In September 2012 there was some fanfare when St. Luke’s Palermo broke ground for a new church-community centre amalgam. The mayor and Halton regional chairman were there, along with various and sundry clergy; the bishop spoke and the project’s financial partner, the CEO of Diversicare, pronounced his secular blessing on the enterprise. The plan was:
to build a retirement residence (in partnership with FRAM/Diversicare) on land to the west of the church.
Alas, it seems that the financial arrangements with Diversicare have fallen through, leaving the diocese to foot the bill.
St. Luke’s, Palermo support – there are a lot of numbers that pertain to Palermo. The joint proposal with Versa Care [I am relatively certain that this should say Diversicare] is no longer financially viable, St. Luke’s will continue with the project without partnership and the Diocese is assisting financially to complete the Parish Centre.
A few other budgetary highlights:
There has been a 60% reduction in staff at the Synod Office since Bishop Bird was elected….
If some churches don’t have the money to pay the DM&M then how can the Diocese spend when they won’t be getting all they budget for?
If incomes increase so will the DM&M and how can we manage this with an aging congregation and declining attendance?
Parishes are delving into line of credits and investments, it’s a cascading affect that maybe we can’t afford to do
And my favourite – mainly because it is prime Anglican bafflegab:
We need to balance scarcity with abundance.
“We need to balance scarcity with abundance”
Makes sense… they try their best to balance everything: intelligence with stupidity, faith with disbelief, honesty with lying, charity with vindictiveness, straight with gay, you name it…
At least they are being consistent. At least one can give them credit for that.
But like you David, I sure enjoy it when the ecclesial big wigs screw up. Oh I enjoy the art of schadenfreude…
“We need to balance scarcity with abundance.”
Only people who don’t actually earn the money they spend come out with stuff like that. People who have to sweat for every penny in their pockets take a very different attitude to money. It’s *real*, not just words.
You are so correct. I am saddened at the arrogance of ecclesial bureaucrats when they pat themselves on the back after they come up with “creative ideas from outside of the box” on how to spend the money that belongs to registered charities, ideas that are doomed to failure because God could care less about their “creative ideas from outside of the box.”
Might it be a case of Bishop Bird not having a feather to fly wth?