Many dioceses evade pandemic year cash crunch -- at least for now : Montreal

Notes: "'Early on in March [2020], we decided to give the parishes a six-month break from diocesan assessments', Bishop Mary Irwin-Gibson tells the Journal. 'We also paid for one month of payroll for the clergy' before becoming eligible for the CEWS. The bottom line, she says, is that churches have all had respite. Assessments were further suspended through the end of the year, to resume in January [2021]. 'Some parishes have really been propelled into a much more efficient means of being in touch with their parishioners', Irwin-Gibson says. One parish, St. Barnabas in Pierrefonds, even got itself out of debt during the pandemic. Others many not be able to adapt -- and survive -- 'because they were just too tired or too few on the ground'. She says parishes that did not have pre-authorized or online giving struggled more than others. Parishes that close, though, will need to make that decision on their own", [Text of entire article.]

Subjects: COVID-19 (Disease) - Canada; COVID-19 (Disease) - Religious aspects - Anglican Church of Canada; Anglican Church of Canada. Diocese of Montreal - Finance; Irwin-Gibson, Mary (Mary Catherine), 1955-; Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS); Electronic church giving - Anglican Church of Canada; Online giving - Religious aspects - Anglican Church of Canada; Church closures - Anglican Church of Canada