They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. All the believers were together and had everything in common . . .[and] they gave to anyone as he had need. (Acts 2:42, 44-45)
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Line Item Budgets 1-18

Just the FAQs about the Reaching Out Budget

What's this process all about?

  • Prior to 2006, the Diocesan Finance Department built a single budget and submitted it to the Executive Board, who approved it and submitted it to Annual Diocesan Council for Council's final approval. Starting with the 2006 budget, the entire budget has been divided into the Operating Budget and the Reaching Out Budget, the latter consisting of all diocesan ministries. Congregations are invited to allocate a portion of their apportionment to the ministries in Reaching Out.

What's the advantage of doing it this new way?

  • This method allows churches of the diocese to have some direct input into selecting the ministries that the diocese will undertake. Additionally, it lets the heads of those ministries determine how effective the ministries are.

What's in the Operating Budget, and who prepares it?

  • It includes support for the bishops' offices, support for the ordained ministry, support for operations at The Bishop Jones Center (the diocesan headquarters in San Antonio), and diocesan staff salaries. This portion of the budget, which is about two-thirds of the entire diocesan budget, is prepared by the Finance Department and submitted to Executive Board for approval.

Where did the requests for inclusion in the Reaching Out 2007 budget come from?

  • The heads of diocesan ministries submitted their requests to the Executive Board. Because the requests exceeded the anticipated available income by $289,708 the Executive Board further refined them in their meeting in May 2006.

What about ministry evaluation?

  • Beginning with the 2007 budget, ministry heads have constructed a planning model that details their activities, who benefits from these activities, and the anticipated results from this work. At the end of 2007, ministry heads will compare actual results against hoped-for results.

What part does the Executive Board play in all this?

  • The Diocesan Executive Board receives requests for funding from each ministry, refines them as necessary given the available funding, and distributes the information to all 91 church vestries and bishop's committees. The Executive Board will receive the church's designations no later than November 1, then create a balanced budget to submit to Council. We already know that the requests exceed anticipated available funding by $133,708, so the Executive Board will not be able to fulfill all of the requests of all of the ministries.

So, what exactly will the vestries and bishop's committees do in this process?

  • After studying the requests from the diocesan ministries, each church's vestry or bishop's committee will designate approximately one-third of its church's apportionment (one-third is the amount of the diocesan budget that will fund Reaching Out) among the ministry areas.

What happens if a ministry gets over-funded or under-funded?

  • If a ministry is over-funded, the Executive Board may apply the overage to another ministry area that is under-funded. If a ministry is repeatedly under-funded by church allocations, that will be a signal to the Executive Board to take a strong look at the effectiveness of that ministry.

Are some ministries likely to not be funded at all?

  • That is possible, but during these first few years of the new process, it is doubtful any ministry will totally disappear.

So are we just re-arranging the shoeboxes?

  • No, because we have more shoes than shoeboxes. The budget requests of the departments amount to $1,240,682 against only $1,106,974 anticipated available to spend. The decisions of the churches will help the Executive Board to determine how to distribute funds among the diocesan ministries.

How did we arrive at the request amount for The Episcopal Church?

  • In 2006, vestries and bishop's committees could choose not to fund either The Episcopal Church or Missionary Giving Outside the Diocese, and some churches made that choice. Our bishop -- and many churches -- have said it is important that we fund ministry beyond our own local interests. Accordingly, the 102nd Diocesan Council, meeting in February 2006, amended a previous resolution requiring churches to designate a certain amount either to The Episcopal Church or to Ministry Outside the diocese. The total amount given to these two selections in 2006 was about $184,000, and that is the amount available for those two ministries in the 2007 budget.

Must we designate either to line 1a (The Episcopal Church) or 1b (Ministry Outside the Diocese)?

  • Yes. Each church must designate 14.83% of its Reaching Out allocation to either 1a or 1b or a combination thereof. These designations will NOT be adjusted by the Executive Board. If a congregation does not designate either 1a or 1b, its 14.83% percent will be sent to The Episcopal Church.

Can a church vestry or bishop's committee just allow the Executive Board to make the determinations about which ministries to fund?

  • Yes, except for 14.83% for Line #1 as explained above.

Will individual members of congregations have any say in a church's designation?

  • Members who want to have a voice may certainly give their input to their vestries and bishop's committees. How a church involves its individual members is up to each church.

Will individual parish designations and the Executive Board's final decisions be published?

  • Yes, the information will be in The Church News, on the website, and published at council.

What is Province VII and why do we pay "dues?"

  • The 111 dioceses of The Episcopal Church are grouped geographically into nine provinces, the purpose of which is to promote cooperation and ministry among member dioceses. Province VII consists of 12 dioceses in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Every three years, in the year before General Convention, the Provincial Synod meets in an official capacity, but its decisions are purely advisory and its resolutions are not binding on a diocese. The work of the province is supported financially by its constituent dioceses (in 2007, DWTX dues are $4,709).

(Note: Province is also a term for each of the autonomous churches of the Anglican Communion. Thus The Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. is a province of the Anglican Communion.)

Who is the final authority for the diocesan budget?

  • The Annual Diocesan Council, whose members are the clergy of the diocese and elected lay representatives from each parish and mission. The 2007 budget will receive final approval by the Council that meets in Corpus Christi in February 2007