Both the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board and the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly will vote this week on proposed budgets for 2021 and 2022 — understanding that those budgets are likely to be revised in May in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Presbyterian Mission Agency Board, meeting via Zoom April 15-17, heard a presentation on a unified budget (A.102 Unified Budget) of $90.5 million for 2021 and $92.5 million for 2022 — which includes funding for the Presbyterian Mission Agency, the Office of the General Assembly and the Administrative Services Group.
That proposed budget would include a General Assembly per capita rate for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) of $9.99 per member for 2021 and $10.50 per member for 2022 —up from $8.95 per member currently.
The PC(USA) has assembled a cross-agency COVID-19 financial analysis team, and it’s likely those budgets will change before they need to be submitted to the General Assembly (no later than May 21), said Kathy Lueckert, president of the PC(USA), A Corporation.
“We’re doing the best we can with the information we have available,” Lueckert told the PMA board April 15.
The Office of the General Assembly has been reaching out to presbytery and synod leaders, and “part of their story often includes plans for budget reductions or worse,” said DeAmber Clopton, budget manager for the Office of the General Assembly. By early May, the proposed per capita rate may decline, she said. “These are unprecedented times.”
Diane Moffett, president and executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, said the proposed budget includes a commitment for a “compelling reinvention” of Stony Point Center — the board is expected to vote April 17 on a proposed multiyear fundraising campaign to raise $4 million for Stony Point.
“We are living in an unprecedented time of uncertainty,” Moffett said — a time when the PC(USA) needs to be “unified and connected,” and where she feels the Matthew 25 vision is “right on target.” Since PMA launched its Matthew 25 initiative a year ago, 442 congregations, 38 mid councils and 11 other groups have signed on in support, she said.
PMA board chair Joe Morrow thanked more than a dozen board members who are completing their terms of service, saying, “you are unsung heroes, teachers, dispensers of wisdom, faithful guides, friends.”
He also commissioned the board’s new leadership: Warren Lesane as chair and Shannan Vance-Ocampo as vice chair.
The PC(USA), A Corporation Board also met via Zoom April 15. Some of that was held in closed session with representatives of the Washington Consulting Group, which is conducting an equity and inclusion audit of Presbyterian agencies and entities individually, and for the denomination as a whole.
The PMA board also met in closed session with those consultants — with each agency presumably getting information on what the equity audits are revealing.
The A Corporation Board also set some future meeting dates — including possible in-person meetings in Louisville, Kentucky, Aug. 19-21 and in Charlotte, North Carolina, Oct. 15-16, although Lueckert acknowledged that the response to the coronavirus pandemic may change those plans and it’s possible more meetings will be held virtually in the future.
Board member Marci Glass opened the PMA meeting with worship, saying, “we’ve just gone through the Lent-iest of all Lents.” Even after Easter, “it still feels like Lent.”
Glass read from the Mark 16 — the longer ending of the two presented in that Gospel, speaking of a God who comes when “all we are feeling these days is terror and amazement,” and who writes a second ending.
The prayers of the people reflected the world’s concerns: with board members asking for prayers for the families of people they know who’ve died of COVID-19; those who are sick with cancer or other illnesses; for a man in intensive care on a ventilator and his partner ill at home.
Glass prayed for the earth renewing, as so many stay at home, as the air clears.
She prayed for doctors and nurses, “all the people who are rushing into the danger.” She prayed for essential workers, because “we do not have justice in our labor. We pray for those who are forced to be essential without earning a living wage.”
She prayed for courage, for rest, for resurrection.
