Giving to the Episcopal Church USA (ECUSA) dropped by 12 percent in 2004 – the first year since the denomination ordained its only openly gay bishop.

According to a report presented at the Executive Council meeting in Houston, Texas, on Friday, donations from local dioceses tallied to only US$27.5 million – down four million from US$31.2 million gathered in 2003.

In the last year, dozens of parishes publicly denounced the denomination’s decision to ordain Gene Robinson – an active homosexual – as bishop of the New Hampshire diocese. Several dioceses also joined hands to form a separate alliance of Episcopalians within the ECUSA that uphold the scriptural teachings on the homosexual lifestyle.

In presenting the report, the denomination’s treasurer Kurt Banes told the Episcopal Executive Council members that the financial downturn is not expected. Predicting a 3.7 increase in diocese giving to the national church this year and another four percent rise in 2006, Banes said the decline is not due to Robinson’s election.

"There's a decline ... but what I'd emphasise is that some of that may be an economic reaction or reality," Barnes said to the Associated Press. "People's incomes in 2003 and 2004 were recovering or were hurt by the market decline of 2001 and 2002."

However, Canon David Anderson, president of the American Anglican Council, one of the conservative group of Episcopalians formed after Robinson’s election, said the donations will probably continue to decline because of the "liberalist agendas" flooding the denomination.

"That big of a downturn, whatever the dollar amount is, hardly argues for a church where everything is fine and wonderful," Anderson said.




Pauline J. Chang
Ecumenical Press