Loading...Trustees and Council approved a preliminary budget of nearly $1.4 million for 2007 at its last meeting on Sept. 19 at Christ Episcopal Church in Elizabethtown. Praising the work of the budget committee and its co-chairs, trustee members Angela Koshewa and Bill Allbritten, Bishop Ted Gulick said "this was the earliest the budget has ever come before the council in my history as bishop" and the first prepared since trustees set a formula for spending endowed funds.
The budget of $1,412,034 is based on anticipated congregational pledges of $1,158,340 (representing 15 percent of the congregations' net disposable income minus $127,500 unavailable because of pastoral exigencies) and a commitment of $226,794 from endowments, which Gulick noted is about $97,000 less than taken from endowments last year.
Among the budget expenditures, the diocese has committed $478,006 to fund four recently reorganized Departments of Mission and Evangelism, Jubilee and Justice, Finance and Stewardship, and Christian Formation (which includes funding for youth and young adults programs, the All Saints' Center staff, summer camps, and campus ministries). The budget also allocates $227,054 for The Episcopal Church and ecumenical outreach, and $709,974 for diocesan operational costs (which includes funding for the episcopate, the diocesan staff, the diocesan newspaper and diocesan digital community web site, retired clergy and spouses assistance, clergy deployment expenses, various diocesan commissions and committees, and the diocesan convention).
Click here to see a copy of the proposed budget , a letter from the budget committee co-chairs, and a chart detailing congregational pledging over the last five years. Please note that the budget posted here is preliminary. In January, after congregations have reported their pledges, Trutees and Council will take action on a final form of the proposed budget, which will be presented at the 2007 Diocesan Convention in February.
