I greet you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are now completing the 2018 budget and are working hard to ensure that it reflects our commitment to the Gospel and to our congregations.
Over the last five months, various groups including the Finance Committee and the staff from Office of the Diocese have worked carefully and prayerfully to present a draft budget. They have held meetings and taken input as to how our budget reflects our presence in the world. This proposed budget was discussed most recently at Diocesan Council, and the traditional budget meetings will begin in late August. The budget must be officially submitted 60 days before Diocesan Convention.
While we have the official budget meetings, I feel that we need to have many opportunities to have your input into the budget document. Therefore, we have called for
five additional budget meetings in addition to those ordinarily scheduled. This will be another example of our call to be open, inclusive and transparent. I, along with the Treasurer, Finance Chair, and Office of the Diocese staff, will be at each hearing.
As we move forward with our budget we want to highlight a few items:
The budget is a living document, and we hold your gifts sacred.
We are aligning the budget with our Gospel Mission.
The budget will place congregations first. Over the next five years we will do everything possible to empower our congregations to go out into the world and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We will do everything not to raise assessments. We are continually reviewing all our income, expenses, and projections to minimize the burden on our congregations.
We will not impede our outreach - we will grow our presence in the world.
Moving forward, we assure that the income disbursements from Church Foundation and pledges are accurately projected.
In our youth ministry, we are evolving from a solely programmatic emphasis to a model that provides support and resources to congregations. With this in mind, we are discerning funding for outreach for millennials.
We are committed to making the budget, and the process by which it is created, transparent, open, accessible and understandable.
We will continue to envision opportunities for our sacred spaces and physical facilities. With Pennsylvanian ingenuity and faith in Jesus Christ, we are bringing new life to our places of worship.
We will discern various ideas to empower our congregations for growth such as a grant process that would assist with growth opportunities.
Our collective prayer is that we will grow and plant new churches in the Diocese of Pennsylvania.
We will continually work hard and show our faithfulness. Your pledge and the pledge commitment is foundational to building community.
This is an exciting and life-giving period in Christianity. We are called to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ and your faithfulness gives me hope and we will touch the world in His name. You are in my prayers and may God bless you always.
In Christ,
The Rt. Rev. Daniel G. P. Gutiérrez XVI Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania
