1982 General Convention Tithing Statement

Resolution #A---116a.

  Resolved, the House of Bishops concurring, That the tithe be affirmed as the minimum standard of giving for Episcopalians; and be it further

  Resolved, That we the Deputies and Bishops do hereby pledge ourselves to tithe, or to work towards tithing, as a minimum standard of our own giving and of our witness in the world; and be it further

  Resolved, That we do call on all of the Church to join us in accepting the biblical tithe as the minimum standard of Christian giving.

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The House of Bishops concurred, and thus the statement was adopted.

In later Conventions' tithing resolutions, the term biblical was left out since the tithe seems to be defined differently at different places in the bible.  In some places it seems to mean 10 percent of part of income (10 percent of first fruits), in other places 10 percent of wealth (i.e. of the flock) and in still other places 10 percent of income.  In one interpretation, when Jesus was criticising the pharisees for the way they were paying their "tithes of dill and cummin" (spices), he was basically suggesting that they were tithing from the crops of their window boxes by interpreting the law literally, but were not in fact giving much of their total income, which was primarily monetary.

Standing Commission 1981 Personal Statement:

The members of this Standing Commission, at their February 10, 1981 meeting, had adopted and signed the following personal stewardship commitment:

"We affirm the biblical definition of the tithe as the the standard of giving for all Christians.  We understand this to mean giving at least 10% of our income to the work of God."

 While the word minimum wasn't used, the concept was certainly there.

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