Giving, leaders and life together

Giving

How the money comes in decides how a year goes, and it differs between traditions more than almost anything else:

• The plate and the pledge (most churches): people give in the plate each week they come. Where the tradition takes pledges (15 of the 80: the Lutherans, the United Methodists, the Episcopalians, the PC(USA), a Reconstructionist synagogue, a Theravada temple, a Jain center, and others), a pledge drive runs each November (Money). A walked offering (the AME, National Baptist, and COGIC churches) brings 15% more from members and half as much again from visitors; contribution boxes alone (the Witnesses) a tenth less and nothing from visitors. Where tithing is expected, people give 15% more.
• Dues (the Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox synagogues, the Buddhist Churches of America, the Zen and Tibetan centers, the Ahmadis, the Nation of Islam, the Indo-Caribbean mandir, Chinmaya Mission's member families, a Shinto shrine's sukeikai, and the Daoist temple): every member household is assessed about 70% of what it could give (give or take 15%; a shrine's sukeikai only 35%), paid monthly; the disengaged let their dues lapse, as they would a pledge. Regulars who haven't joined pay none, so membership matters more here than anywhere: it's most of the income. A Reconstructionist congregation pledges instead.
• Seats for the holy days (the four synagogue movements): on a holy day drawing at least twice the usual crowd, households that don't belong buy seats, $150 an adult, in place of an offering.
• Ramadan and zakat (the Sunni and W. Deen Mohammed communities): giving rises 1.8× through Ramadan, the year's fundraising season. In the month after Eid al-Fitr's, those who belong give their zakat through the mosque, 30% of a year's giving capacity; it's received and passed straight on to the needy, so it pays none of the bills.
• Khums (the Twelver Shia): half of khums goes to the office of the marja' each believer follows; the game counts it as a tenth of what's given, paid upward.
• Central funding (the Salvation Army, the Latter-day Saints, SGI-USA, the Ahmadis' chanda, and the Self-Realization Fellowship's temples): each month the offerings go up to the wider body, and a budget comes back with the building's costs; the leaders (where there are any) are paid from above. Fundraising is limited. The Adventists' tithe goes up too, 15% of income, and the conference pays the pastor from it.
• Dana (the Theravada and Vietnamese temples): boxes and private envelopes, no plate, and the festivals (Kathina, Tết, Obon) as the big appeals. A Chabad center has no dues, seats, or membership: it lives on gifts by post and online, and on grants.
• Visits, amulets, and lamps (a Shinto shrine, a Chinese folk temple): each visit to open hours drops about $2 in the box and, with an amulet counter, buys about $4 of amulets, charms, incense, or fortune slips, half as much again on a feast day. Households renew their lamps each lunar New Year: $30 a household at the folk temple, $100 at the Chinese Buddhist temple.
• Rites asked for, at a price (the Hindu temples, the gurdwara, the Jain center, the shrine, the Chinese temples): families book an archana, a puja at home, an Akhand Path, a kitō, a memorial tablet, or Tai Sui protection at the price the temple lists, and the fees are much of the income (see Money).
• Honours and life memberships: a Jain center auctions the honours of Paryushana's rites, the boli, to its wealthiest families; the Hindu temple's and ISKCON's life members pay $1,001 once, a Jain center's $301.
• Sponsored meals: langar and the other free meals are paid for by a household in turn, which gives the cost and a fifth more (Worship and the year).
• Free will alone: a Konko church asks no dues, fees, or tithes; a Sathya Sai center raises no money of any kind, and waits until a project's money is there.

No interest. The Sunni, Shia, W. Deen Mohammed, and Ahmadi communities don't borrow at interest: their loans are Islamic financing, at 7.5% where an ordinary loan is 6.5%. The building campaign and the mortgage dilemma are about this.

The kitchen. A kosher kitchen (Conservative, Orthodox, Chabad) makes every meal 1.35× dearer, or 1.2× with a mashgiach on the staff to supervise it; a halal one, 1.1×. A vegetarian table (the Adventist, Reconstructionist, Zen, and Vietnamese kitchens) is 0.85×, and a clean one, without pork or shellfish (Reform, the Nation of Islam), 1.05×. Wherever the meat isn't "anything", pork and shellfish are never served. Where coffee and tea are out (the Latter-day Saints' Word of Wisdom), fewer stay to talk afterwards. Most Hindu, Sikh, and Jain kitchens are vegetarian and keep out eggs too, which rules out the bake sale; BAPS, ISKCON, the Swaminarayan temples, Yiguandao, and the Chinese Buddhist temple keep out onion and garlic (1.05×), and a Jain kitchen root vegetables as well (about 1.15× in all). Many Jains eat nothing after sunset, so a Jain center discourages a meal that ends after it; where it's forbidden outright, the meal isn't held.

The money screens are in Money, with dues and zakat in detail.

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Leaders and staff

The leader takes the tradition's title: priest, rector, pastor, minister, bishop, officer, or a Reader; rabbi, imam, resident scholar, missionary, student minister; minister, teacher, abbot, abbess, resident teacher; head priest, pandit, swami, temple president, acharya; granthi; samani; chief priest, head minister; master. Some have none: a Friends meeting has its clerk, SGI its lay leaders, a Jain center its president, a Sathya Sai center its officers, and a Chinese folk temple its board, with a temple keeper to open the doors. How they come differs within each faith as much as between them: a Catholic bishop sends the priest, a United Methodist bishop appoints and moves the pastor, a Baptist church calls its own, and a ward's bishop is called from the ward; a synagogue's board calls its rabbi, while a Chabad center's rabbi and his wife are its shluchim, sent for life and succeeded by their family; the Ahmadi missionary and the Nation of Islam's student minister are appointed from above, and the W. Deen Mohammed imam is elected and unpaid; a Theravada or Vietnamese abbot is unpaid, and the temple keeps him. A Hindu temple's trustees hire its priests, often from India on religious-worker visas, and house them; BAPS and the Swaminarayan dioceses assign their celibate sadhus, Belur Math sends a Vedanta Society its swami, and Chinmaya Mission posts its acharyas; a gurdwara's committee hires and dismisses its granthi; the Terapanth's acharya assigns Jain Vishva Bharati's samanis for two years at a time; a shrine's board calls a priest trained in Japan; a Konko or Tenrikyo church passes to the minister's child; a Yiguandao master is appointed up the lineage; and a Chinese Buddhist temple's mother monastery appoints its abbess for six years. Where only men may lead prayer (the Orthodox and Chabad shuls, the mosques), the laity's lay-led services are led by men. Every way is in Staff and volunteers.

Besides the roles every congregation can hire, each faith has its own, offered only where they fit (see Staff and volunteers for pay):

• Christian: deacons, local elders, and other assisting orders named from the members, where the tradition has them; the choir director or organist (who serves synagogues too).
• Jewish: the cantor (leads the prayers and the music), the education director, the executive director, and in Orthodox and Conservative synagogues the mashgiach.
• Muslim: the muezzin (unpaid, from the members), the Qur'an teacher, the community outreach director, and the executive director.
• Buddhist: a resident monk or nun (an assisting order on a small stipend, fed by the families) at the Theravada, Tibetan, and Vietnamese temples; the tanto, head of practice, at a Zen center; a visiting lama at a Tibetan center; and at a Japanese temple an organist, a Dharma School superintendent, and the minister's assistant.
• Hindu: a pujari, a priest beside the head priest who keeps the aratis and performs the rites families book; the temple manager, who runs the counter, the rota, and the hall; a cook for the canteen and the offerings; the school's coordinator; and, where monks live at the temple, a resident monk or nun.
• Sikh: an assistant granthi, who keeps the morning and evening and reads paths in homes; the ragi jatha, three paid kirtan singers; the langri, who cooks the langar with the volunteers; a Punjabi and kirtan teacher; and the gurdwara manager.
• Jain: a visiting scholar from India for Paryushana, who teaches as a leader does while there; a pujari to keep the shrines (he worships beside the members, not for them); a cook; the pathshala's coordinator.
• Shinto: a negi, the shrine's assistant priest, who performs the prayers families book; a miko (always a woman), who assists at the rites and keeps the shrine office; and at a Tenrikyo church a service teacher, who teaches the dance and the instruments and draws up the rota.
• Chinese: a temple keeper (the miaozhu); a Daoist priest, hired for the rites and funerals; a fortune-slip interpreter, unpaid; at a Daoist temple, tai chi instructors, unpaid; and at Yiguandao, its unpaid lecturers.

A role that leads worship counts as a leader (the cantor, the muezzin, the visiting lama): it takes sabbaticals and feels the strain. Some traditions' ministers come in ranks: in Christianity the AME's licentiate, itinerant deacon, and elder, and the Salvation Army's lieutenant, captain, and major; in Buddhism Jodo Shinshu's tokudo, kyoshi, and kaikyoshi, the Theravada samanera, bhikkhu, thera, and mahathera, Zen's shuso, osho, and roshi, and the Tibetan getsul, gelong, and geshe, and at a Chinese temple the novice, the bhikshu or bhikshuni, and the senior Dharma master; in Shinto a shrine priest's ranks (chokkai, gonseikai, seikai, meikai) and Tenrikyo's yoboku, minister, and head minister; and a Daoist priest's own temple's Zhengyi registers. Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, and Jainism have no ladders of rank in the game.

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Life together

Ministries, fundraisers, dilemmas, and sermon topics belong to their faith, and some to one family within it; a congregation is offered only its own and the shared ones.

• Churches: the choir, Vacation Bible School, the soup supper and the fish fry, the Thanksgiving eve service, and the Christmas and Easter specials; a nesting congregation as a tenant; dilemmas over the bells, pew cushions, and a fast-day dinner; twenty sermon topics of their own, and six shared with synagogues (three with mosques too); and some for one family alone, from the Southern Baptists' Lottie Moon offering to the Salvation Army's Red Kettle.
• Synagogues: the chevra kadisha, the sisterhood and men's club, Torah study, a youth chapter, bikur cholim (visiting the sick); the Kol Nidre appeal, the Purim carnival, the latke dinner, the gala and tribute journal; dilemmas over High Holy Day seats, dues relief, livestreaming on Shabbat, a non-Jewish parent on the bimah, kashrut supervision, a community mikveh, and security after an attack; ten d'var Torah topics.
• Mosques: the Qur'an class, the zakat committee, a circle for new Muslims, the funeral committee, an open mosque, the Shia majlis programme; the Ramadan dinner and the Laylat al-Qadr appeal, the community bazaar, an interest-free building campaign, Muharram sponsorships, the Nation of Islam's bean pies; dilemmas over Friday parking, the adhan outside, the women's space, moon sighting, the mortgage and riba, the khutbah's language, the Ashura procession, and Jalsa volunteers; khutbah themes of their own.
• Buddhist temples: Dharma School, meditation for beginners, the monks' meal rota, sesshin, a study programme, chaplaincy, SGI's discussion meetings, the Buddhist Women's Association; Obon, Kathina, Tết, SGI's May Contribution, and a stupa campaign; dilemmas over chanting and the neighbours, the board and the abbot, two congregations in one temple, empowerment fees, beer at Obon, a shared minister, and the elders and the newcomers; ten dharma-talk topics, and at a Chinese temple its chanting group, Buddha Day, Ullambana, and the Water and Land, and six talks of its own.
• Hindu temples: the bhajan group, Sanskrit and language classes, a canteen, seva meals, the seniors' satsang, yoga for the neighbourhood, ISKCON's harinama and book table, the Swaminarayan youth sabhas, the Vedanta study groups, and Chinmaya's Devi groups and youth; the Diwali mela, the Navaratri garba, Janmashtami night, ISKCON's Ratha Yatra, a shila campaign, and a walkathon; dilemmas over the priests' visas and pay, fireworks and festival parking, a puja on credit, an interfaith wedding, and the trustees' election; ten talks.
• Gurdwaras: kirtan classes, gatka, a Gurmat camp, Sikh youth, a seniors' centre, langar on the streets, and Sikh awareness; the Vaisakhi nagar kirtan, a kirtan darbar, a kabaddi tournament, and a kar seva building fund; dilemmas over the committee election, the granthi's visa, tables in the langar hall, a bare head in the darbar, the kirpan at school, hate on the walls, and a wedding of two faiths; eight talks.
• Jain centers: the bhojanshala, jiv daya, Preksha meditation, Young Jains, and the Paryushana scholars' committee; the boli, the Mahavir Jayanti procession, and the pathshala dinner; dilemmas over a bidding war, leather at the door, milk in the temple, a visa for the scholar, and two traditions in one hall; six talks.
• Shrines and churches: a supporters' association, children's festivals, taiko, an aikido dojo; Konko's faith study and cemetery care, Tenrikyo's hinokishin days, judo club, and dance and instrument lessons; the Fujin-kai and the Women's Association; the autumn festival, a bon dance booth, mochitsuki, and a summer bazaar; dilemmas over a funeral at the shrine, cameras at the haiden, the land and the last supporters, the mediation seat, the head minister's successor, and the parent church's asks; ten talks for Konko and Tenrikyo (a shrine has no sermon).
• Chinese temples: a lion dance troupe, a Chinese school, mahjong and tea, a welcome desk for new arrivals, tai chi and qigong, a chanting group, Yiguandao's dharma classes and family altars, and the incense-burner society; the first incense, the god's birthday banquet, Pudu tables, lantern sponsors, the autumn jiao, mooncakes, and a vegetarian food fair; dilemmas over smoke from the furnace, firecrackers at New Year, a spirit medium, a landmark joss house, grey heads at the meeting, a lamp to close, and who may ordain; eight talks for the Daoist temple and Yiguandao.

More in The congregation in its community and Worship and the year.

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