Episcopal Press and News
College for Bishops to raise $15 million to ensure future health, wellness and education of Episcopal bishops
Episcopal News Service. May 5, 2011 [050511-02]
ENS staff
The College for Bishops has announced the formation of a $15 million endowment campaign to ensure the future of the nonprofit organization, which is designed to provide education and formation for Episcopal Church bishops in all stages of their ministry, according to a May 3 press release.
The "Endowing a Sustainable Future" campaign is chaired by the Bishop Clayton Matthews, the Episcopal Church's bishop for pastoral development and managing director of the College for Bishops. He is joined by a group of about 30 other bishops from throughout the United States, the release said.
The campaign is not a "churchwide" fundraiser, Matthews clarified in a May 4 telephone call with ENS.
"This initiative will be directed to specific donors through the bishop's personal networks. There will be no solicitations from dioceses or people in the pew," he said. "The board of directors has been contemplating this for years and we just decided that we had to do it."
Following the dissemination of the press release, discussion, mostly critical, ensued on the Episcopal Café blog, the House of Bishops/Deputies listserv and from individuals posting comments to their own Facebook pages.
"I'm amazed that this would be announced at a time when diocesan, parochial, and mission budgets across the church are being slashed; parochial clergy and staff salaries are stagnant at best; our seminaries are struggling financially; unemployment is widespread; and the wealth disparity in the country is wider than ever," said the Rev. Richard E. Helmer, rector of the Church of Our Savior in Mill Valley, California, in a comment post on Episcopal Café.
"I don't begrudge our bishops the need for support. No one argues about the stress they experience. But they are also generally the best-paid clerics of the church," he said.
Retired Bishop Christopher Epting posted this comment on Episcopal Cafe: "Surely the world and the church present us with more urgent opportunities to give than this rather self-serving effort. My tithe and offerings will go elsewhere."
The Rev. Tom Sramek, Jr., priest-in-charge of St. Edward's Episcopal Church in San Jose, California, also weighed in on Episcopal Café.
"I don't see it as an either/or thing. I hardly think we need to be reminded that unhealthy bishops make for unhealthy dioceses with unhealthy parishes, making an unhealthy church. As an Episcopal Church that relies on the direction and leadership of bishops, there is a need to make sure that they are healthy, balanced folks who stay healthy and balanced," he said.
It is never a good time to begin a fundraiser, said Matthews, acknowledging the still crippled U.S. economy, dwindling Episcopal Church and diocesan budgets, and multiple other campaigns, including the church's Fund for Haiti, but that like other 501(c) 3 organizations in the Episcopal Church -- Episcopal Church Foundation, the National Association of Episcopal Schools and Episcopal Relief & Development – the College for Bishops, which is owned by the House of Bishops, has a responsibility to work toward self-sustainability.
The College for Bishops was created in 1993 to strengthen the Episcopal Church's bishops in their personal lives, as diocesan leaders in God's mission and in their vocation in service to the Episcopal Church; it received non-profit status in 2010.
"Through its myriad of programs, offerings, and educational enrichment sessions, the College for Bishops has proven to be invaluable for our bishops, which in turn has greatly benefitted clergy and laity," said Matthews in the release. "Our goal now is to make sure that these offerings are available for future generations of Episcopalians."
The College for Bishops has an annual budget of about $400,000, said Matthews during the telephone call.
The church's General Convention allocated $236,000 to the college for the 2010-2012 triennium, up from $110,220 in the 2007-2009 period (see line 55 here). In its report to the 2009 convention, the college requested $367,500 for the 2010-2012 triennium.
The college, which also gets funding from House of Bishops contributions and CREDO, provides opportunities for active and retired Church Pension Fund participants to examine significant areas of their lives and to discern prayerfully the future direction of their vocation. CREDO provides financial and administrative assistance to the college.
CREDO funding is scheduled to sunset in 2012, Matthews said during the telephone call.
"We are hoping that the endowment would give us not only operating budget but income to expand programs and research, and that is one thing that would benefit the church," he said, adding that the bishops also would like to have funds that would allow clergy and laity to work with them on projects. "Right now they have to pay for themselves."
Matthews echoed Sramek's comments, saying happy, healthy bishops stay in their positions longer. He also said the College for Bishops would like to have scholarship money to give to bishops from struggling dioceses.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori chairs the college's board of directors.
"I have found the work of the College for Bishops to have had an immensely positive impact not only on bishops, but on the functioning of the entire church," Jefferts Schori has said, according to the release. "I believe that it is essential to secure the future of this program in order to ensure the continued educational and formational growth of episcopal leaders in a community environment."
For more information about the Endowing a Sustainable Future campaign, contact Matthews at cmatthews@episcopalchurch.org.