Episcopal Church Budget
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In preparation for the 77th General Convention in summer 2012, the year-long budget preparation process for funding the mission and ministry of the Episcopal Church is underway.
The following details the many stages that the budget will undergo prior to its adoption.
Understanding the Process
Ultimately, the Episcopal Church budget is approved by General Convention, which is held every three years. General Convention is the Episcopal Church’s bicameral governing body, comprised of the House of Bishops, with upwards of 200 members, and the House of Deputies, with clergy and lay representatives from the 110 dioceses, at over 700 members.
General Convention 2012 (GC12) will be held July 5-12 at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis (Diocese of Indianapolis).
The budget that will be reviewed and approved at GC12 is a triennial or three-year budget, for the years 2013-2015, funding the mission and ministry work of the Episcopal Church. As such, the Episcopal Church does not budget on an annual basis. This budget serves as the blueprint for the mission and ministry that happen on a churchwide level between meetings of General Convention.
Draft
The first stage of budget preparation is conducted by the Episcopal Church Executive Council. According to the website: “The Executive Council of the Episcopal Church is an elected body representing the whole Church...The Executive Council has the duty to carry out programs and policies adopted by General Convention. It is the job of Executive Council to oversee the ministry and mission of the Church. The Executive Council is comprised of twenty members elected by General Convention (four bishops, four priests or deacons and twelve laypersons) and eighteen members elected by provincial synods.” Also serving on Executive Council are the Presiding Bishop, the President of the House of Deputies, the General Convention Secretary and Treasurer.
Among its responsibilities, the Canons of the Episcopal Church require the Executive Council to recommend a draft budget to General Convention. To fulfill this responsibility, the Executive Council recently directed its Executive Committee to oversee and manage this process. The Executive Committee consists of six elected members from Executive Council, the Presiding Bishop, the President of the House of Deputies, General Convention Secretary, General Convention Treasurer and Executive Director.
The Executive Committee has begun the draft-budget development process by soliciting a wide variety of input from its members as well as staff and leaders from throughout the church. This input will be synthesized to form a framework and mission priorities that will be presented to Executive Council at its October meeting in Salt Lake City (Diocese of Utah).
At that time, Executive Council and others will have an opportunity to reflect and respond to the proposed framework. Once this input is received, the Executive Committee will prepare a detailed draft budget proposal for the winter meeting of Executive Council (January, 2012 in the Diocese of Maryland). In January, Executive Council will review and discuss all the proposals with the outcome a recommended draft budget which is presented to Joint Standing Committee on Program, Budget and Finance, commonly known as PB&F.
Executive Council is required to forward the recommended draft budget to PB&F for its hard work four months prior to GC12 (March).
PB&F
PB&F is the General Convention’s budget committee. As such, open dialogue and transparency between PB&F and General Convention are key in this process.
PB&F is responsible for recommending funding and spending for the succeeding triennium and to propose a balanced budget that reflects the will of GC12 as determined by resolutions, open hearings and information gathered.
Based upon a number of factors - stated mission priorities, the open hearings held by PB&F during GC12 on proposed budget income and expenditures, concurrent action by the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops on legislation with funding implications and other information gathered by PB&F - the budget is presented to the General Convention on the 6th legislative day (July 10) in a joint session of both Houses and considered separately in each House on the 8th legislative day (July12).
Although it is possible that the final budget to be reviewed and voted upon by GC12 will have many similar or identical line items and amounts, the draft budget is a "working" document. In recent triennia, PB&F has proposed Mission Priorities for adoption by General Convention, which may or may not be the priorities recommended by the Executive Council.
The budget that will be adopted by GC12 becomes the budget for the Episcopal Church for the next triennium.