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	Budget Trouble in Episcopal Diocese A Special Session of the PA. Convention Will Be Asked to Approve Cuts. Bishop Charles E. Bennison Jr. Is under Fire By David O'Reilly Philadelphia Inquirer [Philadelphia PA] January 6, 2007 http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/pennsylvania/counties/chester_county/16395432.htm Faced with a revenue shortfall driven in part by dissatisfaction with Bishop Charles E. Bennison Jr., the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania today is expected to cut 19 percent from its 2007 operating budget. Meeting in a special session of the annual diocesan convention, delegates will be asked to slash the budget from $3.45 million to $2.82 million. If approved, the cut will force major reductions in the diocese's contribution to the national Episcopal church and to aided parishes within the diocese. Funding for a new assistant to the bishop would also be eliminated. Delegates had approved the $3.45 million program budget at their regular convention in November, based on anticipated parish pledges of $1.6 million. To date, however, the parishes have pledged only $1.2 million, prompting the diocesan program budget committee to recommend a new budget. Bennison, who has been sharply criticized for his spending practices and for concealing his brother's sexual abuse of a teenage parishioner decades ago, said he thought "four or five" parishes were withholding pledges as a protest against his leadership. He said he thought most parishes that have not pledged simply could not afford to do so. "My only disappointment is the fact that people are not giving to the national church, but they seem to want to keep their money home," Bennison said in an interview this week. "There's no diminution of any program," he said. "All my staff is doing as much good ministry as it was two years ago. Camp Wapiti," a diocesan summer camp and retreat center in Maryland, "is going forward and congregational development is going well." If adopted, the budget would cut $230,000 from the diocesan contribution to the Episcopal Church USA, down from $526,000. It would cut $108,000 from its support for mission churches and aided parishes. And it would provide none of the $108,000 budget to create a new position of canon to the ordinary, a kind of chief operating officer. Bennison has been sharply criticized within the diocese for spending millions in diocesan endowment funds to fund development of Wapiti. The diocesan standing committee has called repeatedly for his resignation, and in November formally petitioned Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori to remove him. The Rev. William Wood, president of the standing committee, said this week he did not expect a decision on its complaint before early February. The November budget vote was controversial. Many delegates have said they thought they were voting on a motion late in the day to adjourn until Jan. 6. After holding up their green cards signaling a "yea" vote, they said they discovered they were voting on the previous motion - the budget. That meeting had been prolonged by an unscheduled call for Bennison's resignation. Today's convention will also consider a motion to restrict the ability of the diocesan council to modify the budget or other decisions of the diocesan convention. The Rev. Joseph Duffy, rector of St. George's Church in Ardmore, said this week he was calling for such restriction because the council had taken too much power to itself and was thwarting the will of the convention. But Bennison said he opposed restricting the council's authority. "Without it, we will have to call the whole convention every time we need to reduce the budget," he said. Contact staff writer David O'Reilly at 215-854-5723 or doreilly@phillynews.com.
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