Supporting a Pastorate at Columbus KTC
Our recent Sangha Meeting gave all of us an opportunity to catch up on news about the new building and talk about our plans for KTC’s future.
Among the items discussed was a suggestion that KTC find a way to fund a full-time pastor to take care of the KTC congregation.
For the last 25 years, Lama Kathy has provided KTC with full-time care, but she has done so through the support of her husband Mike, who funded Lama Kathy’s health insurance and living expenses.
For the last 25 years, KTC has provided a modest monthly housing allowance to Lama Kathy, and she has indicated she does not wish to have her housing allowance increased. Likewise, Associate Resident Teacher Lama Tom Broadwater has let us know that while he welcomes gifts from students, he does have a retirement income and does not require a housing allowance from KTC at this time.
But to ensure that KTC has full-time pastoral care far into the future, Lama Adam asked that the KTC membership consider funding a living wage for its resident teachers.
At the meeting, several members expressed support for KTC funding a full-time pastorate, while others expressed concern that with steep increases in KTC building costs coming with the opening of the new building, KTC will need to increase its revenues and pledging membership to be able to fund a full-time pastorate and KTC’s other spiritual activities.
In the coming months, the KTC Board, Lama Kathy, Lama Adam and KTC volunteers will meet and work together to design a way to raise funds to help provide a living wage to Lama Adam so he can assist Lama Kathy and Lama Tom full-time.
Meanwhile, here are some things you can do to help Lama Adam right away:
- In general, KTC welcomes your ideas and input on how we can fund our lamas, our pastorate. If we think our resident teachers are essential to our mission, we must support them as other faith communities routinely do. So, please let us know your ideas on how we might budget for this expense.
- Specifically, there is an immediate need to fund Lama Adam’s work. The KTC Board recently expressed its support for Lama Adam by increasing Lama Adam’s monthly housing allowance from $250 to $750. But more is needed. You can use the “Donate” button on Lama Adam’s website—www.lamaadam.com – to help provide support for his ministry. The best option is to select a monthly, recurring “membership” in his website, as this provides him a dependable, predictable source of income. But there are other options, as well, including making one-time donations, and paying for special items such as his food, healthcare or other expenses.
KTC’s future begins now. We look forward to working with our sangha to help our lamas thrive and help our practice and our community.