BANGOR – Money will be on the minds of the 475 Episcopalians expected to gather Friday and Saturday at the Bangor Civic Center for the annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Maine.

Attendees will get a break from the dollars-and-cents discussions Friday at an evensong service. And Bishop Jean Duracin of Haiti will speak about a proposal to form a companion diocesan relationship between Maine and Haiti.

Delegates and clergy representing 17,000 Episcopalians from 86 churches throughout the state will decide which of four proposals will be used to determine the amount of money each parish pays annually to support the operation of the diocese, which has offices in Portland.

Also on the agenda are resolutions to move forward on a capital and endowment campaign and to set minimum salaries for clergy to make compensation in Maine more competitive with other New England dioceses.

The proposed 2003 diocesan budget is nearly $1.6 million, with all but about $240,000 coming from churches. Parishes pay 17.1 percent of their normal operating income to support the diocese. That method is described on the diocesan Web page as “in essence a flat tax … regressive in nature.”

In general, all three alternative assessment proposals would increase the amount paid by larger congregations and decrease the amount paid by smaller ones. For example, St. John’s Episcopal Church in Bangor, with 568 members, would pay about $53,000 under the flat rate, about $58,000 on two other plans and $55,000 under the third proposal.

“The folks at St John’s don’t like them,” said the Rev. Kevin Holsapple, rector, of the proposed formulas. “Of course, we know that we need to support the diocese. In fact, we want to support the diocese, because we are the diocese.

“However, the idea that people at St John’s would have to pay a higher rate to be included in the diocese is unsettling.”

Three years ago, Episcopalians began looking at how money is raised to support the diocese from congregations that range in size from 13 members at Advent Episcopal Church in Limestone to 768 at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Cape Elizabeth. Meetings have been held throughout the state during the past two years to consider the diocese’s financial future.

In her monthly column in the diocesan newspaper, Bishop Chilton Knudsen described the convention as “an invitation to creativity. Our sacred task is to weave the multiple threads of diocesan life into cords that link us with one another in Christ. Our resources must be sculpted into an ordered form that expresses our most faithful discernment. New initiatives will be painted on the canvas of our future, important questions will be ordered into verses and refrains,” she wrote.

The evensong service will be held at 5:30 p.m. Friday at St. John’s Episcopal Church, 234 French St., Bangor. The public is invited to attend. For more information, call 947-0156.