The Bishop announced at the 185th Diocesan Convention that work on the budget will begin far earlier. A target of July 1st for the publication of the first draft of a proposed budget was set. This move allows congregations more than one vestry or bishop's committee meeting to pray and discern your commitment.

 

In order to help show how this affects the diocesan budget process, the Communications Office has prepared the following resource: 2014 Budget Flowchart. This flowchart will be updated throughout the budgeting process with other key dates once the appropriate committee or Trustees & Council publishes them.

 

The key dates so far include:

June 1 - Mission Funding Applications Deadline
June 1 - Deadline for Budget Requests
July 1 - Publication of the 1st Draft of the Proposed Budget
Sept. 1 - Congregational Audits Due
TBD - Deadline for Congregational Pledges
Nov. 8-9 - Approval of the 2014 Diocesan Budget at the 186th Diocesan Convention

 

All information about the budget will be available on the Resources for Church Finance and Management webpage. 

 

This is a time-consuming and difficult task that is made easier by cooperation of all who depend on the Diocese for funding.  The Bishop has requested that the preliminary 2014 Diocesan Budget with expected expenses be distributed to all by July 1, 2013.  If we are to meet that goal the requests for the 2014 budget will need to be submitted to Becky Meyer in the diocesan office before June 1, 2013.  You may submit your requests to her by email to beckym@episcopalky.org, fax at (502) 584-8123, or through regular mail at:

Attn: Becky Meyer

Diocese of Kentucky

425 S. 2nd Street, Suite 200

Louisville, KY 40202

 

If you are having difficulty with your request please contact Becky as soon as possible.

The deadline for Mission Funding applications is June 1, 2013.  The Mission Funding Handbook describing the process and the application are available on the Diocesan website under Resources for Church Finance & Management. For your convenience, they may also be found in this email:

Parochial reports are sent to the parish offices in early January and are due to the Diocesan Office by February 1 and the national church by March 1. We thank the congregations that have already submitted their parochial reports and want to encourage all other congregations to submit theirs as soon as possible. 

The Diocese of Kentucky has a Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children and Youth that is applicable to all clergy, parish staff, volunteers, and congregates within the 36 congregations, 3 campus ministries, and all missions within the diocese. 

This policy is in place to foster healthy and safe relationship that are the foundation of Christian ministry. To aid in a more universal understanding of our policies and training opportunities a Sexual Misconduct Prevention webpage was added to the Diocesan website under the Resources tab. The link to the page is also here. 

It includes information on who needs training and what specific classes they need. For example all clergy are required to take and keep up-to-date 6 different online courses on www.safeguardingonline.org and will need to take a Preventing Sexual Harassment of Church Workers class offered by your deanery when they become available. Vestry members need to take and keep up-to-date 5 online courses and will also need to take the Preventing Sexual Harassment of Church Workers when they become available. 

The online courses are free and take from 30 - 60 minutes each and are extremely user friendly. If you do not have a Safeguarding username and password, contact your parish Safeguarding administrator. If you do not know who that might be, you can email the Rev. Canon Joan Smith for their contact information.

The webpage also includes resources on model policies if your congregation doesn't already have some, how to report an incident, and much more. 

 

The Resources tab has been reconfigured in order to best serve our congregational leaders. If you visit episcopalky.org and hover over the Resources tab, you'll see new categories to choose from. Here's a quick breakdown of what you'll find in each category.

Forms and information specific to clergy, canonical residency, wedding form and resources, continuing education, how to report changes to CPG and the diocese, tax guides, and a calendar with events in the diocese and specific to clergy. You can also log into Access ACS from here to update your contact information if it changes.

Leadership development tools, congregational development, prayer cycles, bishop's visitation procedure, and transition and supply.

Financial Best Practices (from the Wardens & Treasurers Conference), diocesan budget information and deadlines, audit resources, parochial report documents, human resources, IRS and tax information, mission funding, Marmion loan application instructions, and insurance and pension.

Contact information for the diocesan Transition Officer, current vacancies with their congregation biographies.

Clergy continuing education, and all information and forms for discernment into the Holy Orders.

Constitution and canons of the Episcopal Church and Diocese of Kentucky, Diocesan Convention information, Trustees & Council, Standing Committee, General Convention information, and deaneries and their deans.

Diocesan policy, who needs training, registration for training, costs, guidelines for appropriate affection with youth, model policies, and how to report an incident

Resources on these webpages are always being added and updated as they become available. Check back often to see what's new!

Begun more than 40 years ago in response to a break-in one May night by youths wanting to play basketball, St. George's Community Center continues to respond to the needs of African-American children and teens in western Louisville, and this year Sunday, May 19th, has been designated in the Diocese of Kentucky as the day for supporting this critical youth ministry through a commemorative offering.

Mark your calendars for the  free 2013 Stewardship Summit with keynoter The Rev. Corky Carlisle, a gifted teacher of Stewardship, to be held on Friday evening, May 31, and Saturday, June 1 at St. Matthew's in Louisville. 

Need help registering, take a look at our Online Registration Instructions. If you still need help, contact Brian Kinnaman at bkinnaman@episcopalky.org or (502) 584-7148.

Activist and fundraiser Dan Pallotta calls out the double standard that drives our broken relationship to charities. Too many nonprofits, he says, are rewarded for how little they spend -- not for what they get done. Instead of equating frugality with morality, he asks us to start rewarding charities for their big goals and big accomplishments (even if that comes with big expenses). In this bold talk, he says: Let's change the way we think about changing the world.

A priest in our diocese shared this with key members of his parish's financial team. How do you and your congregants think about your congregation's finances?

Do you have any TED talks you'd like to share with our other diocesan leaders?

The Episcopal Church Office of Public Affairs is pleased to announce a new offering for church use to help enhance your message, broaden your reach and offer tips for placements into regional, secular, and other media - both traditional and social.

 

It's called The Toolkit, and it is located on the Public Affairs pages of the Episcopal Church website. The Toolkit is an aspect of Let's Invent This Together, a variety of resources and services available through diocesan partnerships. Through these partnerships we seek to further churchwide goals and diocesan mission. 

 

The goal of The Toolkit is to enable you to prepare your messages not only for your church but your regional area, your ecumenical partners, and beyond.

 

The contents of The Toolkit reflect items that are designed to make research and facilitation as problem-free as possible for. Contents include:

• Catalog - a list of important topics along with any actions taken by The Episcopal Church and General Convention.
• Getting started - an easy how-to for getting started in preparing materials, news releases, op-eds, etc.
• Topics - topics of interest that you may want to address, whether liturgically, socially, or the hot news that people are discussing.

Take a look. This is a living document, and as always, the Episcopal Church Office of Public Affairs is open to ideas, suggestions and areas that would help you to amplify your message. Continue Reading

Late last year, the Bishop announced the launch of the Diocese of Kentucky Scholarship Fund in response to the alleged misappropriation of funds by the former chair and his wife of the Woodcock Foundation. This restricted fund will receive contributions to continue and support the legacy of the Woodcock Foundation Scholarship in two ways.

1. Scholarships promised for Fall 2011/Spring 2012 will first be fulfilled.
2. Funds received over and above the amount needed to fulfill those promised scholarships will begin to rebuild the Woodcock Scholarship Fund.

The Diocese of Kentucky Scholarship Fund will be a restricted fund, governed by Trustees and Council of the Diocese of Kentucky until such time as all litigation and any other matters are resolved. The establishment of the Diocese of Kentucky Scholarship Fund under the oversight of Trustees and Council has the unanimous support of the Board of Trustees of the Woodcock Foundation.

 

Contributions can be made online or by sending a check made payable to the Diocese of Kentucky, memoed Diocese of Kentucky Scholarship, and mailed to:

Attn: Diocesan Scholarship

Diocese of Kentucky

425 South Second Street, Suite 200

Louisville, KY 40202

 

If you'd like to donate online, you can visit our Online Giving webpage on our website. In order to donate, you'll need to create an account, so we know where to send the tax deductible documentation at year's end.

 

The response from so many people who wish to make a contribution to rebuild the fund has been wonderfully encouraging, especially from those who themselves received a Woodcock Scholarship at one time.

bkinnaman@episcopalky.org
502.584.7148