That approach would tacitly acknowledge that there is no General Assembly meeting in 2005 and that not meeting should save the denomination money. But it would also have built in the financial boost needed in 2006 to pay for the Assembly that year.
The second option is to raise the per capita rate to $5.51 per member next year, a jump of five cents, and then leave it there for 2006. The extra money that came in during 2005 would be saved and then spent on General Assembly expenses in 2006.
The first approach would make the case more strongly that not meeting every year should save the denomination money – an approach some might favor if they suspect that a move might arise someday to go back to meeting annually.
But the idea right now – which was approved Feb. 10 by the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly and by the General Assembly Council’s executive committee – is to tell the Assembly, “take your choice. You’re going to end up at the same place,” as John Detterick, the council’s executive director, put it. The full council will consider the question later this week.
The groups also heard Clifton Kirkpatrick, the PC(USA)’s stated clerk, give an upbeat accounting of per capita collections. For 2002, the last year for which the books have been closed on per capita collections, $188,061 went uncollected – one of the smallest amounts not to be collected in the past 10 years, Kirkpatrick said. Seeing presbyteries and congregations dig down deep to pay, at a time of financial difficulties and when there’s pressure from some places to withhold payments, is “a sign of tremendous faithfulness,” Kirkpatrick said.
