Bishop Wendell Gibbs and the Diocesan Council continued the movement of the Diocese of Michigan toward a sustainable mission and budget, which has been underway for six months, when it reduced the current 2009 diocesan budget by $450,639. A significant area of cost reductions comes in the wake of Bishop Wendell Gibbs’s announcement on April 2 that five staff positions would be eliminated.
While the greatest impact of the employment termination for four present staff persons will not be felt until 2010–due to severance policy obligations–removing the one unfilled position from the budget and tangential costs of the other positions does have an impact on the 2009 budget.
The chart is helpful in casting light on the fact that the Diocese of Michigan had been a “sick puppy” all through the “boom” years of 2002 through 2007. The present recession has just exacerbated the illness. And other factors are not encouraging. In 2007 there were 331 Infant Baptisms and 413 Burials. And it took 23,494 Members to produce those baptisms, or 71 to ONE. And almost two-thirds of its 87 churches had Plate & Pledge of less than $150,000 which suggests more closures to come. Statmann
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