Re: [HoB/D] A question of finances (for HoB meetings)

[Louie Crew <lcrew@andromeda.rutgers.edu>]

 >  All must share the load
 
It sounds to me that the bishops are sharing the load quite unequally.
Costs for the bishop(s) to attend two annual meeting of the House would
not make much of a dent in the budget of a diocese the size of Los
Angeles, New York, Texas, or Virginia.     By comparison, those costs are
humongous when paid out of the pockets of the bishop or the diocese in
places like Northern Michigan, Eau Claire, Western Kansas, Navajoland,
Haiti, Colombia.....   It would be interesting to see a report of which
bishops have absented themselves from these meetings.

Salaries of bishops vary dramatically and do not always be correlate with
the size of the See.   At a meeting of Executive Council about 6 years
ago, I asked +Keith Ackerman whether it was true that his beginning annual
salary in the Diocese of Quincy was only $40k.  "It's none of my businss,"
I prefaced my question, "but I am curious."      "I have no problem
answering," he replied; "Last year was the first year it reached $40k."
Likely he took a huge cut in pay to leave a rather large cure for this
See.

The church has grown more and more contentious since the bishops started
meeting twice a year.   I would like to see them return to one meeting a
year.   Also, I feel they should not be able to pass resolutions affecting
the whole church except when they meet with the House of Deputies during
General Convention.  Remember Port St. Lucie!

Louie, L1 Newark