Unauthorized actions: Memorandum from executive leaders of thirteen presbyteries

Date: November 13, 2014
To: The Rev. Marilyn Gamm, Chair, Presbyterian Mission Agency Board
Cc: Linda Valentine, Executive Director
From: Executive Leaders of Thirteen Presbyteries*
Subject: Unauthorized Actions

As executive leaders of thirteen presbyteries, we strive with volunteer presbyters to be good stewards of Presbyterian funds dedicated to the mission and ministry of the PC USA. Frequently, we are first to be asked about decisions of the larger church, to interpret their purpose, to clarify their financial implications, and to describe anticipated outcomes. In this way, we inform church leaders and members how their contributions are allocated by the church’s councils in light of authorized mission priorities and according to established fiduciary policies. We collaborate with executive leaders across the church in exercising our call and privilege to administer Christ’s mission through the PC USA, faithfully and truthfully.

Because of our unique role in church wide communication with churches, pastors, and members, we are deeply concerned about information in the recent release of minutes of the PMA Board Audit Committee (August 13, 2014), news/information accounts of it, and Linda Valentine’s statement of “regret and hope” (November 12). The minutes report conclusions by the PMA Internal Audit Department that four staff members took multiple unauthorized actions related to PMA funds and, by so doing, showed a “serious lack of regard” for established policies of the PC (USA) and PMA. The actions reported were taken in reference to PMA’s 1001 New Worshipping Communities initiative based on “the claimed purpose to ensure the future existence of the program without reliance on PMA budget constraints, without exposure to PMA budget cuts and without potential impact from any changes in PMA leadership.” The report concluded that the four staff members violated PC USA Ethics Policy and “created and highlighted risks for the PMA and PC USA.”

These actions have raised questions among presbytery executive leaders, and they will continue doing so among Presbyterians more broadly as word of them spreads across the church. We fear the integrity of the 1001 New Worshipping Communities program and perceptions of overall administrative and fiduciary practices of the PMA are vulnerable. Therefore, it is incumbent on the PMA and its executive director to publicly disclose the reported violations, to provide repeated reassurances about the status of the funds in question, to describe internal control safeguards taken to prevent future reoccurrences, and to detail disciplinary measures taken because of PMA staff members’ harmful and unethical violations. Timely enacting of these steps is of utmost importance to reassure Presbyterians about the program’s integrity and to restore hope for PMA’s leadership role in it.

Further, in order to restore the trust vital to the success of the 1001 New Worshipping Communities initiative, we strongly encourage an immediate external review of this incident and of systemic forces which have occasioned ethics policy violations. This requires attention in order to best and most faithfully serve Christ’s mission through the PMA and the PCUSA.

In specific, as PC USA front-line communicators, executive staff throughout the church need responses to a number of questions in order to add their constructive voices toward restoring trust in the PMA board and staff and the “1001” program.

1. What actions were taken by the PMA Board upon receiving the Audit Committee’s report?
2. What disciplinary actions were taken by the PMA Board and/or its executive director in response to the unauthorized decisions and unethical violations of PMA staff?
3. How soon will PMA release a statement to councils across the church that communicates the facts of this incident and enumerates the ways it is being addressed?
4. What additional measures will PMA take to restore church wide confidence in its staff who administer mission in accordance with ethical standards and responsible stewardship of entrusted financial resources?

Our churches and members expect ethical actions and trustworthy decisions from PCUSA leaders at every level. Secular cultures across the land carefully monitor institutional lapses in integrity. We pray that this incident is resolved in a manner that can be perceived by fair-minded people, inside and outside the church, as an example of responsibility and integrity within the Presbyterian Church (USA).

*Ted Churn (New Hope Presbytery), Linda Culbertson (Presbytery of the Pacific), Jan DeVries (Grace Presbytery), Bob Foltz-Morrison (New York City Presbytery), Wilson Gunn (National Capital Presbytery), Penny Hill (Greater Atlanta Presbytery), Joey Lee (San Jose Presbytery), Betty Meadows (Charlotte Presbytery), Susan Meier (Maumee Valley Presbytery), Arny Mendez (Denver Presbytery), Craig Palmer (Baltimore Presbytery), Bob Reynolds (Chicago Presbytery), Allen Timm (Detroit Presbytery)