A significant portion of the funding that is required by the Archdiocese comes from the assessments and Special Trays which are paid by each parish to the Archdiocese on an annual basis.
Beginning in 2006, the Archdiocese implemented a new Proportional Giving System for parish contributions. With this new system, a parish contributes a percentage of the total parish income that it realized in the previous year (i.e. the contribution for 2006 will be based on the actual income for 2005). Certain allowable deductions (such as mortgage payments and charitable contributions) are subtracted from the total income before the percentage calculation is made. For 2006 this percentage is 8%, and it will increase to 9% in 2007, and 10% in 2008. Under the new system, parishes with fewer than 50 baptized souls are expected to contribute, but missions remain exempt.
There are currently three Special Trays that are collected throughout the year, as follows:
- Orthodoxy Sunday - to directly support the scholarships that are granted to men who are attending seminary in preparation for the priesthood.
- Palm Sunday - to support His Beatitude Patriarch Ignatius IV and our Mother Church of Antioch.
- October - to support financial contributions to the three Orthodox Seminaries who help to prepare our future priests.
Each community in our Archdiocese is assigned a category (A through E) based on the number of baptized souls that have been reported for the end of the previous year in their Annual Census Report. Missions are designated as category "M". The following table shows these categories, and the corresponding sizes. It also indicates whether an assessment is required, and the minimum amount required to be contributed for each Special Tray:
Category # Baptized Assessment Special Tray
Souls Required Minimum
A 800 and greater Yes $600.00
B 400 - 799 Yes $500.00
C 200 - 399 Yes $400.00
D 50 - 199 Yes $250.00
E fewer than 50 No As Collected
M Mission No As Collected
Some parishes are designated as "tithing" parishes by virtue of the fact that their parishioners tithe (contribute 10% of their income) to the parish. These parishes contribute 10% of their income to the Archdiocese. These parishes are not required to make any additional payments over and above their tithe.
