This letter from the chair of the Joint Budget Committee of the Executive Council offers background on the draft 2028-2030 churchwide budget. Episcopalians are invited to review the draft budget handbook and join committee hearings on Nov. 18 and Dec. 9.
Note: The 2027 budget figures included in the draft budget represent the preliminary annual budget for the last year of the current triennium, which will be submitted to the Executive Council for approval in December. They are for reference only.
Dear siblings in Christ in The Episcopal Church:
I bring you greetings of peace and good news as the chair of the Joint Budget Committee of Executive Council.
In accordance with our bylaws, and in collaboration with Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe, President of the House of Deputies Julia Ayala Harris, and Chief Financial Officer Chris Lacovara, our committee is pleased to release our draft budget for the 2028-2030 triennium.
I would like to share with you how we arrived at this document, why changes were necessary, and what these changes mean for the future of The Episcopal Church.
When the Joint Budget Committee met in July 2025 with our then-new chief financial officer, Chris Lacovara, we began by looking closely at how the budget of The Episcopal Church was developed and presented to the wider church.
What we found was a system that needed significant attention.
At the time, the budget was developed and shared with the church using an Excel spreadsheet containing nearly 700 lines. You might reasonably assume that a budget of that size would account for every dollar spent by The Episcopal Church. Unfortunately, that was not the case.
When we asked why every expense was not reflected in the budget, we were told that in the past certain expenses were simply too unpredictable to budget for, and that those expenses, while not included in the budget, were included in the consolidated financial statements of The Episcopal Church—statements that very few deputies or bishops read.
But as anyone who has ever managed a budget knows, while we cannot predict every expense with certainty, we can make reasonable estimates based on past experience. A well-informed estimate is far better than leaving an expense out of the budget altogether.
Examples of items omitted from the old budget would be grants and scholarships funded by trust funds (and the related income), most of the United Thank Offering (including roughly $1 million of granting), and all of the operations of the Episcopal Church Women (income and expenses).
While all funds were ultimately accounted for and used properly, the Joint Budget Committee wanted to create more transparency and ensure all funds expended were included in the budget being reviewed at General Convention.
One of our first priorities, therefore, was to ensure that this proposed budget accounts for all expenses, including those that must be estimated based on historical spending. That is an important step toward a more complete and transparent picture of how the church uses its resources.
But incomplete budgeting was only part of the problem.
We also faced a significant challenge when it came to understanding how the church was actually doing financially at any given moment. The Church Center was operating separate accounting and financial reporting systems that did not communicate with one another well. On top of that, the budget did not align with the chart of accounts used to record financial activity.
The result? Generating meaningful reports that compared actual revenue and expenses with the budget was very difficult.
This created challenges for the ministry areas trying to manage their resources. It also made it harder for leadership to get a clear, consolidated picture of the church’s financial position.
I hope you can appreciate the complexity of what we were facing. We needed more than a revised spreadsheet. We needed a financial management system that would give us accurate, timely, and meaningful information about how our resources were being used.
So, where did we begin?
Our first priority was to find a single accounting, financial reporting, and budgeting system that could meet the needs of the Church Center and replace the old, separate systems. We needed a system that could produce reliable financial reports for the church as a whole, as well as for each individual ministry area. Staff identified a new system—Sage Intacct—which we migrated to at the start of 2026. In addition to consolidating budget and financial reporting, the new system automates much of the accounting work that was previously done manually, speeding up the entire financial reporting process.
The Joint Budget Committee is extremely grateful to CFO Lacovara for his hard work in helping us move toward this goal. Chris has been a gift not only to the Joint Budget Committee, but also to the whole church.
Still, choosing and implementing a new accounting system was only part of the solution. We also needed to change the way the budget was structured.
Working together, the Joint Budget Committee and CFO developed a new chart of accounts. This was an essential step in preparing for the upcoming triennial budget, because the budget and the accounting system needed to speak the same language.
And that brings me to one of the most important changes in this proposal.
We wanted every ministry area to work with the same basic set of revenue and expense accounts. Why does that matter?
Because consistency brings clarity. When ministry areas use a common account structure, we can compare information more meaningfully, understand spending more easily, and provide greater transparency across the organization.
But there is another important benefit: flexibility. Let me give you an example.
Under the old budget structure, if a ministry area planned to hold a particular conference, that conference might appear as its own line item, or perhaps several line items, in the budget.
If circumstances changed during the triennium and the ministry area needed to redirect those funds toward a different priority, making that change could require approval from Executive Council. That process could take months.
In the meantime, the needs of the ministry area might have changed, but the budget had not.
The new approach is designed to address that problem.
Rather than budgeting separately for every individual project or activity, the budget provides an allocation for the ministry area’s broader needs. This gives the head of that ministry area greater flexibility to adjust spending as circumstances change and new priorities emerge.
The goal is not to reduce accountability. Quite the opposite.
The goal is to pair greater flexibility with better financial information and stronger oversight.
With the new accounting and reporting system, ministry area heads are able to see, just days after the close of each month, how their actual spending compares with their budget.
Think about what that means.
Instead of waiting weeks or months to understand where they stand financially, leaders have timely information to help them make informed decisions, identify potential problems, and respond when circumstances change.
At the same time, Executive Council will have a clearer picture of the consolidated budget and the financial performance of all ministry areas.
That is a significant improvement. It is a game changer.
Now, I suspect some of you may be wondering about something else.
You may be looking at this new budget and thinking, “What happened to line 164? That was my project. That was the program I cared about, supported, or followed year after year. Where did it go?”
That is a fair question.
Under the new structure, you will no longer see a separate budget line for every individual project within each ministry area.
Instead, some of those expenses will be grouped under lines called, for example: Contracted Services; Marketing and Events; or Other Program-Specific Expenses.
Those projects have not necessarily disappeared. Rather, their expenses have been consolidated into a broader budget category, giving ministry area heads more flexibility in managing their allocations.
And this is where I want to emphasize the importance of another resource we are providing: The triennial budget is no longer published as an Excel spreadsheet but in a new budget handbook.
The handbook includes all of the numbers in the triennial budget but also contains extensive narrative that explains what is included in revenue and expenses and what those funds are intended to accomplish.
The handbook provides detailed descriptions of the budgets for individual ministry areas. It explains their goals and vision, describes what is included in their allocations, and maps the old budget lines to the new structure.
So, if you want to know what happened to that project you have followed for years, the budget handbook is the place to look. It will help you understand where those former line items are now reflected in the new budget.
In many ways, the budget handbook is just as important as the budget itself. It provides the context behind the numbers and helps us see how financial resources support the work and mission of the church. For those whose eyes glaze over looking at a budget as lines and lines of numbers, the handbook is a game changer.
We have also made a few changes to make the budget easier to read.
Not every ministry area uses every account in the chart of accounts. Under the old approach, you might see a line marked, “This line intentionally left blank,” or you might see a zero where no funds were allocated.
In the new budget, unused lines are simply omitted.
That may seem like a small change, but it makes the document cleaner, easier to navigate, and less cluttered with extraneous information.
Taken together, these changes represent a substantial shift in how we prepare, manage, and communicate the church’s finances.
But there is one more essential piece of this story.
As the Joint Budget Committee worked on these financial changes, we were also watching closely as the church’s strategic plan took shape.
We understood that the budget could not be developed in isolation. A budget is more than a collection of numbers. It reflects our priorities. It tells us what we value, where we intend to focus our efforts, and how we plan to use the resources entrusted to us.
The strategic plan needed to inform the budget, and the budget needed to support the strategic plan.
We wanted a proposed budget that would do more than maintain existing structures and continue doing things simply because that was how they had always been done. We wanted a budget that would help position The Episcopal Church to meet the challenges before us and move toward the future we envision.
There is an image that has stayed with me during the last phases of this process. The Rev. Teddy Brooks, who serves on the Executive Council, spoke of the funeral procession that this church has been on for too long.
It is a striking image, and one that challenges us to think differently.
We cannot simply continue down the same road, making incremental adjustments, and expect a different future. If we want to interrupt that funeral procession, as Teddy so beautifully put it, we must be willing to examine our priorities, rethink how we work, and align our resources with the mission and future of the church.
That is the larger context for the proposed triennial budget.
The work we have done to improve our accounting systems, create a common chart of accounts, strengthen financial reporting, and give ministry area heads greater flexibility is not change for change’s sake. These are practical steps toward building a stronger foundation for the work ahead, and we are grateful to Chris Lacovara and his team for the hard work they have done to bring us to this point.
We owe it to the church to know how its resources are being used. We owe it to our ministry area heads to give them the tools and information they need to manage those resources responsibly. And we owe it to the people of The Episcopal Church to present a budget that is understandable, transparent, and connected to our shared mission.
As we share this proposed triennial budget with you today, my hope and prayer is that you will see those commitments reflected in its structure and in the work that has gone into preparing it.
You will see a budget that is more complete, more transparent, easier to navigate, and more flexible for the ministry areas it seeks to support.
You will also see the beginnings of a better way to understand and manage our finances—not just as a collection of ministry areas, but as one church working together to use its resources wisely in support of a common mission.
The numbers matter. The systems matter. Accountability matters.
And ultimately, they matter because of what they make possible: A church better equipped to respond to the needs of the present, embrace the possibilities of the future, and direct its resources toward the mission to which God is calling us.
Thank you for engaging with us in this vital work, and I hope you will join us at the upcoming hearings scheduled for Nov. 18 and Dec. 9—from 2-4 p.m. and 2-5 p.m. ET, respectively. Register for those here, and feel free to email any questions to budgetquestions@episcopalchurch.org.
Yours in Christ,
The Rt. Rev. Diane Jardine Bruce
Chair, Executive Council Joint Budget Committee
