Report To Province VIII Executive Committee by Representatives of Province VIII to the Executive Council—Aug. 2025

Aug. 28, 2025

The Executive Council last met at the end of June 2025 at the Maritime Center in Baltimore. This is a summary of some of the actions of the Council.

1. The Presiding Bishop provided us an update on the restructuring and staffing changes that have been taking place. This includes the hiring of a new Chief Financial Officer for the Episcopal Church who started in his position around April of this year. In this short amount of time, he has grasped the complexities of the challenges with our Finance Department and the implications of the major change in the staffing levels of his divisions. Kurt Barnes remains as the Treasurer of TEC and the General Convention. The two of the have been working diligently and cooperatively in making the transition.
   

2. We received very sad news on our second day of business that a member of the Council, The Rev. Deacon Stannard Baker passed away the night before. We had just had him testify on the first day on-line on a matter. We were shocked to hear of his passing. We passed a resolution to create a working group under the Joint Standing Finance Committee (Finance Committee) in response to GC 81 D023 to identify how TEC can support the work of our diaconate ministry and how their request for funding of $200,000 is to be utilized to support their ministry. Deacon Baker had started work on this project and was to have been the chair of the committee. We entitled the resolution as the Stannard Baker Memorial Resolution.
   

3. 2025 United Thank Offering Grants totaling $1,079,748.37 was approved for 27 different grants.
   

4. 107 scholarships were awarded totaling $311,222 for students from various ethnic groups who are studying in seminaries or conducting research.
   

5. Resolutions were passed, creating several subcommittees under the Jt. Standing Finance Committee that once were interim bodies who reported to different ministry groups. The Committees includes the Diocesan Assessment Review Committee, Grants Committee, Economic Justice Loan Committee.
   

6. A Grants Committee, a subcommittee of the Finance Committee was formed to conduct a study on the granting practices, procedures and process of all of the grants awarded by TEC. According to our CFO, a great portion of the expenditures are by grants awarded. The study will look into the structure of our granting programs and process and consistency and uniformity on how grants are processed and awarded.
   

7. The Finance Committee will take on a broader and more involved role in studying our processes and organzition and programs as an investigative body. In the past, it had addressed mostly the budgetary process. Now that the budget is worked on by the Joint Standing Committee of the Executive Council on Budget, it frees us time for the Committee to take on a more proactive role in oversight of TEC. As Chair of Finance, I am enthusiastic with the new role we are taking on.
   

8. Our next meeting of Council will be at the end of October.

Respectfully submitted, 

The Rt. Rev. Mark Lattime and Timothy Gee