Episcopal Press and News
Presiding Bishop's Fund Approves $1.5 Million in Grants
Episcopal News Service. November 23, 1993 [93208]
Tracy Early, Free-lance Writer in New York City
Grants totaling $1.5 million were approved by the board of the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief at its semiannual meeting in New York, November 8-10.
Board members also received a report on completion of a special project to assist the Russian Orthodox Church with establishment of St. Xenia's Hospital in St. Petersburg.
Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning participated in some of the board deliberations, and announced that he had appointed Bishop Herbert Thompson Jr. of Southern Ohio to succeed Bishop Francis C. Gray of Northern Indiana as chairman of the board.
Project grants included $407,178 for the United States, $269,478 for Africa, $100,651 for Asia and the Pacific, $56,050 for the Caribbean, $50,500 for Central America, $48,934 for South America, $31,000 for Europe and $15,000 for the Middle East.
In addition, $124,149 was allocated for emergency needs of refugees from Burundi living in Rwanda and Tanzania and for people of Rwanda displaced by internal conflict. A grant of $13,980 was given to the National Council of Churches relief agency, Church World Service, for feeding programs in Somalia.
Further grants were made for flood relief in the U.S. Midwest. Money to be released immediately and funds authorized for release after further staff evaluation totalled $430,000. Reports to the board showed a total of $1.4 million received by the PB's Fund for Midwest flood relief.
As usual, the board voted to aid projects serving a wide range of needs. There were grants for a theological training program in the Sudan, a forestry project in West Africa and play therapy for war-affected children in Liberia.
A grant of $20,000 went to Bethune House Women's Shelter in Hong Kong, and one for $8,000 to a Mayan adult literacy program in Guatemala. The Joel Nafuma Refugee Center in Rome received $20,000 and St. James Mission Community Center in Uruguay got $39,939 to help a group of Montevideo residents who were forced to move to the outskirts of the city.
U.S. projects receiving aid from the Fund ranged from the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen in New York to a family farm assistance program in North Carolina; from a grant to help finance a gathering of Latino seminarians in Texas to a native youth project in Alaska.
A $25,000 grant will assist the Kinship Circle at the Chapel of St. Philip the Evangelist in Washington, D.C., an effort to enlist elderly black men and women in strengthening family ties in a community with high rates of single-parent families.
Underscoring the importance of national and diocesan collaboration, the board approved grants to three mission projects of the Diocese of Milwaukee: medical work carried out with St. Marc's Church in Jeanette, Haiti, a children's feeding program on the hurricane-damaged Corn Island, Nicaragua, and a health clinic in Milwaukee.
The board approved plans for promotion of the 1994 Annual Appeal. Robert Trowbridge, a specialist in direct mail who works on a contract basis to arrange production and distribution of campaign materials, reported on procedures designed to enlist a higher percentage of congregations in supporting the annual collection, suggested for the last Sunday in January.
Elena Segura Van Treeck, who coordinates the work of the fund's diocesan representatives, reported that the number of these diocesan fund coordinators and parish fund representatives was growing.
Board members continued to wrestle with the issue of how to enlist and recognize major donors. Timothy S. Holder, development director for the fund, reported that the St. Xenia project -- including a general hospital, an outpatient clinic and a food bank -- was completed in September, with some $325,000 raised. He said these funds were contributed 500 individual donors, and included 25 major gifts averaging $7,500. In addition, he said, large amounts of donated equipment were sent.
Browning reported that Patriarch Aleksy II of Moscow had personally expressed appreciation to him for the aid to St. Xenia. "I think we can be very proud of what this board has done in relation to the church in Russia," the presiding bishop said.
However, board members expressed uncertainty about undertaking similar campaigns in the future. They said the original concept of the major donor program, with large contributors recognized by induction into the Society of the Anchor and participation in some annual event, should be modified to provide broader opportunities for support. Board members also noted that many Episcopalians were making substantial gifts to other charities, and said the PB's Fund should provide a channel for donors wishing to make large gifts to projects of special importance.
The appeals and communication committee proposed that the fund continue its effort to secure large gifts, but with the program called "major projects" rather than "major donors." The committee also recommended that the Society of the Anchor be continued, but "with a low profile" and "without attempt to enlarge the membership." Board members accepted this report, and asked the committee, together with the administration and finance committee, to give the subject further study, and propose a theoretical model for a major project to the next board meeting.