[sent to the HOB/D listserv and posted on various blogs, including Stand Firm, where this elf first saw it]
Where is the Money Coming From?
An Open Letter to the Executive Council
July 14, 2007
Dear Council Members:
We, the undersigned, protest the recent actions of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church. Leveling charges and threats of litigation at four dioceses of the Episcopal Church constitutes an outrageous example of exacerbating rather than reconciling the divisions in this church.
The Episcopal Church is already involved in expensive lawsuits in Los Angeles, Virginia, Florida, San Diego, New York and elsewhere. Now the Executive Council is threatening even more legal action against four dioceses who affirm their membership in the One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. They are trying to keep unity in their dioceses by declaring in their constitutions that they will abide by the doctrine and practice of the Historic Catholic Church and to Holy Scriptures.
Many formerly faithful Episcopalians, congregations and individuals have chosen to depart and affiliate elsewhere, including many who have gone to other Anglican Provinces. Some of you might not care about this tragic daily hemorrhaging of the life blood of the Episcopal Church, but we grieve over it. And, we, in the name of the living God, declare that by litigation you may win possession of some buildings and land, but you will never get the people back by the most potent litigation that money can buy. The Episcopal Church has the capacity to bankrupt and destroy all of the congregations and dioceses that dare to meet the Episcopal Church in court. But that will not get the people back. We would like to know, where the money is coming from in order to conduct this litigation, especially in view of the fact that the program budget is being reduced because insufficient funds are being received from dioceses.
We ask you, our Executive Council, to make a public report of how much money the Episcopal Church has spent in recent years on court costs and attorney fees in these extensive litigations. In what budget is it accounted for? Has any income from trust funds been used to support these litigations? How much and from which funds? How much compensation has the law firm of the Episcopal Church’s chancellor, David Beers, received, for servicing this litigation? An open and transparent disclosure is crucially important to avoid speculation, rumors and consequent distrust of the Episcopal Church.
+Maurice M. Benitez, Bishop of Texas, Retired
+ C.F. Allison, Bishop of South Carolina, Retired
+Alex D.Dickson, Bishop of West Tennessee, Retired
+ William C. Wantland, Bishop of Eau Claire, Retired
A question I asked over at SF, is with great respect and gratitude to the signatories, where are the non-retired bishops? And after some thought, is this a question necessarily limited to activist Reasserters? If I were a Beloved Moderate Reappraiser/ Reasserter, especially an Institutionalist, I would be at least curious at what the current cash burn is on litigation, and what might be expected in the future. Of course you could ask the same question about other bodies, but TEC is the subject of this letter.
The non-retired bishops could be silent over the fear of losing their pensions, and this is justified – considering the vindictiveness on display in courtrooms all over America by TEC.
My thoughts exactly Midwest.
TEC is counting on getting a windfall from all the large departing churches. If they get all (most) of the properties and endowments they will be far ahead financially!
It is just a matter of economics! That is why nobody is asking. It seems to be obvious.
I do not see how current Bishops would lose their pensions. They may be defrocked etc. but their pensions are safe (I think)
Bravo to the four bishops!
This question urgently needs answering. The more the question gets asked, the less freedom ECUSA will have to squander resources on a cruel, misguided, and un-Christian litigation strategy—a strategy better befitting a ruthless magnate than a Christian church.
_ _ _ _ _ _
Do sitting ECUSA bishops have any special right to compel disclosure of this sort of information? If not, might better spend our energy on publicizing the question rather than quibbling about the signers.
Why not hit ECUSA’s revisionist rulers with this question at every opportunity?
Why not publicize the question to pewsitters? Why not let them know the hourly billing rate of lawyers from firms like Morrison & Foerster, counsel for the Diocese of Los Angeles? The thought of church money being spent in that manner will knock many people’s socks off.
According to Bill Atwood, just $1 will enable church-run orphanages in Africa to care for an AIDS orphan for a month. If Bp. Bruno pays his lawyers $600 per hour, then every hour they work consumes money that could have supported 50 AIDS orphans for a year. (Some African churches do take ECUSA’s money.)
Even when used to relieve suffering and rebuild lives in the United States, $600 per hour quickly adds up to big bucks.
_ _ _ _ _
Might any investigative reporter or any retired forensic accountant be interested in pursuing the bishops’ question?
It does seem to be a good letter to be sent to the muddled middle, the slumbering masses.
It is routine discovery to ask about attorney fee contracts, amounts and payment. There are plenty of lawsuits. Why don’t the lawyers get the discovery and alert us as to the contracts, amounts and sources? Just a suggestion.
Just saw this about a Presbyterian church in eastern Oklahoma.
[url=http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=060902_Re_A10_Battl]Click here[/url]
JMHO…we’re all paying for this mess in more ways than one.
A better question these bishops (who obviously have lots of free time on their hands) should be asking and answering, is how much money have their cohorts taken from the IRD and other money sources to foment this schism? What about their legal fees? And remember, if your buddies hadn’t tried to take what wasn’t theirs, we wouldn’t be spending this money in the first place.
“It is routine discovery to ask about attorney fee contracts, amounts and payment.”
I don’t see how such information would ordinarily be relevant to the merits of the litigation or likely to lead to the discovery of relevant evidence.
Leasepay don’tay eedfay ollstray.
Irenaeus:
In addition to your statement regarding the support of AIDS orphans, our friends in Rwanda, who are still recovering from the affects of the 1994 genocide, desparately need medical attention, especially the children. $50 a year pays for a medical card for a whole family. Without the medical card children are dying from malaria and other treatable diseases. We have been begged by the primates and others to stop litigating each other, but 815 has deaf ears and closed minds (but then, scripture is not considered the Word of God – so why do they have to listen?). I don’t think its about money so much as about POWER. Shameful I call it.
Fred – in case you hadn’t noticed, all the bishops who signed this were retired. Of course they have time on their hands.
BTW, I’m still waiting for my IRD check – did you get your check from Integrity/Claiming the Blessing/Planned Parenthood/other liberal lobbying group yet?
YBIC,
Phil Snyder
I like the idea of keeping this question on the front burner and asking it at every opportunity.
I know this is proabably a naive question, but: how open is the budget of 815 and how much can be hidden by not mentioning it without running fould of legal reporting issues?
Fred
Hope that TEC spends every penny it has on legal matters so that it cannot use it for spreading the Bad News it preaches.
[Comment edited by elf. Off Topic]
#17, As Don+ is not a mandarin of the 815 club, why should I ask him the question? This post is about the expenses for legal matters, incurred by 815 in their all fronts assault on the orthodox.
At least I’m glad that you recognize that the question is a good one, so at least in that, we are on the same page.
You legal/tax accounting types please explain if the TEC falls under non-profit organization rules or are churches (all types including Christian Churches, Temples, and Mosques etc,) under different rules in the tax code.
Other NPO’s have to be very careful how they spend money. Are churches ever audited by the IRS?
Here is information about ECUSA from GuideStar, which provides information about charitable organizations:
“This organization is a 501(c)(3) Public Charity [meaning that contributions to ECUSA are tax-deductible].
This organization is not required to file an annual return with the IRS because it is a church.
Contributions are deductible, as provided by law.
EIN: 31-1629166
Ruling Year: 1940
Fiscal Year: Information not available
Assets: Information not available (from IRS BMF)
Income: $0 (from the IRS BMF)
No. of Board Members: Information not available
No. of Full-Time Employees: Information not available
No. of Part-Time Employees: Information not available
No. of Volunteers: Information not available”
If ECUSA were not a church, it would need to file IRS Form 990, which would provide detailed financial information and be publicly available.
About GuideStar:
http://www.guidestar.org/about/index.jsp
Well let’s see; if the TEC grabs empty buildings and property they could sell them and keep things going in court for a few years. Of course at the rate they are losing law suits (present count 9 to 2)they are going to run out of cash even sooner,
I hope!!!
The House of Bishops Task Force on Property Disputes (Task Force) was formed at the Spring, 2006 meeting of the House at Kanuga. It consists of the following episcopal members: Mark Andrus, Charles Bennison, Jon Bruno, Philip Duncan, Mark Hollingsworth, John Howard, Jim Mathes, Bill Persell, Stacy Sauls, Kirk Smith, and Dean Wolfe.1 It was originally chaired by Bill Swing and has been chaired by Stacy Sauls since Bill’s retirement. The bishop members are advised by 19 lawyers, all serving as volunteers.
The March, 2006 Executive Council meeting allocated $100,000 to fund the work of the Task Force. The Church Pension Group has contributed another $25,000. To date, no funds have been expended, despite a considerable amount of work done by the members of the Task Force. All fees, legal expenses, meeting costs, travel costs, and telephone conference-call costs have been donated by the members and lawyers of the Task Force out of devotion to The Episcopal Church (TEC).
The interesting thing about tax law is that #23’s donations are regarded as being regular expenses by the committee; they are in kind donations, assuming that the clerical travel bills were paid by those individuals and not their dioceses. For them to be a “donation” defraying and expense they have to have some monetary value which then can be deducted from taxable income.
So while ‘funds’ have not been paid out, there have certainly been expenses, and as #20 implies, they should be reported properly so that the IRS can be propitiated. However, if the clerics and lawyers are travelling ex officio from their own dioceses and on those dioceses’ budgets, then the committee is still receiving goods in transfer from those dioceses, and again expenses still should be reported along with 815 receiving increased giving from those dioceses.