LOUISVILLE — Rick Ufford-Chase, a former General Assembly moderator, has said it before. “There is, I believe, a Pentecost wind that is sweeping across the church today.”
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) — with new leadership and a new structure — is recognizing that “we’re in a time that requires collaboration, not centralization and control,” Ufford-Chase told the General Assembly Council during the opening session of its meeting Feb. 13. He now leads the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship.
Ufford-Chase was discussing the gathering several weeks ago in Dallas of the Mission Consultation, which brought together more than 60 people representing a diversity of views. In the past, some had mistrusted each other’s positions, but signed a covenant to work together in Presbyterian mission.
“The Holy Spirit was in our midst in a way that was thrilling,” said council member Carol Adcock of Texas, who also attended the consultation.
But Ufford-Chase’s comments could have been emblematic as well for other aspects of life in the PC(USA). There’s a lot of talk about it being a “new day,” about real change blowing through the air. What exactly has changed, and what still needs work, is continuing to emerge.
Here’s some of what the council is talking about at its meeting in Louisville Feb. 13-15.
Mission Work Plan. The council is considering whether to approve at this meeting a new “Mission Work Plan,” which will guide its work for the next four years. Details of the PC(USA)’s next budget won’t come until April.
But the council is considering now the broad outlines of the Mission Work Plan, which, according to a document presented here, “provides the framework for directing, supporting, and evaluating the ministries of the General Assembly Council.”
The plan includes some broad commitments — that the council will be collaborative, accountable, responsive, and excellent in its work. It also describes the focus in each of the council’s goal areas — such things as “assisting all people to discern and respond to vocational call” and “working to alleviate poverty, hunger, illness, and the effects of disaster and suffering.”
There was discussion, in the council’s executive committee, of the need for the council to both be flexible and to plan long-term. “We are constantly dealing with change and looking forward,” said Jill Hudson, the PC(USA)’s new Middle Governing Body Relations coordinator. “I think four years is good” as a framework for considering the PC(USA)’s fiscal realties and ongoing mission priorities.
Per capita. The Committee on the Office of the General Assembly, along with the executive committee of the General Assembly Council, is recommending that the General Assembly increase per capita — the per-member assessment — by 25 cents. That would be a boost, if approved, of 4.3 percent, from $5.79 per active member this year to $6.04 in both 2009 and 2010. The projected per capita budget would stand at more than $12.3 million in 2009 and $15.3 million for 2010.
The full council is expected to vote on the measure later during this meeting.
The report recommending the increase also stated that “we reaffirm the importance of the per capita budget,” and that to eliminate it “would be a serious mistake for the church” and “could have disastrous financial consequences to our presbyteries.”
Despite attempts by some advocacy groups to encourage withholding of per capita, over the last decade the amount of unpaid per capita assessments have never exceeded four percent, the report states.
Finances. Joey Bailey, chief financial officer for the denomination, provided information from the denomination’s year-end financial report — a snapshot of how things look. Some highlights: receipts were up for three of the four special offerings (Christmas Joy by $287,635, Peacemaking by $253,397, and Pentecost by $42,922), although One Great Hour of Sharing receipts dropped by $476,019.
Curriculum made money (a surplus of more than $139,000).
And while the denomination had budgeted to spend $2.5 million from its reserves, it spent only $700,000 from reserve funds — saving the rest by cutting expenses, Bailey said.
Committee reviews. The council is considering asking the General Assembly to create a new review committee to look at the role that permanent, advocacy and advisory committees and commissions play in the PC(USA). A report proposing such a review committee said it would examine the interaction and cooperation among such groups, as well as their “scope and authority.”
It also states that the committee would consider how each contributes to the overall work of the denomination and “determine the degree to which these entities work cooperatively, and identify where duplication, gaps or overlap of responsibilities reside.”
New leadership. The council elected Adcock of Fort Worth as its new chair and Michael Kruse of Kansas City as its vice-chair. Both will serve two-year terms, starting at the adjournment of the General Assembly next summer.
