Trustees & Council presents budget for 2008

Trustees and Council approved a preliminary budget of slightly more than $1.5 million to fund diocesan ministries and operations in 2008. Unlike the 2007 budget, the 2008 budget is based on pledge income from the diocese’s 36 congregations at 15 percent of their net disposable income, the lowest percentage requested in diocesan canons. Budget Committee Chair Bill Allbritten stressed that the budget is a work in progress until the diocese receives the congregations’ pledge commitments. Because most congregations do not report their pledges until “much later in the year,” he said, “There was a lot of guessing going on at this point in the budget process.” Also, the proposed budget can use only up to 6.5 percent from the diocese’s endowments in accordance with the formula for reducing endowment spending.

Bishop Ted Gulick recommended that the proposed 2008 budget project congregational giving at 15 percent. Recalling promises made by at least two congregations to increase their diocesan pledges this year, Gulick said it would be “irresponsible” of the diocese not to recognize in the proposed budget the efforts of those congregations’ working toward 15 percent pledges. Allbritten noted that if all congregations pledged 15 percent the budget would show a surplus of about $121,000, in which case the trustees would reduce the expected draw on endowments.

 

The proposed budget was presented—and modified—during the trustees’ Sept. 11 meeting at Christ Church, Elizabethtown, to reflect the 15 percent level of congregational giving. The proposed budget is estimated at $1,553,586.

 

The 2008 expenses include allocating funds for the diocese’s departments and community ministries, including $203,649 for mission funding and community outreach programs; $293,595 for the Department of Christian Formation  (which includes college ministries, youth programs and camps); $4,200 for the Department of Justice and Jubilee; $27,700 for the Department of Finance and Stewardship; and $239,811 for the wider church and ecumenical outreach ministries, including the diocese’s 21 percent pledge to The Episcopal Church and .7 percent for international development. Diocesan operational costs totaled $784,631.

 

The preliminary budget was approved with a proviso that it would be changed as more information became available from the congregations and that a balanced budget would be sent to diocesan convention.

 

In other action, Trustees and Council

 

•Approved using $11,500 from the Evelyn Morgan Endowment to fund Holy Trinity’s replacement of six windows in the nave with stained glass windows.

 

•Approved a $72,000 Marmion loan request from Christ Church, Owensboro, to refurbish a building adjacent to church property.

 

•Heard reports from the bishop; the Rev Dr. Jay Magness, canon to the ordinary; and Ben Linder, the diocese’s youth director.

 

•Heard a report from the mission funding committee recommending grants totaling $200,149 to fund congregational and diocesan ministries contained within the proposed budget. They also learned that Forward Fund grants totaling $19,400 were awarded by the committee, including grants for a summer reading program at Aaron McNeill House in Hopkinsville and continued funding the Diocesan Digital Community. The committee recommended that Trustees and Council approve another Forward Fund grant request exceeding $15,000 to fund the ongoing costs of Trinity Church, Fulton, one of the diocese’s growing missions in western Kentucky.

 

•Heard a report from the diocese’s chancellor, Rob Beard, about proposed changes to Trustees and Council bylaws and the diocesan policy manual to make the documents’ compatible. The proposed changes will be acted upon at the next meeting.

•Approved the election of new officers of the Episcopal Housing Corp, which oversees St. John’s rental property in Murray: Betty Blodgett, Stanley Edwards and Jason Howell, members of St. John’s, as vice presidents, and H. Gibbs Reese of Louisville as the new treasurer.