Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the debates over the ownership of charitable ministry in an Episcopal Church in Florence, Italy. Engaging with anthropological ideas of the inalienable gift, it argues that volunteers and recipients sought to claim ownership of charity processes rather than charity objects.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the philanthropic ministries performed by the American Church of Florence, Italy. These ministries included a weekly food bank, international student dinners, and fund-raising fairs. Focusing on the micro-politics, discourses and daily practices of church volunteers who enacted these 'good works,' this paper uncovers the range of tensions that existed regarding how different actors owned, appropriated or disowned certain ministries. Some volunteers believed the church ministries belonged to God, while others saw the church, as a community and an institution, as the rightful owner. Some believed that hard-working volunteer leaders owned 'their' charity projects, while others saw the recipients of the good works as the true owners. Furthermore, there was much debate and discussion regarding how too few parishioners felt a sense of responsibility and stewardship for the church's ministries, and at times certain volunteers, burnt-out and exhausted, attempted to distance themselves from and disown leadership and responsibility for a charity activity. It is argued that acts and ideas of ownership were seen simultaneously as vital and as dangerous, as inclusive and as exclusive. Engaging with anthropological theories of gift-giving and property, specifically notions of alienability and inalienability, this paper explores how the ownership of charity processes, rather than charity objects, was established and legitimised.