Episcopal Conservatives Redirect Donations

Datalounge ^ | 8/25/03

[I_Love_My_Husband]

Episcopal Conservatives Redirect Donations Monday, 25 August 2003

RICHMOND, Va. -- It is difficult to gauge the full extent of unhappiness in the nation's Episcopal dioceses resulting from this month's confirmation of the openly gay Rev. Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire.

Rev. John Guernsey The dioceses that have embraced Robinson's confirmation or accepted it even with some amount of difficulty generally do not make the evening news. It is the conservative churches that reject both Robinson and the church's embrace of gay reform that continue to grab headlines in major newspapers across the country.

A conservative church in Maryland demonstrated its opposition and anger by draping its eaves in purple, the color of mourning. A rector in Fort Worth Texas hurled the denomination's flag to the ground and walked upon it as he began his sermon.

Others, while less dramatic, have made no secret of the damage they think Robinson's confirmation does the Episcopal church in the United States. The Rev. John Guernsey of the All Saints Episcopal Church in Virginia recently declared that the confirmation of Robinson contradicted the word of God as laid down in the Bible.

Conservatives justify donation boycott the name of orthodoxy.

Overview of this issue > Episcopal Church Other Data Lounge stories > Virginia Send this article to a friend He told his congregation of some 500 that they could restrict their donations to ensure that the money they contribute goes only toward local ministry and community projects. He defends the move by saying if he did not create a way to bypass the national church, donations would stop altogether. But others charge he is directing the boycott to punish the national leadership for pursuing a course he personally opposed.

All Saints gives the local diocese and the national church more than $150,000 annually.

Donald Armstrong, director of the Anglican Communion Institute and one of the most outspoken critics of church liberalization on gay issues, set up a web site after Robinson's confirmation, showing conservatives ministers how to instruct their parishioners to redirect their donations away from the national church.

Steven Duggan, a former treasurer of the national church, told National Public Radio that this was nothing more high-minded than economic blackmail. He said the people that will be hurt will not be Episcopal church leaders, but those the church helps.

"When you starve the national church, you starve the church in Cuba, you starve the church in Navajo lands, you starve the church in El Salvador and Liberia. It's not going to change people's minds, it's not going to change the minds of those who voted in the general convention."

Whether the protest will grow or fizzle out is not yet clear. Next month's Anglican meeting in England called to discuss the issue of homosexuality in the church should present a clearer picture of where the national church is heading. In the meantime, Robison supporters can only hope that the will to give and grow is stronger than the desire to punish and destroy. -- Editor

[Marauder]

Good grief; it's looking as though it's going to be fairly easy to determine which church(es) still conduct themselves in accordance with the Word, if you can only find one of them.
I suppose these "homosexual advocates within the church" feel as though God owes the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah an apology.

[Gopher Broke]

There is a great alternative to the Episcopal Church, for Anglicans. The Anglican Church in America (AMIA) has 2 Bishops in America with more churches all the time. They seek to return the Anglican community to it's Biblical roots.....see http://www.theamia.org

[Toirdhealbheach Beucail]

If your're serious, look at the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod or the Lutheran Church in Mission for Christ (LCMC). The latter is a group that has split of from the ELCA over many of their policies.

[PAR35]

Thanks. I wasn't looking at Lutherans, Marauder was. I am familiar with the Missouri and Wisconsin synods, but haven't heard of LCMC.

I belong to a moderate to conservative branch of the Presbyterians (where some Episcopalians have found a home).

[r9etb]

What percentage stays in the local congregation and what is sent to the national organization?

This probably varies by diocese. In my diocese (Colorado), the expectation is that each parish will give 10% of non-restricted pledge and plate contributions to the diocese, and the diocese will forward some of that money to the national church. (I think the diocese sends something like 15% of non-restricted diocesan income to the national church.)

I don't think any parish is required to give money directly to the national church, although it's likely that some do.

The key to this whole thing is the word "non-restricted." Restricted pledges and donations cannot be used for any purpose other than what it's given for.

My parish (coincidentally, it's the one for which Fr. Armstrong, quoted above, is rector) will take all pledges marked "restricted" diocese, and the percentage that would go to the diocese, would instead go to various outreach programs. (We won't use those funds for any in-house expenditures.)

Note that this is a completely voluntary thing -- people who want to continue to contribute to the diocese and national church can say so, and those funds will be given to the diocese. (I think a fair percentage of our congregation may actually go this route.) This is actually about as fair as it can get -- we wouldn't want to handle our pledges in ways contrary to the consciences of the people giving them.

[r9etb]

PFKEY -- sounds like an old IBM terminal sorta name....

[PFKEY]

You would be correct.