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[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Church on Nov. 5 released the Joint Budget Committee’s draft of the 2028-30 churchwide budget plan in a new format, a 74-page “Budget Handbook,” that highlights some of the significant initiatives recommended by Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe under the church’s recently adopted strategic plan. The proposed triennial budget anticipates $165 million in revenue and expenses over three years. It would invest $4 million a year in congregational vitality. It would spend $1 million a year on an Episcopal Church “identity and evangelism” campaign. It would launch a churchwide pilot program costing $2 million a year to support dioceses in processing and resolving disciplinary cases under the church’s Title IV canons. And it would gradually reduce annual block grants to low-resourced dioceses by 20% over the next four years to create some of the savings needed to pay for those strategic initiatives, including church planting and redevelopment. The proposed budget plan also assumes substantial one-time revenue from the pending sale of The Episcopal Church’s headquarters building in New York, New York. After that sale, $30 million in proceeds would seed a new congregational vitality trust fund, and the church would set aside an additional $10 million for moving to temporary offices and eventually relocating to a new permanent headquarters location. The budget document was first presented Nov. 4 in a closed session to Executive Council, the church’s governing and oversight body between meetings of General Convention. It is now being released to the wider church for the first time, along with a letter from Bishop Diane Jardine Bruce, chair of the Joint Budget Committee. Registration is now available for two online public hearings, the first on Nov. 18, about the budget process and church revenues, and the second on Dec. 9 about expenses. “A budget is more than a collection of numbers,” Bruce said in the letter. “It reflects our priorities. It tells us what we value, where we intend to focus our efforts and how we plan to use the resources entrusted to us.” With that in mind, the Joint Budget Committee worked closely with Rowe’s staff, particularly Chief Financial Officer Chris Lacovara, to develop the new budget, overhaul its format and incorporate detailed departmental budgets. At the same time, Rowe’s team spent much of this year on a parallel strategic visioning track. Rowe presented the final strategic plan at Executive Council’s Oct. 19 meeting in New York, and Executive Council voted unanimously to endorse it. In his presentation, Rowe structured his vision for the church over the next 15 years around three priorities, each with several action items: “Witness: A Christianity Worth Proclaiming,” “Support: Capacity Where It’s Needed” and “Sustain: A Church Built to Last.” The church has not yet released the written strategic plan document that the council adopted with “budget implications.” “We understood that the budget could not be developed in isolation,” said Bruce, the former Los Angeles bishop suffragan, who serves on Executive Council. “The strategic plan needed to inform the budget, and the budget needed to support the strategic plan.” Executive Council is expected to vote on the draft 2028-30 budget plan and any amendments at its February 2027 meeting. The proposed triennial budget will be presented to the 82nd General Convention for further revisions and adoption in July 2027 when bishops and deputies gather in Phoenix, Arizona. After budget overhaul, new format presented as more transparent “We wanted a proposed budget that would do more than maintain existing structures and continue doing things simply because that was how they had always been done,” Bruce said in her letter. “We wanted a budget that would help position The Episcopal Church to meet the challenges before us and move toward the future we envision.” At $165 million, the new budget’s size is also a $22 million increase from the $143 million in revenue and expenses approved by General Convention in the 2025-27 churchwide budget plan. Church leaders say a large part of that 15% increase is about transparency rather than added expenses. The new budget plan reflects new, more accurate accounting procedures and a financial systems overhaul. For example, Bruce said that the 2025-27 budget plan did not fully account for grants and scholarships funded by trust funds. In addition, the church’s United Thank Offering grant program and the operations of the Episcopal Church Women historically have been treated as separate organizations and not included. They have been added to the 2028-30 budget plan under the newly created Grantmaking Department. “While all funds were ultimately accounted for and used properly [in previous years], the Joint Budget Committee wanted to create more transparency and ensure all funds expended were included in the budget being reviewed at General Convention,” Bruce said. When adjusting for the new format and accounting changes, annual churchwide costs are expected to increase by about 9% over three years, from $52.5 million in 2027 to $57.4 million in 2030. Bruce also touted the budget’s new reporting format. Previously, General Convention adopted a triennial budget structured as a spreadsheet with hundreds of line items. The church released the draft 2028-30 budget plan in a redesigned 46-page spreadsheet form, though the budget has also been presented as a detailed Budget Handbook for anyone interested in digging deeper into the itemized lines. That document includes both department summaries and budget line items, as well as additional “expense notes” that clarify notable details and changes. If someone is interested in the church’s investment in creation care ministries, Page 32 explains the church’s recent focus on growing an eco-region network. The creation care budget would eliminate a vacant staff officer position, and annual creation care costs are now projected at $434,000 in 2028. If someone is interested in Armed Forces and Federal Ministries, Page 17 highlights those ministries while itemizing a budget of about $1.1 million in 2028 that funds four staff members. Wondering how much money the church is planning to give in […]

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