How shall the denomination move forward with hard conversations about possible merger of top agencies of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and about budget priorities?
On Dec. 16, during the second Zoom meeting of what’s become known as the Coordinating Table – a forum including top leaders of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, Office of the General Assembly and PC(USA), A Corporation – there wasn’t much momentum.
What became clear was the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly and the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board each are engaged in their own discernment processes – their own explorations of the future – and have not yet demonstrated a readiness to work together on the same questions.
The Presbyterian Mission Agency (PMA) in particular is engaged in a deep exploration of what it means to be a Matthew 25 church — and will use the findings of those discussions to propose a plan for restructuring PMA. That process is expected to last into the late summer or fall of 2021.
One of three work groups of the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (COGA) has been discussing questions involving unity in the church, including a possible merger of the Office of the General Assembly (OGA) and PMA. But that work group has determined in the past few weeks that it has “done about all it can do” and that representatives of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board are immersed in their own discernment process and not yet ready for those conversations, said Stephanie Anthony, COGA’s moderator. That work group on Merger and National Unity is expected to report its initial findings at the COGA virtual meeting Dec. 17.
“It’s not so much that we don’t want to talk to COGA,” said Warren Lesane, chair of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board. “We have some work we need to do before we enter that conversation. … We have homework to do.”
PMA is engaged in a three-phase discernment process involving its Matthew 25 initiative that will include listening to voices around the church in monthly virtual retreats, Bible study, and leadership from a consultant, David Hooker, an associate professor of the Practice of Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding at the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame.
That discernment will result in some form of restructuring for PMA, including determining key roles needed to fulfill the vision and identifying who has the skills and gifts to do the work, Lesane said. That involves difficult questions of “who’s on the team? Who is employed? Who is hired?”
COGA representatives have been invited to be part of the Matthew 25 discernment process — a process that goes well beyond structure to core questions of how to live out the Christian faith, said Diane Moffett, PMA’s president and executive director. “Matthew 25 is foundational. It’s gospel,” she said, and raises the question of “what does it mean to be a Christian and a believer in the 21st century?”
COGA has been looking at the big picture as well — with its two other work groups looking at decision-making and innovation (how to make decisions in equitable and inclusive ways at the General Assembly) and at the shape of the General Assemblies in 2022 and 2024.
Chris Mason, co-chair of the A Corporation board, said that in providing administrative services such as accounting and risk management, the A Corporation plays more of a support role for the work of the PC(USA), not a policy-setting role. “We don’t perceive it as our job to define what the missions are, or whether there should be merged or unmerged entities,” Mason said.
So where does that leave things?
First, this Coordinating Table was created because, last June, the Moving Forward Implementation Commission took an administrative action stating that OGA, PMA and the A Corporation would present a single, unified budget – with all revenue and expense streams combined – to the 2022 General Assembly.
Second, some in the conversation say they’re unclear how that work can or will proceed – considering that the agencies still seem to be operating on different paths of discernment. “We are in a segmented discussion about how to move forward,” said J. Herbert Nelson, stated clerk of the PC(USA).
Debra Avery, a member of the Moving Forward Implementation Special Committee (the 2020 General Assembly switched its status from a commission to a committee), said the discernment conversations are “happening again in silos,” which doesn’t leave space now for conversation about possible structural change that goes beyond PMA.
Anthony said the COGA representatives have been invited to be present, listening in on a process that’s been designed for and about PMA, rather than collaborating on the shape of the whole church.
Lesane said the “Presbyterian Mission Agency has a unique mission and ministry” that’s different from COGA’s — and “we have an obligation to wok on behalf of the mission arm of the church.” That work – to define the nature and scope of PMA’s work – needs to come first, he said, although he said he hopes COGA’s representatives will participate in those discussions.
“It’s not just about structure,” Moffett said, but about determining “who we are and how we show up” — how to be an efficient, 21st century church given the financial realities of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Still, concerns remain.
Marco Grimaldo, moderator of Moving Forward, said there are “big questions to address” — and he’s worried there might not be enough time left following the PMA process.
COGA vice moderator Eliana Maxim said the PMA discernment process “has been confused with the direction and mandate we were given around this coordinating table” on behalf of the whole church. “We might be losing that opportunity” to engage in the bigger conversation.
Lesane raised his own concerns – about the role of Moving Forward in the whole process (its committee members are considered observers at the Coordinating Table, not formal participants) and whether there’s a need to “bring in a neutral individual” to serve as a facilitator of the Coordinating Table.
Kathy Lueckert, president of the A Corporation, also presented work being done to define the roles and responsibilities of PMA, OGA and the A Corporation, as laid out in key documents. Among the questions emerging from that work: Is there a difference between ecclesial and mission work in the PC(USA)? What is working? What’s not? What is missing in the division of labor?
Nelson attempted to move the lens away from internal questions of structure or merger —most folks in the pews don’t know or care about that, Nelson said. What Presbyterians want to know, he said, is “how to strengthen the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and its witness, globally and nationally.”
Nelson alluded to the realities of church politics. “We all have agendas we brought to the table,” including Moving Forward. And “merger has been a dirty word for a long time” in the PC(USA). But rather than starting with a debate over merger, “there are some deeper questions that can be asked about who we are.”
Bill Teng, co-chair of the A Corporation board, said, “Most churches don’t really care what Louisville is doing or even saying” — referring to the PC(USA)’s national offices in Louisville, Kentucky. What they want to know is how the national offices become more relevant, “more useful to the congregations.”
Avery asked what role Moving Forward might play in advancing the conversation.
In the administrative action from last June, taken the day before the 2020 General Assembly convened, “you gave us a set of tasks that are pretty specific,” Lueckert said. “And we didn’t have any input into that. You laid this at our feet and said, ‘Do this.’ ”
What’s being discussed now is the preliminary work to those significant tasks – in essence, higher-level conversations, she said. “You may want to rethink your own timing … of what you expect to be done by when,” Lueckert told the Moving Forward representatives.
The Coordinating Table will meet next on Jan. 14.
