News today that the Anglican Church is broke.
In spite of a $1.17 million refund from the government, the Anglican Church of Canada still ended up with a $777,195 deficit – nearly $300,000 larger than the previous year.
They cite a number of reasons for the deficit, the changeover in management of their bookstore, a general synod, technology costs – but one of the largest contributors to the deficit was the church’s shortfall on donations:
Although donations to the Anglican Appeal, the church’s flagship appeal, went up by 1.6 per cent ($438, 344 compared to $425,881 in 2006) in 2007, it still fell short of its budgeted revenue target of $550,000, added Mr. Blachford. Appeal expenses also went up because of mailing costs.
Mr. Blachford said that due to market conditions in 2007, the church’s Consolidated Trust Fund did not produce any interest income. “By contrast, 2006 was a very good year for investments, which netted a yield of 9.9 per cent in investment income.”
Proportional giving by some dioceses was also down. He said that while proportional giving was $53,000 more than what had been budgeted because nine dioceses gave more than the suggested level of contribution, there were six dioceses that fell short of the target. “There was also an issue of the timing of revenue streams. Some dioceses were under the gun financially,” he said. Since General Synod did not receive some diocesan contributions on time, the national office incurred bank overdraft charges when it paid staff salaries.
They’re doing as bad as the Liberal Party. And possibly for the same reason.
Spend a few minutes on their home page and here’s what you’ll see:
Primate urges Harper to consult with AFN
Phil Fontaine, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, has also been calling on Ottawa to involve native people in the drafting of an apology.
Failure to consult, the letter says, “may result in further injuring the victims of this broken part of our history, and call into question the genuineness of the apology.”
Huron says yes to same-sex blessings
The diocese of Huron’s annual synod, or governing convention, voted on May 26 to ask the bishop to give clergy permission to bless same-sex marriages, “where at least one party is baptized” and to authorize an appropriate rite.
Our addiction to oil is killing people and the planet … sometimes slowly through the degradation of the air that we breathe and the ecosystems on which we all depend, and sometimes quickly as a result of human rights abuses…
Not a lot about faith – but plenty of fringe left politics. If you were running a secular humanist group, and needed to raise funds, I think it would make sense to talk about carbon killers, gay marriage, and the AFN – but does it make sense for a church to do so? Is this really what Anglicans think?
Filed under: Uncategorized , Anglican, Atheism, Canada, Christian, Politics, Religion
The Anglican Church of Canada is broke in more ways than one.
I was raised in the Anglican church. I remember the place being packed on Easter Sunday, Christmas, etc., when I was a kid. This was way back in the 1950s and 60s. For some reason, precious few of the children from that era are still church goers, at least not in the old line churches (Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Lutheran, United, etc.) For my part, I just could not stand the boredom and torture of sitting through services each Sunday that were the same thing, over and over and over. The rote repetition of liturgy and communal repetition creeds that sounded like fairy tales drove me crazy. The sermons were boring and meaningless. Most of the older folks, the clergy in particular, expected us to believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible. There was absolutely nothing there to keep me coming back. The notion that there might be some spiritual nourishment available there was completely foreign. Anyway, during my adult life (I’m now close to the end of my fifth decade on the planet), I have attended church for weddings and funerals. The Anglican church in my home town was sold to a private individual who intends to turn it into some fancy dancy centre of some sort. I agree. Whether the rigid, mind numbing indoctrination of my childhood or the do-gooder leftie nonsense of today, there is nothing that will attract me back.
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