wow. that is a glaring anomaly in a dwindling church. perhaps if more priority were given to sharing the gospel, the church might experience the blessing of renewed interest?

Just sad. It all amounts to power...no one is willing to give it up.

It's simply the most worldly use of resources I can imagine. I am glad to see that helping people in need is also high, but that could be done so much more effectively on the local level, could it not?

It is a bizarre way to run a church - looking at it from the standpoint of resources allocated to spreading the good news of the kingdom vs. administration.

And it's the national policies that have sent the EC so off-track and mission in the first place.

I was also struck by the imbalance in the budgetary allocation for the 5 marks of mission. I would love to see 1 and 2 be increased, even at the expense of 3. But then again, I think our mission is first and foremost to proclaim the Kingdom and build up the church.

It does take some amount of administrative $$ to oversee programs -- I wonder if the time of the admin section has been divided according to program areas. It is not like they just sit around collecting the big bucks. I know the PB is on the road most all the time preaching the good news that the Episcopal Church offers. Her budget could be easily attributed to "Evangelism" I don't know of any other PB who has been the public face of TEC like ++Katharine

I agree with Ann about how many of our categories are fungible. Is the salary of a full-time evangelist mission or administration?

The TEC-level funding is going to be about "administration," one way or another. Mission, evangelism, preaching, outreach ... these primarily happen on the parish level. You may argue about the amount we spend on administration, but the percentage seems right. If there's a much greater percentage being spent on mission at the top level, we're probably doing it wrong.

Michael Rich

Several groups rate non-profits and charities by how much of donations actually go toward the stated purpose of the group. TEC would be failing those tests-too much administration.

I also don't see much evangelism in the PB's statements that end up in the public eye. Most of which aside from never ending questions about homosexual priests and/or marriage, seem to be explanations of why TEC is shrinking(Episcopalians don't have many kids because they're better educated--translation, if you have kids, you're not smart enough for TEC)or saying that there are many ways to God and TEC allows many viewpoints and doesn't have set definitions, etc. while promoting saving the planet, social justice projects and such. So if you're Jewish,Buddhist,etc. feel free to stay where you are and if you're into social justice, helping the poor, etc. your money and time are better spent in organizations that have defined goals/beliefs with better ratings.

I know many people love her speeches because she is calm and assured, but there also isn't any excitement or passion in her speeches-- nor many mentions of Christ as per her Easter address. She's doing PR, but it doesn't seem focused on getting people in the door, just explanations.

Chris Harwood