LOUISVILLE – To some extent it’s a new day for the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board.
The board is meeting in Louisville Sept. 27-29 – and this is its first board meeting since the 2018 General Assembly voted in June to reconfigure the board of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation. Previously, the voting members of the mission agency board also served as the A Corporation board, but now the A Corporation board has broader representation and meets separately.
So this meeting is focused primarily on mission, with some time built in for relationship-building with new board members. There’s a new committee structure, with some previous functions, such as audit, now the responsibility of the A Corporation board.
And there is time in the agenda Sept. 28 for cultural humility training, led by former General Assembly co-moderator Denise Anderson, now the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s coordinator for racial and intercultural justice. There will be deep-dive discussions on the three emphases in the Mission Work Plan: poverty; structural racism and white supremacy; and congregational vitality.
A big issue coming up at this meeting involves the future of Stony Point Center, a PC(USA) conference center about an hour outside New York City. Last spring, the board voted to provide at least a year’s worth of funding to Stony Point for much-needed capital improvements, and voted its support of Stony Point as an important ministry of the PC(USA).
But now the picture may have changed, as Stony Point has failed to meet its financial projections so far this year, with expenses exceeding revenues by more than $174,408 through August 31.
The original recommendation last spring called for the board to approve spending $3 million over three years for deferred maintenance and capital improvements at Stony Point – money the board would have had to take from Presbyterian Mission Agency (PMA) reserves. The board scaled that commitment down, voting instead to provide $650,000 in funding for the first year, and stating that the board’s Resource Allocation and Stewardship Committee would consider the rest of the funding ($1 million each in 2019 and 2020; and $350,000 in 2021), in subsequent years. The money is needed for everything from roof repairs to bathroom renovations.
Now, however, continuation of capital funding for Stony Point is anything but a given.
A report coming to the board at this meeting (A.202 – July Management Report) states that, given the operating deficits so far in 2018, staff has limited capital spending and commitments so far to $238,600. A recommendation being presented to the board’s Resource Allocation and Stewardship Committee is that “staff be able to access the balance of the unspent funds for 2018 in the amount of $411,400, to be expended at their discretion. This authorization will extend through April of 2019, at which time future capital spending will be addressed.”
Another recommendation (A.107 – Stony Point Round Table Review) calls for the creation of a Stony Point Round Table, under the direction of Diane Moffett, PMA’s executive director and president, and with the round table to bring recommendations to the board’s meeting in April. That would include recommendations “for the steps that must be taken to reasonably ensure the economic viability of Stony Point, and to prioritize the ministry of Stony Point, juxtaposed to all other ministries and missions” of the Presbyterian Mission Agency.
The Resource Allocation and Stewardship Committee will consider the Stony Point measures Sept. 28, and the full board after that.
Conrad Rocha, who chairs that committee, said during a meeting of the board’s Coordinating Committee Sept. 27 that the full committee will decide whether any part of that discussion should be held in closed session.
Here’s more of what the Coordinating Committee considered.
Translation services. Kathy Francis, PMA’s communications director,told of discussions in recent months about the need of translating materials of the church into languages other than English, and the possibility of translating into more languages than Spanish and Korean.
Francis described for the coordinating committee the results of a Research Services study (D.200 PMA Translation Research) of what languages other than English are most prevalently spoken in the PC(USA), with that study gathering information from clerks of session and mid council leaders.
The results: After English, Spanish and Korean, the next three languages most used by PC(USA) congregations were Chinese, Vietnamese and Arabic. The survey also raised questions from some about the cost of translation. Francis said the PMA leadership team had concerns that “maybe the study was not expansive enough” and more work should be done – but held off doing that when it became clear that translation services was going to be made part of the A Corporation.
Shannan Vance-Ocampo, a board member who is general presbyter of the Presbytery of Southern New England, said the need for translation services should be a priority item for the board’s new Mid Councils Committee, as many mid councils are trying to support congregations and new worshipping communities where Presbyterians speak other languages. For example, her presbytery has a fast-growing Brazilian fellowship and the nearby Presbytery of Boston has at least six Brazilian fellowships, but “we have no Portuguese-language materials to share,” including no translations of the Book of Order or Book of Confessions to use.
“We’re at a significant deficit” in trying to help them, Vance-Ocampo said.
Providing those materials “is not just a corporate function. It’s a mission function,” said Rashell Hunter, director of Racial Equity and Women’s Intercultural Ministries at PMA.
Joe Morrow, chair of the PMA Board, said he hoped discussions can continue on “how much can we fast-track” translation services and how mid councils and caucuses in the church might engage with the effort. There is also hope that might be “willing to walk along with” the A Corporation in the effort, as vice chair Warren Lesane put it.
Budgets. The Resource Allocation and Stewardship Committee also will review budget information (A.202 – July Management Report) through July 2018, with unrestricted receipts just over $1 million over budget for the first seven months of the year and unrestricted expenses more than $332,000 under budget.
Meeting schedule. The coordinating committee also recommended some changes in the board’s meeting schedule, with the spring 2019 meeting moving from the end of April to March 27-29, 2019. That proposed change will come before the full board for its consideration later this week.
