Money Looms in Episcopalian Rift With Anglicans --NYTimes

[Demeter]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/us/20episcopal.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

March 20, 2007



By LAURIE GOODSTEIN and NEELA BANERJEE

....leaders of the Anglican Communion hold meeting after meeting to debate severing ties with the Episcopal Church in the United States for consecrating an openly gay bishop, one ... unspoken complication is just who has been paying the bills....The truth is, the Episcopal Church bankrolls much of the Communion’s operations. And a cutoff of that money, while unlikely at this time, could deal the Communion a devastating blow.

The Episcopal Church’s 2.3 million members make up a small fraction of the 77 million members in the Anglican Communion, the world’s third-largest affiliation of Christian churches. Nevertheless, the Episcopal Church finances at least a third of the Communion’s annual operations.

Episcopalians give tens of millions more each year to support aid and development programs in the Communion’s poorer provinces in Africa, Asia and Latin America. At least $18 million annually flows from Episcopal Church headquarters in New York, and millions more are sent directly from American dioceses and parishes that support Anglican churches, schools, clinics and missionaries abroad.

Bishops in some foreign provinces that benefit from Episcopal money are now leading the charge to punish the Episcopal Church or even evict it from the Communion. Some have declared that they will reject money from the Episcopal Church because of its stand on homosexuality....Episcopalians are now grappling with an ultimatum issued last month by leaders, or primates, of the Anglican Communion’s 38 provinces demanding that they promise not to ordain any more openly gay bishops, or to approve any more church blessings for gay couples. If the Episcopal Church does not agree by Sept. 30, the primates threatened “consequences” that will affect the Episcopal Church’s participation in the Communion.

BIGOTRY IS AN EXPENSIVE LUXURY!