Wednesday, January 6, 2010

And speaking of gold, don't buy Episcopal Church claims of a budget surplus (or expect the gold to honor Jesus)

Anglican Curmudgeon: ECUSA's Finances Are a Disgrace A brilliant bit of investigative work by Attorney A. S. Haley.

The Episcopal Church's (TEC) unaudited figures through November show a "budget surplus," but this is only superficially good news because

- TEC has slashed its spending on domestic mission and international church partnerships

- TEC shows a false savings by simply delaying substantial debt repayments.

- The second highest source of TEC income is... THE U.S. GOVERNMENT. Haley uncovers TEC's reliance on government refugee resettlement dollars to stay anywhere near solvent.

- TEC is closing in on $2,000,000 in spending on lawsuits against dissenting congregations and clergy. But much of this is hidden as "Diocesan Assistance Grants."

- The spendy lawsuit lark keeps getting budget bucks from TEC's "Executive Council." The money is not in the budgets authorized by the last two General Conventions (the triennial legislative session that passes the denominational budget, among other things.)

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