The Finance and Extension Board (F&E) of the Conseil regional Nakonha:ka Regional Council (CrNRC) is almost as old as the United Church of Canada itself with roots in the Methodist and Presbyterian mission boards that supported ministry for generations before F&E’s creation in 1926.
The Board is volunteer led and currently has 15 members, all approved by CrNRC and serving a maximum of five consecutive two-year terms. The Executive Minister of CrNRC also serves on the Board ex-officio. You probably know some of our Board members – they’re all actively involved in local communities of faith (COF) of the United Church.
F&E has a wide range of responsibilities.
We oversee the management of the Region’s investment portfolio using the services of professional investment managers. This includes the General Investment portfolio as well as money held in restricted funds. We’ll talk about the F&E endowments in more detail in the next newsletter.
We use the returns from these investments to act as a principal funder for the Regional Council’s own activities and for the core financial support of historic community-based missions of the United Church in our region like St Columba House and Montreal City Mission. This support amounted to $565,000 in 2024.
In addition, F&E maintains a lending program that supports ministry development and fixed asset projects such as building renovation or repair. At the end of 2024, the combined outstanding loan balance to congregations across the region was just over $1.1 million.
F&E sponsors the region’s Sabbatical Leave Program for ministry personnel as well as a bursary program that together were budgeted at $62,500 in 2024. In 2023, we gave out bursaries to twenty-nine deserving students in our region and generally we have the resources to grant three sabbaticals annually.
As of this year, F&E has been commissioned by CrNRC for all property matters. This includes major activity acquiring and selling church property directly along with the disbursement of proceeds from these sales to the Region’s Strategic Fund, the Mission and Service Fund, and Indigenous Community. Each sale is a cooperative effort between F&E and the Trustees of the community of faith selling a property.
Offering technical and project management advice for building projects of communities of faith to whom we provide significant loans is an important part of our work. In addition, F&E partners with the United Church’s national project “Faithful Footprints” to reduce the carbon footprint of the United Church. For major property developments or church property management under consideration in Nakonha:ka Region, F&E is working directly with Kindred Works, a subsidiary of the United Property Resource Corporation. Other property oversight includes giving guidance on insurance requirements for congregations,
cemetery transfers, environmental protection (such as the oil tank replacement initiative currently underway), and environmental remediation programs when they become necessary.
F&E is lightly and effectively staffed by a part-time Secretary and we’re also well-supported on financial matters by a staff member from CrNRC. For more information about F&E or to get a copy of our last annual report (2023), please contact our secretary Caroline Leamon or our Chair Peter Bisset at feendowment@gmail.com.
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