So is this a more “Anglican” budget, intended to endear ECUSA to the rest of the Anglican Communion?
Yes and no. For one thing, although the Executive Council had proposed a reduction in the Church’s support for the Anglican Communion Office from the past triennium’s $1,160,000 to $850,000, the PB now proposes to give the ACO just $500,000. At the same time, she proposes to use the savings in what would have been given to the ACO to enlarge the budget of the Church’s own Anglican Communion office by some $500,000 over what the EC had proposed for it (see lines 192-97). This will be touted as “a greater commitment” to the Anglican Communion, but it is all in moneys to be spent by the PB in adding new staff and in entertaining visiting primates and other Communion dignitaries.
Then again, the PB proposes to raise $1.5 million in new funds for the relief of Haiti, by getting “faithful Episcopalians” to donate to match, on a 2 for 1 basis, the $774,000 already budgeted for such relief (lines 18 and 83). This will certainly please the clergy and laity who have been working there to help Haiti recover from its catastrophic earthquake””but should something be budgeted which apparently has not even yet been committed, or pledged?
Other money “found” since the EC met has resulted from a refinancing of the Church’s outstanding debt at a lower interest rate (line 329), but achieved by pledging the Church’s donated stocks and bonds as security. This allows the PB to project a payment on principal of $1.5 million per year for the next three years. Indeed, this successful achievement by her Treasurer and his staff may well have contributed to the impetus for a new draft budget.
However, the PB was not content to book just concrete savings. As noted earlier, she decided to put in phantom pledges in order to redress the budget as “mission-oriented,” and thus in the process to offer bread and circuses to her constituency.
It looks as though they have decided to re-direct some of their past funding of the ACC to TEC’s more direct efforts to co-opt the global south provinces. It makes sense, with the ACC essentially destroyed as an instrument of unity, that they need not spend much on it anymore, and TEC clearly feels that it needs to buy influence in the global south. I suspect that the recent indaba session on SSBs in Canada, which several bishops from otherwise orthodox provinces (e.g., Nigeria and Kenya) attended was part of this effort. That did not get much attention, and they will probably continue to try to fly under the radar. I would hope the GAFCON folks are watching carefully.
Pendennis, I did not see Nigeria on the list of attendees. Do you have a link?
You are right, I misremembered. Nigeria is not on the list of attendees. Sudan, Zambia, Burundi, Tanzania, Botswana, Ghana, Central Africa and Malawi are, in addition to two bishops from Kenya. Here is the link and below is the list:
http://news.anglican.ca/news/stories/2501
• The Rt. Rev. Jane Alexander, Diocese of Edmonton, Canada
• The Rt. Rev. Johannes Angela, Diocese of Bondo, Kenya
• The Rt. Rev. Michael Bird, Diocese of Niagara, Canada
• The Most Rev. Albert Chama, Diocese of Northern Zambia and Primate of Central Africa, Zambia
• The Rt. Rev. Garth Counsell, Diocese of Cape Town, South Africa
• The Rt. Rev. Michael Ingham, Diocese of New Westminster, Canada
• The Most Rev. Colin Johnson, Diocese of Toronto and Metropolitan of Ontario
• The Rt. Rev. Julius Kalu, Diocese of Mombasa, Kenya
• The Rt. Rev. Sixbert Macumi, Diocese of Buye, Burundi
• The Rt. Rev. Mdimi Mhogolo, Diocese of Central Tanganyika, Tanzania
• The Rt. Rev. Trevor Musonda Mwamba, Diocese of Botswana, Botswana
• The Rt. Rev. David Njovu, Diocese of Lusaka, Zambia
• The Most Rev. Bernard Ntahoturi, Diocese of Matana and Primate of Burundi, Burundi
• The Rt. Rev. Robert O’Neill, Diocese of Colorado, USA
• The Rt. Rev. Anthony Poggo, Diocese of Kajo Keji, Sudan
• The Rt. Rev. Daniel Sarfo, Diocese of Kumasi, Ghana
• The Rt. Rev. James Tengatenga, Diocese of Southern Malawi, Malawi
Flim Flam budget replaces Bunkum budget.