Shortly after Rev. Chang Shik Yang (he was not then yet Dr. Yang) came to Washington, DC, as the new regional leader, he announced that he wanted to have a number of committees formed from the members of the Washington DC Unification Church (also known as the DC Family Church, or the DC Family Federation for World Peace and Unification). These committees were to assist him and the Church in carrying out its work.

I do not remember all the committees he wanted -- one was a Sunday Service Committee, another was a Holy Days Committee, a third was a Sung Hwa Committee (to deal with what to do when members die) -- but one was a Finance Committee. At the time there were some 12 or 13 districts in the DC region, and I was one of the district leaders (for the district of Cheverly, MD, where I live and where there were about 13 Unification-member families living at the time). He suggested that each district should appoint or assign one member, on a voluntary basis, to each of the committees he wanted to form. When I asked my district members who should serve on the finance committee, they said I should. So I volunteered for the Finance Committee.

I resigned from being a district leader just after the Robert F Kennedy Stadium Blessing in 1997. But then in 1998 the notion of forming a Finance Committee was revived, and those of us who had volunteered to serve on such a committee were called together by Keith Cooperider, who is the chief financial officer of the Washington Times, and who has served in a similar capacity in other organizations for many years. Also, at some time in the past -- maybe a decade ago -- there had been a finance committee in the DC church, but it had been dissolved a number of years ago for reasons that I do not know (I wasn't here at the time).

So our ad-hoc finance committee began meeting. One of our first items of business and discussion was to solicit information from members about what they would like to see from a finance committee. Our second item of business was to draw up a set of by-laws for this committee. This took us a considerable amount of time -- numerous months of meeting once a week for two hours or more. Finally we had a set of bylaws that the members of this committee adopted unanimously. Since we were an ad-hoc committee, we needed ratification of these by-laws by the congregation for them to be truly representative, and provision for that was incorporated in those by-laws. This was done, and the districts carried out elections of members to the finance Committee.

From that time on the DC Metro Finance Committee has been the official arm or voice of the DC Congregation in carrying out the financial affairs of the congregation.

Each district has the right to elect a delegate and an alternate to this committee. The pastor of the congregation is also a member of the committee. The Regional Leader is not a member, but the by-laws recognize that he has ultimate authority over and responsibility for the congregation and its affairs, including the finances. (So he can, if he wants, dissolve the Finance Committee or ignore it.) The committee elects its own officers from among its members.

Rev. Yang accepted the by-laws and the Committee, and its work. In the beginning, we had to spend numerous months (we meet once a month) simply getting an accounting and report of the state of the financial affairs of the region. (The bookkeeper was operating on a cash basis, so there was no adequate record of what expenses had been incurred, when they had been incurred, and so on.) But now, as of about two or three months ago, that has been done, and we are getting more-or-less accurate reports each month. The by-laws call for the Finance Committee to issue quarterly reports to the entire congregation, but, when Rev. In Hoi Lee came to Washington as the new Regional Leader, replacing Rev. Yang, who has become the National Leader, he asked that we give the congregation monthly reports. This is now being done. We are also prepaing the budget for next year.

This committee, its work, and its authority cover ONLY the DC metro region. But we have gotten numerous requests from the national headquarters for copies of our by-laws -- the implication seems to be that this system is being urged for national adoption. Since Rev. Yang oversaw its development and adoption here in DC, and he is now the national leader, it is reasonable to infer that he will recommend that this system be adopted for each region, nationally.

Other than the expenses for Mother's Tour in our region at the beginning of this year (3 events in our region) -- we oversaw and voted on the budget for these events -- we know nothing about and are not involved in the financial affairs of the True Family, the National Church, or any aspect of the International Church. But we have been given complete access to the financial affairs of the local region, and we have been given authority over them. Even Rev. Lee has come REQUESTING, rather than demanding, that we appropriate money for things that he wants to undertake, and we have done so.

This is at least a small step in developing a true democracy within the American UC, and a democracy where it counts -- in financial affairs.

Rev. Lee has also instituted a system whereby we have congregational meetings once a month, after a Sunday service, where financial and other reports are given to the congregation and members of the congregation are given an opportunity to express their opinions on matters of congregational affairs and even governance. So far we have had two or three such meetings, and they have been quite successful. Only a small number of the members -- usually at most one member of a family -- attends these meetings, but they are open to all.

These developments do not answer the questions of those who want to know how much money was raised in the past by various appeals from the True Parents, from Dae Mo Nim, or from other aspects of the International UC, or how that money was disbursed (or squandered). (But at our last congregational meeting we did get a report from an assistant pastor about how much money had been raised and contributed at Dae Mo Nim's last liberation ceremony here in this region, and about how much had been spent and for what in that event.) But it does represent, I believe, a quite significant step toward developing a financial system that is responsible and accountable to the membership. As one member of the congregation (not a member of the Finance Committee) remarked at our last congregational meeting, concerning the Finance Committee and its members and reports, "This is new for our church, and we members don't yet know how to deal with it."

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