National office declines request to increase ACC grants.

STAFF

The Anglican Church of Canada has declined a request to increase its annual grant to the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), citing budgetary constraints.

The executive council of the Episcopal Church in the United States (ECUSA), meanwhile, recently approved a similar request to increase its grant by $550,000 from 2007 to 2009. The decision is pending approval by its governing body in June.

Acting General Secretary Ellie Johnson said the Canadian church received a request for additional grants, which it considered while preparing the 2006 budget, but was unable to meet. "We don't have the capacity to meet the requested increases, even though we are strong supporters of the ACC and the work of the Anglican Communion office," said Ms. Johnson. She said the church has tried to compensate for the limitations in its contributions by "substituting substantial human resources to serve on a variety of commissions, committees, networks, task groups, etc."

The Canadian church's 2005 budget allotted a $105,000 grant for the ACC, which was less than the request of $121,223. For 2006, the ACC requested a grant of $133,265, but the Canadian church has pledged to give $105,000.

The Canadian church cut its 2006 budget by five per cent and laid off six staffmembers of the Anglican Book Centre, the church's retail and publishing department following another year of bleak financial situation.

ECUSA's executive council, for its part, approved a request to increase its grant by $550,000 from 2007-2009, raising the American church's total contribution to $2.3 million. In the last three years (2004 to 2006), ECUSA's contribution to the ACC totaled $1.8 million or $600,000 a year.

The approved request will be presented to ECUSA's General Convention for approval this June. The executive council (ECUSA's governing body between General Conventions) did not approve the increase without questions from some members about whether the ACC had justified its request for money.

Episcopal Life newspaper reported that Josephine Hicks, a member of ECUSA's ACC deputation, had urged the council to approve the request saying it needed to make a "leadership statement." After the council approved the increase, Catherine Roskam, bishop suffragan of New York and a member of the council's ACC deputation, said she had abstained from the vote because she "couldn't think dearly enough" since she still harbored strong feelings about the way the American delegates were treated at the ACC meeting in Nottingham last June. Both Canadian and American churches had sent delegates to "attend but not participate" in the ACC meeting following a request made by primates of the Anglican Communion that they "temporarily withdraw" from Anglican international bodies because of their more liberal attitudes towards sexuality.