Finance

The Canons of the Episcopal Church set forth the general responsibility and accountability for the stewardship of the Church’s money and property. The Manual of Business Methods in Church Affairs is a resource that is available to treasurers and church leaders.

For the last three years we've invited congregations to share their stories of mission and transformation along with their parochial reports, in a new format we called the Parochial Report "Page 5." It was a good experiment. We learned a lot, and we gathered some great stories.

Under the current granting policies of ACTS/VIM, Alleluia Fund, Marge Christie Congregational Growth & Vitality Fund, and the Ward J. Herbert Fund, a church can file a grant request and be awarded a grant that will be paid to it, as long as it has complied as applicable with certain requirements – including having completed and filed its congregational audit, parochial report, pledge to the diocese, compliance with Safe Church and annual Health Care reporting, and so on. Actual grant payments are not made to the church until it has complied with these requirements. Historically, the church has been given one year to comply; if it does not comply within one year, it forfeits the grant and the money is then available for future grants.

The 2015 budget process will follow the same process adopted by Diocesan Council for use in preparing previous budgets. This process more easily allows individuals and organizations to request funding as part of the 2015 Budget. Funding requests for 2015 are due by September 22, 2014.