OCA Holy Synod & Metropolitan Council approve revised Finance Resolution

July 2015

A revision of the Finance Resolution, slated to be presented at the 18th All-American Council of the Orthodox Church in America in Atlanta, GA July 20-24, 2015, has been approved by the Holy Synod of Bishops and the Metropolitan Council.  The text, which replaces that of the resolution already posted, is now available on the OCA and AAC web sites.

In light of issues that arose with regard to the Finance Resolution presented in the Delegate’s Handbook, revisions had been made to the resolution.  Voting on the proposed resolution will take place at the AAC’s Third Plenary Session, scheduled for Tuesday, July 21.

By way of background, at the February 2015 meeting of the Metropolitan Council, a Finance Resolution, to be presented at the AAC, was passed.  Archpriest John Jillions, OCA Chancellor, and Melanie Ringa, OCA Treasurer, immediately began to travel to various Diocesan Council meetings to discuss, explain and garner support for the resolution.

“It became apparent within the first month that the resolution as proposed by the Metropolitan Council would not pass at the AAC, as there was tremendous objection to the ‘floor’ in the proposal,” said Ms. Ringa.  “At the Holy Synod meeting in March 2015, the Finance Resolution was revised, with a compromise being reached by removing the floor but increasing the proportional rates and increasing the contributions from the ethic dioceses.  This is the resolution that appears in the AAC Delegate Handbook, and is attached as Exhibit A.”

Further movement on the resolution occurred when the members of the Holy Synod met for their annual retreat June 8-11, 2015.

“The Holy Synod again amended the resolution, and it is attached asExhibit B,” Ms. Ringa added.  “The revision in this version was to remove the section regarding increasing the contributions of the ethnic dioceses.”

As a result, according to Ms. Ringa, the financial impact of the resolution before the Holy Synod’s revision was a reduction in the Central Administration budget of $400,000.00 over three years, whereas after the revision this reduction increased to $495,000.00 over the same period.

“Meetings with the Dioceses of the South, West and Midwest and the Archdiocese of Washington, DC immediately before and after the Holy Synod retreat indicated that while there is support for the overall resolution, the cuts to the Central Administration budget over the next three years were of deep concern,” Ms. Ringa continued.  “Therefore, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon, asked the Finance Committee to propose a revision to the latest Holy Synod resolution, and that this proposal then be communicated to the Metropolitan Council.  If the latter agreed to it, it will be presented to the Holy Synod for their blessing.”

During the last week of June 2015, the Finance Committee worked to develop a new proposed resolution, attached here as Exhibit C.

“The resolution had attempted to take all the dioceses down to a proportional rate of 34% by 2018,” Ms. Ringa explained.  “While this rate is still our goal, we realized that it is unrealistic to take those dioceses that are in the 50-60% ranges down to 34% in so short a period of time.  Exhibit C takes these dioceses down to a maximum rate of 46% by 2018, and the overall proportional rate falls from 46% to 41%.”

A spreadsheet with details by diocese is attached here as Exhibit D.

During the last week of June, Metropolitan Council members weighed in in favor of the new resolution proposed by the Finance Committee.  The resolution was subsequently presented to the Holy Synod, which gave its blessing to post it in lieu of the previously posted resolution.

According to Archpriest Eric G. Tosi, OCA Secretary, the posting does not need to fall within the 60 day/30 day time frame indicated in the currentStatute of the Orthodox Church in America, as resolutions may be received at any time with the Holy Synod’s blessing.

Source: