July 24, 2006
The Pious Priests and Deacons
of the Holy Metropolis
of Denver
Beloved in the Lord,
Having just returned from the Thirty-Eighth Biennial Clergy-Laity Congress held in Nashville, Tennessee, I am pleased to inform you that your efforts over the past few years to address the Metropolis funding crisis have finally been successful.
Over the past two years the Finance Committee of the Archdiocesan Council carefully studied the resolutions and recommendations made at our local Clergy-Laity Assemblies. Their conclusion was to accept the concepts you brought forth, and to restructure both the Archdiocese budget as well as the manner in which parish Total Commitment allocations are calculated. The proposal they subsequently put forward at the Clergy-Laity Congress was very well received by the delegates, and was overwhelmingly approved.
There are three major elements to the restructured National Ministries budget, which will affect not only the way your Metropolis is funded, but also the 2007 budget for your parish which you will be preparing in the next few weeks.
First, the basic operating cost of each Metropolis will be covered by the National Ministries budget. In practice each Metropolis will receive $365,000 for personnel, insurance, and operating expenses. Moreover, if the aggregate Total Commitment receipts from the parishes of a particular Metropolis exceed $1,460,000, the Metropolis will receive 25% of that amount.
Second, each Metropolis is assigned a minimum Total Commitment allocation that must be received from its parishes by the Archdiocese. For the Metropolis of Denver this amount will be $1,141,739 in 2007 and $1,226,684 in 2008.
Third, to equitably distribute the Metropolis allocation, the Total Commitment amount from each parish will be 15% of its budgeted expenses. This is a change from the previous Total Commitment calculation, which was 15% of income.
There are two underlying premises regarding the new method for calculating the parish Total Commitment allocation. First, National Ministries are expected to cost about one sixth (roughly 15%) of parish expenses nationwide and, second, parish income for growth and ministries will not be "taxed" or limited.
This latter point is the most significant aspect of the new budget paradigm. Parish growth, the expansion of ministries and the concomitant construction of physical facilities will now be fostered and encouraged in a concrete manner.
Therefore, as you develop your 2007 budget, I ask you to keep in mind that a parish is not a for-profit business, in which the budget process involves minimizing expenses and maximizing income. On the contrary, the budget process for a parish is similar to that of a non-profit entity: in preparing a non-profit budget both expenses and income are maximized.
The very purpose of your parish, similar to that of a non-profit organization, is to freely provide services and ministry. As more and more services and ministries are provided (in other words, as the parish increasingly fulfills its sacred purpose), expenses will necessarily increase and the faithful will be called upon to support this increase in the Lord's work that is being done in their name by the parish.
You should therefore expect Ð and want Ð the expenses of your parish to increase annually. Obviously such increases must not be for frivolous or wasteful reasons, but rather they should reflect the increasing level of ministry provided by the parish in both quality and quantity.
To encourage parishes to increase stewardship and other income, and to apply these toward the building up of their programs and facilities, Total Commitment will no longer be calculated as 15% of their gross income from all sources, as has been the practice for the past two decades.
Instead, under this growth-oriented concept, the parish Total Commitment allocation will now be 15% of routine parish expenses: clergy compensation, personnel salaries, insurance, regular maintenance, supplies, and other miscellaneous operating costs. Expenses associated with ministry growth and such things as emergency repairs are generally excluded from the Total Commitment calculation.
To illustrate this concept, I am enclosing a copy of a typical budget from one of our parishes that includes the new method for calculating the amount of the 2007 Total Commitment allocation.
Recognizing that full participation in the Total Commitment program is a precondition to ratification of your parish council elections, I am also enclosing an advance copy of the Total Commitment Declaration form that will be required as part of your parish council election package this Autumn.
I am grateful in the Lord to all of you who struggled long and hard to make our national budget and Total Commitment program more logical and fair.
With Paternal Blessings,
+Metropolitan Isaiah of Denver
Enclosure:
2006 and 2007 Total Commitment Declaration for
The Greek Orthodox Church of: ______________________________________in _____________________________, _____________.
(City) (State)
We, the undersigned Parish Priest, Parish Council President, and Parish Council Treasurer, do hereby verify that the attached budget report truthfully and accurately reflects all of the current year (2006) actual and next year (2007) projected expenditures and income for our parish.
On behalf of the parish, we declare our commitment to fully and generously provide the necessary funds to make it possible for the parish to grow and expand its ministry in fulfillment of the Lord's commandment, to "make disciples of all the nations" (Matthew 28:19).
We also acknowledge the responsibility and commitment of the Parish Council to:
- Collect all of the revenue of the Parish.
- Provide for the Priest's remuneration and benefits in accordance with the annual Clergy Compensation Plan of the Archdiocese, and to pay him in a prompt and timely manner.
- As necessary, provide for the salary(ies) of the Parish personnel and to pay such salary(ies) in a prompt and timely manner.
- Provide financial resources for the Parish's administration and for the Parish's spiritual, educational, and other ministries and expenses.
- Provide for payments and assessments for support of the national ministries of the Archdiocese as fixed by the Clergy-Laity Congresses, specifically:
- To establish the Total Commitment allocation as 15% of the parish's budgeted expenses.
- To accept the parish subsidy for the Archdiocese Benefits Plan, this amount being $4,800 per annum per assigned clergyman.
- To remit the proportionate payment of the Total Commitment allocation and of the Archdiocese Benefits Plan subsidy on a monthly basis in a prompt and timely manner.
We declare and verify that the Parish Council is the custodian of all Parish funds. No Parish funds are maintained in any account other than those established by the Parish Council, and all funds are administered by the Parish Council through the duly elected Parish Council Treasurer.
We moreover declare and verify that full and transparent disclosure of all parish funds and finances is being made to the parish membership and to the Metropolis office.
We verify that our 2006 Total Commitment allocation is $ _____________ which represents ____% of our total income during the period 1 January through 31 December 2004, which was $ _______________ .
As of this date we have submitted $ _____________ of our 2006 Total Commitment allocation to the Archdiocese Stewardship Office, and $ ___________ of our 2006 Archdiocese Benefits Plan subsidy to the Archdiocese Benefits Office.
We verify that our 2007 Total Commitment allocation is $ _____________ which represents 15% of our total budgeted expenses for the forthcoming period 1 January through 31 December 2007 as reflected on the attached 2007 Budget, which is $ ________________ .