Highway Robbery on ECUSA's Pilgrims Way

By Louie Crew

© 1996 by Louie Crew. Use freely but only if you fully acknowledge and only if you send hard copy of any printed use of it to Louie Crew, P.O. Box 30, Newark, NJ 07101
Followup: see Giving to DFMS in 1996 for documentation that this robbery was continuing at the end of 1996. --LC

RECAP: On January 27, 1995, ten diocesan bishops (out of 100 diocesan bishops in ECUSA) initiated the charges accusing Bishop Walter Righter of heresy in his 1990 ordination to the diaconate The Rev. Barry Stopfel, a gay man living in a committed relationship. In August 1995, with the final consents arriving after the deadline but postmarked before it, 66 other bishops, most of them retired, consented to bring Bishop Righter to trial. For the case to go to ecclesiastical court, one quarter (75) of all living bishops needed to approve having the trial; 76 did, one of them through his son who has power of attorney because the bishop himself (Rt. Rev. Wm. Emrich) has alzeimers disease.

Though estimates vary widely, all agree that the trial will cost the national church hundreds of thousands of dollars. The accusers pay nothing of this bill. The accused must pay his full costs, though he is 72 and living in retirement.

This is a stick up!

Several of the dioceses of the ten accusers have also threatened to punish the national church by withholding or reducing part of their payments to the national budget. The Diocese of Texas instituted a policy of local option, reserving the right to institute its own programs to replace those of the national church. The Diocese of Central Florida said at its convention in January 1996 that if it does not like the verdict of the trial, it reserves the right to recompute its dollar contributions to the national church.

Rewriting the text: From those to whom much is given, much shall be required.

The dioceses of the 10 original accusers have a larger than average number of communicants, but in 1995 gave a smaller than average amount of money:

Current Averages
1993 Communicants 1995 Payments 1995 Income
Accusers 18,741 $166,222.00$1,474,851
All 15,794 $233,391.00 $1,419,850

God loves a cheerful giver...but does She find them?

The accusers have already stuck their hands into the wallets of other pilgrims. The 1994 General Convention changed the funding policy of the national church. In the past, each diocese had been assessed relative to the parochial incomes in the dioceses--regardless of the amounts the parishes paid to the dioceses. General Convention decided to hold dioceses responsible for payments based only on the income that the diocese actually receives and controls. Now each diocese is assessed relative to diocesan income, not parochial income.

The Journal of the 1994 General Convention specifies a "1995 Covenant Range" for each diocese. 1995 payments received by February 6, 1996 indicate that dioceses paid on the average only 82.7% of the middle of their covenant ranges; the dioceses of the 10 accusers paid on the average only 64.2% of the middle of their covenant range.

What did this withholding "save" the accusers?

If the dioceses of the 10 accusers had paid 82.7% of the mid-range figure like everyone else, they would have given far more:

Counting the Loot
Their Share $214,139.25
They Paid 166,221.80
Their Loot $47,917.45

Spreadsheet Chart

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