Okay this is going to be a really churchy post, and it requires a lot of background to set up. Saturday, the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago called all the “assisted” congregations together for a pretty much mandatory meeting to discuss a big problem: namely, that the budget for assisting congregations that ask for grants from the Diocese was exceeded by the amount of requests by about $96,000. Rather a lot, really. Clergy and board members (it’s called “Vestry” if your congregation is a parish, “Bishop’s Committee” if your congregation is a mission) were strongly encouraged to attend and give 5…