Jan Opdyke has resigned as director of the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands fundraising campaign of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
The $40 million, five-year effort came under close scrutiny at the Sept. 26-29 meeting of the General Assembly Council, when Opdyke announced that the campaign had not raised enough in unrestricted revenue to pay its expenses in 2007. Opdyke said Hearts & Hands only had enough unrestricted money to pay its operating costs through February or March, and if additional funds couldn’t be found to pay the campaign’s operating expenses, it was in danger of shutting down prematurely.
So far, Hearts & Hands has received about $25 million in pledges, most through presbytery partnerships for new church development in the United States.
The Hearts & Hands steering committee has said it wants to commit the bulk of the remaining $15 million, if it’s raised, to international mission work.
Some council members — including Rick Ufford-Chase, moderator of the 216th General Assembly — said they wanted a much clearer picture of how the money Hearts & Hands is raising will be spent, and said they were frustrated with a lack of information. The council passed a resolution Sept. 29 authorizing its executive committee to seek funding to pay the campaign’s operating expenses, but also listed a series of questions it wants answered — particularly about funding for international mission work.
A news release announcing Opdyke’s departure says her resignation will be effective Oct. 27 and that she is leaving to spend more time caring for her aging mother. Opdyke, from Redlands, Calif., also is a commissioned lay associate pastor at Community Presbyterian Church there and will be working at a local university, the news release states.
David York of Atlanta, the campaign’s associate director for the past two years, will take over as director. York is a former director of development at Johnson C. Smith Seminary, a retired Atlanta school administrator and an elder at First Presbyterian church in Atlanta.
In announcing the leadership change, Linda Valentine, the new executive director of the General Assembly Council, said in the news release that “this campaign is critical to the life of the church, and we are committed to its continuation.”
