From ENS-
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori called on the Episcopal Church's Executive Council Oct. 21 to remember as it moves into nine months of work on the church's 2012 and 2013-2015 finances that "budgets are moral documents."
"These budgets should – we should expect that they will – reflect our values both as Episcopalians and as Christians, and they should reflect our understanding of our part in God's mission, given that we are the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society," she said at the beginning of council's four-day meeting at the Hilton Salt Lake City Center.
"We should be building budgets that clearly reflect our commitment to mission," she said, calling for stewardship of "human vocational resources," of finances and of creation.
Mission, the presiding bishop said, is about reconciling the world to God and each other in Christ as the Book of Common Prayer says. Jesus refers to "caring for the least of these," she noted, adding that mission is also about baptizing and teaching others about the reign of God in Jesus' work.
"Mission is about transformation because we don't yet live in the fullness of the mission of God," she said.
Jefferts Schori added what she called a caveat. "The dollars identified in a particular segment of the budget do not necessarily reflect the value we place on an area of mission," she said. "The budget overall needs to reflect our commitment to the different varieties of mission but, we are not to judge one part of the budget against another only on dollar value."
More here-
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79425_130279_ENG_HTM.htm
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