2023 Financial Snapshot

— TOM SIKORAL and  PETER COULES, Metropolis Co-Treasurers

In 2023, the Metropolis of Chicago maintained its streak of solid financial performance, a testament to its commitment to financial discipline, robust internal controls, and vigilant transaction oversight. Throughout the year, the Metropolis received $378,000 in un-restricted donations, earmarked to support strategic initiatives such as clergy and lay leadership development, religious education, and philanthropic outreach.

Continuing a trend that spans across six consecutive years, the Metropolis achieved an unrestricted operating surplus, bolstered by prudent expense management and generous contributions from individual donors. This surplus, coupled with the growth of unrestricted cash and investments, positions the Metropolis favorably to sustain and expand its programs and ministries in the future.

Notably, investments in short-term insured certificates of deposits yielded interest for the “Burton Place Funds,” amounting to $134,000, further enhancing the Metropolis’s financial stability and capacity to fulfill its mission effectively. As a result of decisions made at the 2019 and 2023 Clergy-Laity Assemblies, proceeds from interest are restricted and cannot be used to fund programs or operations.

Further, the Metropolis received an unmodified “clean audit” in 2023 from an independent audit firm, making it the fourth year in a row that the Metropolis has earned an un-modified opinion of its financial statements.

Finally, as the result of a vote by delegates at the 2023 Clergy-Laity Assembly, the Metropolis has shifted to functional budgeting as an accounting method. Put simply, functional budgeting is a way of organizing budgets around specific “functional” areas of the Metropolis (i.e., ministries, payroll, events, etc.). As a result, Metropolis finances gain more clarity and transparency, and strategic goals are able to be better supported through ongoing planning and resource management.

All of these outcomes did not happen randomly or by chance. They are the result of a series of decisions – including an enhanced delegation of legal and financial authority, an annualized independent audit process, the publishing of Metropolis budgets, among others – has paved the way for Metropolis finances to be responsive and accountable to the needs, concerns, and expectations of our clergy and laity. While there is more we’d like to accomplish, these decisions have been fundamental, not only for long-term financial health, but for a Church that people want to belong to and is growing in Christ.

View Clean Audit Opinion for 2022 Consolidated Financial Statements >>