DeniseDenise said:
TheTrisagion said:
Carl Kraeff (Second Chance) said:
TheTrisagion said:
I'm not a huge fan of just forking over 10% to your parish as a rule. The Jews were instructed to do it because the social welfare programs of the nation went through the temple. If I am going to give a full 10% to my parish, they had better be doing lots of stuff besides putting up new icons and building additions. Certainly the parish needs to be funded and giving should not be neglected, but I don't think it is any less honorable if you are also giving to OCMC, IOCC, or even non-Orthodox charities who are meeting social needs.
For sure! I disagree with just one part of your post: where you expect certain things as a result of your full tithing.
My idea of stewardship is that I am responsible for my part and the Parish Council, the rector and the bishop are responsible for the spending of it. That said, I would be more at home in a parish that tithes to the diocese; makes regular donations to charitable causes in the community, state, nation and world; and support various specifically Orthodox causes (seminaries, missions, etc.). Thus, I would never agree that we should give just enough to fund the church; we should give enough to satisfy ourselves that we are good stewards.
Perhaps. I've not seen mismanagement in my parish, so it is more of a hypothetical at this point in time, but when I was non-denominational, large chunks of money went to the latest sound systems, new guitars, and other silliness. I suppose my tendency to take a critical eye in giving comes from those experiences.
Well I can only speak for what my parish does...but we all get a copy of the line by line budget to review and then vote 'aye' to. There is very little room for someone to take the rent money (or whatever other category) and go spend it on something not approved by the Parish council.
From actual experience in an OCA parish, whenever a parishioner gave money with the suggestion that it be donated for a new vacuum cleaner, the parish council vetoed that idea saying that a person can bring their home vacuum cleaner to clean the church rugs. This point was repeatedly mentioned in the biannual assembly meetings. It became a very sore point.
However, if a parishioner who never pledged to the parish were to purchase and donate a new vacuum cleaner to the church, they would accept it. In fact, this is how the older and malfunctioning vacuum cleaner was obtained.
Big ticket items were almost never purchased by the parish council, they were outright gifts by people who almost never gave regular contributions. In fact, most of the huge donations were given after the person was six feet under, if the children did not contest the Last Will and Testament.
When the parish roof started to leak, nobody wanted to donate to fix the roof. Instead, it took several years of collections to fund that expense. However, when a patron wanted a new icon, that was donated immediately.