese is under stress and needs cash relief. It gives an incentive, small as it might be, to get people to do the right thing.”
In other business, the trustees and council members approved a proposal to sell by auction the building and property of St. Martin’s in the Fields Church in Mayfield, which has been closed since 2005.
