It's no secret that not every diocese in TEC pays its full "asking" to the work of the Churchwide Office. It's been a source of consternation for many years, even as their has not been political will to move to a system of mandatory assessments. Last General Convention, a group of Deputies did put forward a resolution calling for changing the "asking" to an "assessment." That resolution passed in an amended form, requiring diocese to pay the full assessment by January 1, 2019. Any diocese that does not pay its assessment needs to request a waiver or their nonpayment "shall render the diocese ineligible to receive grants or loans from the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society unless approved by Executive Council."
The goal of this committee was to prepare for implementation of that canon next year, creating a process by which dioceses could apply for a waiver. The committee developed theological foundations of the concept of assessments, "including unity, catholicity, universality and abundance." They also agreed that the waiver process should be relational and focused on increasing financial health and diocesan participation.
They began by getting a lay of the land, asking which dioceses intended to apply for waivers. Of those dioceses not currently paying a full assessment, ten have indicated an intention to apply for waivers, ten did not respond for the request for information, and one informed the committee that it would neither pay its assessment nor request a waiver.
They asked the dioceses which intend to request waivers to submit to the committee a narrative and financial statements with their plan for reaching compliance. They also reached out to those ten dioceses that did not respond to the first request for information, inviting them to participate in this process.
Reactions to the Report
This is going to be very interesting to watch in the next triennium. Given the current compliance levels, it seems unlikely that GC79 will repeal this canon. The hope is that as the participation of dioceses increases when it comes to their assessments, the overall assessment asked of each diocese will also decrease, thereby sharing the burden more freely.
This report chooses not to name the current status of any of the dioceses, nor to indicate which dioceses fall in the three groups outlined above. I will be curious if they choose to continue to keep that confidential or start publishing the list for all to see. When our diocese moved to a mandatory apportionment system, they also began publishing the apportionment of each parish and who was and was not in full compliance. Not everyone liked that, but it did create a bit more pressure and I, for one, appreciated the transparency.
Note: You can click here for a list of all Blue Book Reports & Resolutions that have thus far been reviewed.
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