Diocese of Niagara: 2013 financial update

From here:

Regarding financial resources, Budget Chair Andrew Clinkard reported that “the diocesan financial position continues to get healthier.” He pointed out the diocese has not used their “interest bearing credit line” since March of this year, the “long term debt from parishes has been reduced by $179,000.00 and “we are anticipating an operating surplus for 2013.”

What Clinkard omitted from this rosy assessment was mentioning the influx of cash the diocese received from selling St. Hilda’s church building and rectory.

The rectory sold for $650,0000 and the church building for $2,250,000 (note: I have changed this to an exact number), making the debt reduction of $179,000.00 appear rather less impressive.

Liberal vs. Conservative Churches

There are many differences, of course, but this one might be less than obvious:

A friend of mine who is a liberal Christian made what I thought was an interesting observation about liberal vs. conservative Anglican churches. He was attending St. Hilda’s at the time; one of the things that drew him to the parish in spite of the fact that he is theologically liberal and St. Hilda’s theologically conservative, was that liberal churches constantly talk about social justice but don’t actually do much about it.

St. Hilda’s, he said, didn’t talk about social justice, they just did it.

One example is Food for Life. Poverty is not the first thing that springs to mind when thinking about Oakville; nevertheless, there are poor people in the city – more than one might expect. For many years now, St. Hilda’s has been delivering food to Oakville’s poor. Here is an unsolicited testimonial from one recipient:

 “I just wanted to tell you how much this program means to me.  Things have been very lean and food is often a luxury. A friend told me about the (Food for Life) program at St. Hilda’s Anglican Church. I can count on them every week and they always have a smile for me. They are so supportive and kind I just had to say THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart. Every little bit helps so much. Just so you know that there are a lot of people truly grateful for what you bring to me every Thursday, because it is not just food items – it’s dignity as well.”