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Diocese ends year on brighter financial note

By Melodie Woerman

Editor, The Harvest

A year that was expected to put the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas $250,000 in the hole ended on a brighter note, with a deficit of less than half that amount reported in preliminary figures for 2005.

According to Comptroller Jay Currie, expenses outpaced revenues for the diocese by just under $119,000, an improvement of some $131,000 over projections made at the start of the year.

The larger deficit amount was expected in part because of the loss of $200,000 in apportionment payments from Christ Church, pending its departure from the Episcopal Church. That move happened in April 2005. Diocesan financial planners also had expected a modest shortfall of about $50,000 in apportionment payments by a handful of parishes that routinely struggle to meet their financial obligation to the diocese.

The improved situation resulted from expenses that came in under budget and some unexpected revenue.

Currie noted that the diocese received more than $52,000 in direct contributions, most from former Christ Church members who wanted to support the work of the diocese with donations. An increase in fees, notably from more youth attending events, resulted in an additional $15,000 in revenue as well.

Currie said substantial savings in some program areas also helped the budget picture. Changes to the structure of campus ministry in the diocese still are being implemented, and while an active search is underway for campus missioners to implement the new ministry plan those positions remained unfilled at years-end, with a savings of about $70,000 in that budget area.

The stewardship and planned giving line-item saw a savings of about $23,000, with the mid-year retirement of planned giving officer Frank Connizzo. Bishop Wolfe has announced he intends to hire a full-time stewardship and development officer in 2006, but that person has not yet been selected.

The diocese also netted $13,000 in unspent funds for clergy interns. That program pays half the salary and benefits for two years for recent seminary graduates who agree to serve parishes in the diocese. A 2005 graduate who was expected to become an intern instead was called as rector of a parish, so those earmarked funds weren’t needed.

Help for the reserves

Diocesan financial planners had planned that the 2005 budget shortfall would be covered by withdrawals from the operating reserves, a rainy-day savings account the diocese keeps for emergencies or to handle cash flow variances.

Diocesan treasurer Doug Anning, in addressing the 2004 diocesan convention that adopted the 2005 budget, said the expected $250,000 withdrawal from the reserves would essentially run that account dry.

But with the deficit less than half that amount, some funds still will remain in the reserves for help with future needs.

Currie said it’s not often that a large deficit is good news, but in this case it is. “We thought we were going to be short a large amount and we’d have to significantly deplete the operating reserves,” he said.

“We were blessed that while we still were short about $120,000, we were about $130,000 better than we had thought. We watched expenses in the budget areas. Because of good cost containment measures, and the changes in personnel and the contributions of free money out of the blue, we ended the year in better condition than we had forecast,” Currie said.

Diocese gets $250,000 in recent bequests

The Episcopal Diocese of Kansas is the beneficiary of three bequests in recent months that have resulted in a quarter of a million dollars for diocesan needs. Money has come from the estates of the late Jane Hergenreiter of St. David’s, Topeka; Martha Hoover of Church of the Covenant, Junction City; and Lois Baum, the former secretary for Bishop Edward Turner.

The Hergenreiter bequest was about $120,000; the Hoover estate brought just under $100,000 to the diocese; and the final installment of the Baum bequest was for $29,000, bringing the total she gave to the diocese to $150,000.

Jane Hergenreiter

Hergenreiter was counted as a member of St. David’s, although she was not well-known to people there. Upon her death her estate was divided between the Diocese of Kansas, St. David’s, St. Francis Academy and several universities.  The church institutions each received gifts of just under $120,000.

Martha Hoover

Hoover’s estate not only provided the diocese with  nearly $100,000 — it gave her parish five times that amount.

Bishop Dean Wolfe received a check for $99,779.42 in December from the Very Rev. Dale Plummer, Covenant’s rector. Also on hand for the event was the Rev. Frank Cohoon, a former Covenant rector and the diocesan planned giving officer when Hoover’s bequest was established.

The money comes unrestricted to the diocese, meaning it can be used for any purpose.

Plummer said the gift to the Junction City parish, which amounts to just under half a million dollars, is designed to continue to pay a significant portion of her pledge to the parish for years to come.

Cohoon said this commitment by Hoover to the ongoing life of the Episcopal Church was typical of her. “She was very outspoken, and she was very loyal,” Cohoon said.

Lois Baum

Baum came to Kansas from her native Colorado to work as Bishop Turner’s secretary. She retired in the spring of 1981, just prior to Bishop Turner’s retirement, and she moved to Boulder, Colo., in the late 1980s. She left the bulk of her estate to the Diocese of Kansas.

An initial $125,000 gift from her estate arrived in 2004, and that was supplemented by a final check for $29,000 that arrived in November.

Compelling ministry

Bishop Wolfe said bequests such as these occur when people have confidence in the work the church is doing. “People give these kinds of gifts when they see compelling ministry happening.”

The bishop also said he hopes this will help spur others to add the Episcopal Church to their estate plans. “We want people to know this is the norm,” he said. “Not all gifts will be this large, but everyone can do something. Almost everyone has something they can give for the work of the church.”