Report on the Diocesan Council
12 Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord* has promised to those who love him. 13 No one, when tempted, should say, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one. 14But one is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it;15 then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death.16 Do not be deceived, my beloved.* 17 Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.* 18 In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures. 19 You must understand this, my beloved:* let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. James 1:12-20
Folks: Before discussing the Council, I thought that it was important to start my report with a passage of scripture, and the daily reflection I am using is currently on the Epistle of St. James. It speaks to me about temptation, the temptation to rush to judgment, the temptation to blame someone for our situation. It also offers guidance about how we should behave, being slow to speak and slow to anger.
We should all reflect on this because, if you have not heard already heard, our Calvary Contingent was not seated at the Diocesan Council.
While we knew that this was a possibility (as I had previously informed Delegates and Vestry via email), it has been the norm or practice to seat Parishes that were in arrears with their Diocesan Assessments. When we arrived, we were not given our credentials and were told to talk to the Diocesan Treasurer, Bob Biehl. Unfortunately, we were unable to meet with him on Friday.
Friday evening was spent in fellowship with the members of the other Churches of our Diocese. We got to visit with our Seminarian Mitch and his wife Camille. We were able to visit with our previous Seminarian, now the Reverend Chris Duncan, see old friends and make some new acquaintances. Eucharist was celebrated and the sermon delivered by the Episcopal Bishop for Chaplaincy (who is in charge of all Episcopal Chaplains in the Service). We enjoyed a good dinner, and retired for the evening with the question unresolved about our being seated.
On Saturday morning we returned to the Council and still were without credentials. We had to wait for the Diocese to resolve the issue about seating Parishes that were in arrears with their 2009 Diocesan Assessment. Unfortunately, this year, the Diocesan Executive Board took a harder line and eight Parishes were not initially seated.
There was then a motion to allow the three Parishes that had either suffered from a congregational split, or who had presented the Diocese a plan to repay their 2009 assessment. Calvary and four other parishes were not included in this motion which passed.
Our delegation moved out of the Council room and into a hallway to discuss the situation. Reb volunteered to contact Bishop Doyle and Bob Biehl and see if he would meet with us. Mr. Biehl agreed to meet with us at the break and discuss the situation. Bob Biehl also let us know that he had tried to contact me by phone on Thursday afternoon to tell me that we would not be seated (unfortunately I was out of the office.)
At the break, Bob Biehl met with us. He explained that they would seat us if we could work out a way to pay the remainder ($52K) of our 2009 Diocesan Assessment. He did say that the Diocese Executive Board was taking a harder line since the majority of the parishes were able to make their assessment in spite of the economic downturn. He also said that Frankie was a previous President of the Standing Committee and there was concern in the Executive Board that if leniency was shown to Calvary (which may appear to be due to Frankie’s previous status on the Executive Board), there would be no incentive to pay the assessment.
Having watched our 2010 budget come together, I could not promise on the behalf of the Diocese that we could pay the remainder of our 2009 Assessment. Mr. Biehl said he understood our financial situation. There were several times in 2009 that we have discussed our financial status with the Diocese, (when we did not get the seminarian, when we had to submit reports to the Diocese, the September meeting with the Executive Board, the meeting with the Canon and Mr. Biehl in December). We acknowledged that there were consequences to our decision not to pay the assessment, and not being seated at this Council was one of them.
Mr. Biehl was asked what it would take to be made whole with the Diocese, would this debt prevent the Diocese from working with us. He explained that the debt would be written off and forgiven. He also said that by committing to and paying our 2010 Assessment, that we would have Voice and Vote in the 2011 Diocesan Council. The Delegation thanked Mr. Biehl for his consideration, and decided to leave the Council and return to Richmond.
Feelings have been hurt, and folks are feeling embarrassed and disappointed that we could not participate. The question has been posed “Are we (Calvary) being punished for Frankie’s actions (inactions, politics, lack of communication, etc.)?” That at least is the perception, and it may have influenced some on the Executive Board. There will be those that will believe that he influenced us to withhold money because of Diocesan\National Church politics.
I called Frankie to discuss this. He is deeply sorry that the Diocese appears to be punishing us for him. He expected backlash directed towards him. He did point out that we did communicate with the Diocese on several occasions about our financial status.
The previous Vestry has discussed in detail the potential repercussions of the 2009 budget and the decision not to pay the assessment. We faced a $100k shortfall from the previous year’s pledging. The economic down turn did not help. We were faced with a choice of cutting all paid Church staff or paying the Assessment. We decided that cutting staff would not grow our Church. Growing our Church and increasing our Actual Pledge Offerings is our way out of the budget issue. We realized that there would be consequences.
Our concern was focused primarily on losing Parish status and being reverted to mission status. Losing voice & vote was discussed. Frankie did say that in the past he had voted against seating parishes in arrears on assessment, but it was always overturned at Council. There was consensus with the Vestry to pass the budget we passed. I will continue to stand by that decision.
We should not read additional meaning into decision not to seat Calvary, we were not the only Church Delegation not seated (one delegation did not even attend). The Diocese did attempt to work with us up to the end where we decided that I could not commit us for the additional money without discussion with the Vestry and the parish.
We should not fall into temptation to blame others for decisions that we reached together. We should move forward following what St. James says, “ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. 6But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; 7, 8for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.
Yes we reap what we sow, we did not pay our dues, and we were not seated. What do we do next? We move on. We work harder on Stewardship, we make some tough choices, we explain to the congregation the consequences of those choices, and we live by them. We have not burned any bridges with the Diocese. We are continuing to reach out to them and look for their guidance.
We will come together as a parish to determine mission, vision, and core values, and assess what is important to us. We need to move forward in faith.
Respectfully submitted
It's all good so far 