Anglican Communion meets to sever ties with the U.S. Episcopal Church: But who will pay the bills?

NYT: Money Looms in Episcopalian Rift With Anglicans
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN and NEELA BANERJEE
Published: March 20, 2007

As leaders of the Anglican Communion hold meeting after meeting to debate severing ties with the Episcopal Church in the United States for consecrating an openly gay bishop, one of the unspoken complications is just who has been paying the bills.

The truth is, the Episcopal Church bankrolls much of the Communion’s operations. And a cutoff of that money, while unlikely at this time, could deal the Communion a devastating blow.

The Episcopal Church’s 2.3 million members make up a small fraction of the 77 million members in the Anglican Communion, the world’s third-largest affiliation of Christian churches. Nevertheless, the Episcopal Church finances at least a third of the Communion’s annual operations.

Episcopalians give tens of millions more each year to support aid and development programs in the Communion’s poorer provinces in Africa, Asia and Latin America. At least $18 million annually flows from Episcopal Church headquarters in New York, and millions more are sent directly from American dioceses and parishes that support Anglican churches, schools, clinics and missionaries abroad.

Bishops in some foreign provinces that benefit from Episcopal money are now leading the charge to punish the Episcopal Church or even evict it from the Communion. Some have declared that they will reject money from the Episcopal Church because of its stand on homosexuality.

But church officials say that their donations continue to be accepted in every province but Uganda, and that they do not intend to shut off the spigot....

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/us/20episcopal.html?hp

the episcopal church will continue in it's efforts to support the poor -- but the money will find new outlets -- and it won't go to prophets of hate.

we are already getting involved with organizations that are stting up new programs to aid the poor and -- we're even working with select catholic parishes toward this end.

the african church doesn't want to associate with homosexuals -- and ordained women -- fine.
rowan doesn't have the guts to stand up to them -- fine.

life{and our money} -- and the episcopal church will go on.

...specifically, the Ahmansons, are promising vast sums to the African Anglican provinces, to replace money that will be lost when/if TEC pulls the plug. :eyes:

The Episcopalians I have met have been educated, reasonable people.

Helping the poor and the hungry, doing all that stuff that Jesus talked about, wow!!!! What a thought!!! :sarcasm:

is that we will stay in communion with whoever wants to stay in communion with us. The Global primates are a small group, really, who are trying to make a power grab, which is antithetical with the decentralized Anglican structure, particularly in TEC.

The real big issue is about governance and autonomy.

...is that TEC simply decides to suspend its participation in Anglican Communion leadership for five years, to allow for a "cooling off" process. In other words, the American province walks out rather than have the traditionalists throw them out.

I have no idea what that will mean for financial matters.

there is a pretty active Episcopal blogosphere out there, and many bishops have already weighed in on the topic, some quite eloquently.

The Episcopals won't cut money to anyone.

cutting off one's nose to spite one's face.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/us/20episcopal.html?pagewanted=2&_r=2&hp

So far, the archbishop of Uganda, Henry Orombi, is the only primate who has actually turned down money from the Episcopal Church, many church officials said in interviews.

In 2004, Archbishop Orombi’s edict led to the shutdown of a community development program financed by Episcopal Relief and Development that worked with families affected by H.I.V./AIDS.

Gay Atheist. These congragation gets just as much hate served to them as a Gay, Atheist, Pro-Choice person does. Their so accepting to ANYONE that the FundiNazis live to bash them...

I think its good that the Episcopal Church is breaking away from the Hatemongers and assholes, they do not need them, no one needs them and I think they will do just fine without them.

All this coming from an Gay,Atheist, Pro-Choice person...

I happened to see a local fundie ranting on public access TV, and he started talking about my church, about how he had attended a concert there, and how the welcome card in the pew "spelled out the entire gay agenda."

Well, it says that we're a welcoming congregation, but that's the extent of even indirect references to "the gay agenda," whatever that is. The rest is about spiritual growth and community service, but I suppose that if you're a real wingnut fundie, those are bad things.