Anglican church suffers $1 million budget cut
TORONTO, ON - The Anglican Church of Canada has slashed more than $1 million from its operating budget by cutting overseas programs and subsidies to northern Canada, reducing its fulltime staff at headquarters by eight, and reducing or eliminating other programs.
The move is part of the church's attempt to balance its budget in the face of declining revenue from dioceses, lower income from investments and mounting costs arising from residential school lawsuits.
At the same time, the church announced on August 14 that it would put double the money—$547,000—into its aboriginal healing and reconciliation fund.
The cuts were difficult to make, says Archdeacon Jim Boyles, the church's general secretary. "It affects the services that we offer to the dioceses and parishes. It affects the effectiveness of ministry in the North. And it will have a substantial effect on overseas programs."
The largest reduction in terms of dollars is in grants to programs overseas, which will decline by almost $400,000 from the current budget of $1.5 million. In addition, the position of Africa mission coordinator has been eliminated. All staff cuts were effective the end of August.
Loss to North
The greatest impact to the Canadian church will be in grants to the northern dioceses, which will suffer a $125,000 loss this year and a further $130,000 in 2001.
Bishop Chris Williams is taking the cuts in stride. As bishop of the Arctic, a huge area that spans the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, he's hoping to maintain ministry without reducing services. "I would hope that perhaps the church in the North can accept the additional challenge and, along with our people who support us in the South, we'll make up the amount."
Resources are there, Williams is convinced, to run the diocese. "We have been challenging the people of the North to become self-supporting," he says. "Maybe it's a wake-up call."
Williams, based in Yellowknife, recently hired two clergy from England. Knowing there would be a loss of grants, he had contacted them earlier to warn them about the Canadian church's financial crisis. "Both of them said they felt called by God to minister to the North," he says. They are now working on immigration and hope to arrive this fall.
The diocese of Keewatin, which covers northwestern Ontario and part of Manitoba, is also among the northern regions that receive subsidies. Keewatin will lose about $20,000 from its $400,000 budget. "It does mean that we have to find some new and creative ways of approaching our situation," says David Ashdown, executive archdeacon of the diocese, based in Kenora, Ontario.
The diocese has already formed a task force to look for ways of becoming self-supporting.
"In the midst of all this we have a major commitment to healing and reconciliation work," Ashdown adds. Keewatin, the only diocese headed by a native, Bishop Gordon Beardy, is one of the most proactive in addressing the need for healing among aboriginal people. Ashdown applauds the church's decision to double the healing fund, calling it "a very good thing for our diocese."
Journal size reduced
The budget cuts have also resulted in a 40 percent reduction in size of the Anglican Journal, along with the consolidation of the Journal editorial staff with web site and print resources staff. The changes didn't sit right with Journal editor David Harris, who chose a severance package rather than work in a more restricted environment.
"Given my understanding of the independence of the Journal and my role as editor, I was uncomfortable with the changes," he says.
Doug Tindal, director of information resources, argues there will be no editorial changes other than the size. "There's no change in content," he says. "It has editorial independence. There's no change to any of that." Tindal predicts the reduction in size will save up to $100,000 a year.
The 125-year-old newspaper, which has a circulation of 250,000, has consistently won awards for both writing and design in Canadian Church Press and the U.S.'s Associated Church Press competitions under Harris's leadership.
Litigation costly
The proposed cuts, which still have to be approved by the church's national executive committee, do nothing to address the mounting costs of litigation brought on by residential school lawsuits. Donations given at the parish level will not be used in settlements, adds Boyles.
But a deficit of $1.5 million in 1999 was due almost entirely to legal costs in several lawsuits. "The rate that our assets are being drained is significant," says Boyles.
The church is still waiting to hear a response from the federal government to a proposal the church made in May that would put a limit on the amount it would have to pay to victims.
"We're still trying to deal with the proposal," confirms Shawn Tupper, the federal Indian Affairs spokesperson who is dealing with residential school lawsuits. "We haven't been as speedy as the churches would like," he says. "We trying to fit it into a national context."
Meanwhile, the government is stepping up its attack on the Anglican and other churches that operated residential schools by bolstering its legal defenses. A recent ad in the Winnipeg Free Press sought a lawyer to defend the Crown "in claims made by individuals arising from their experiences while attending Indian Residential Schools."
That person is being hired primarily to deal with cases arising from schools run by the Roman Catholic Oblates order in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Tupper says. The government now has about 60 lawyers across the country defending cases launched by 6,100 claimants, Tupper adds.
A few days after the cuts were announced, Boyles met with deputy prime minister Herb Gray to explain the church's position. "We discussed a range of issues involved," Boyles reports. "He expressed a willingness to meet again with church representatives." No date has been set for further meetings.
The consensus in the church is that lawsuits won't adequately address the social and emotional problems that still affect natives years after they attended residential schools. "Dollars are not going to bring healing," says Williams. "It's people working with people who enable healing to take place."
Although the Anglican Church of Canada hopes to regain its equilibrium in the next year, without a change in the government's handling of the lawsuits, the church could be in for another round of cuts, or even bankruptcy. "The next round of cuts will be more bloody than this one," predicts Ashdown.
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