Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 28, 1994                   TAG: 9401280231
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: FRANCES STEBBINS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

EPISCOPALIANS TO MEET THIS WEEKEND AT TECH

Clergy and lay delegates will receive a long-range planning report three years in the making.

Its adoption could result in a financial drive to:

Improve or relocate the church's Old Southwest Roanoke headquarters.

Expand the Phoebe Needles Retreat Center in Franklin County.

Add a second staff person to the Christian education center next to the headquarters.

Add a professional youth worker to the staff.

Restore some cuts made two years ago in college and social advocacy work.

The executive board of the diocese has adopted the report, which covers 12 areas of the church's ministries. There is no recommendation of a financial drive, but the 1994 balanced budget reveals that no money from current giving will be available for any of the dreams the planners envisioned.

The annual convention, which attracts about 300 people, will be at Virginia Tech. The keynote speaker will be Loren Mead, founder of the Alban Institute in Washington and nationally known in the denomination for his vision for the church.

The executive board this month adopted a budget of $848,923, up $461 from 1993. Congregations, which make voluntary contributions to the regional diocese, have not given enough to cover any expansion. Low interest earnings from endowments also have played a major part in the shortfall, planners have told the board.

Some congregations, the report reveals, are giving more to individual parish or ecumenical ministries in their own communities. Many Episcopal churches in Western Virginia towns are small and experiencing slow growth.

For two years, planners have considered moving or expanding Evans House, the diocesan headquarters at 1000 First St. S.W. Nearly 50 years old, the building is too small and parking is limited, the report states. A Victorian house next door, used as an education resource center, could be demolished to provide space for parking and enlargement of the main office, some planners have advocated.

Several grass-roots surveys of church board and members have shown that many are not convinced the three full-time staff members need new quarters. More sentiment was shown for a youth worker or for restoring funding to ministries to people.