The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) budgets look good — at least for now.
Plans for the $2.4 million renovation of the first floor of the Presbyterian Center in downtown Louisville are proceeding.
And COVID-19 remains a wild card — with the center currently scheduled to reopen fully to employees on Nov. 1, but the possibility that could be pushed back, as cases of the delta variant climb. Louisville and Jefferson County in Kentucky are currently in the red zone of confirmed COVID-19 cases.
A lesson the COVID-19 pandemic keeps teaching: “Don’t get too attached to a plan, because it’s going to change,” said Kathy Lueckert, president of the PC(USA), A Corporation, which is responsible for administrative services for the national church.
She also did not rule out the possibility that PC(USA) employees at the national offices might be required to show proof of vaccination in order to return to work in the building. “We’re still evaluating the vaccination requirement,” Lueckert said. “We may very well mandate vaccinations for workers to come back,” although that decision has not been made.
The A Corporation board met via Zoom August 26-27. Here’s some of what happened on the meeting’s final day.
Budgets
Ian Hall, the A Corporation’s new chief financial officer and chief operating officer, presented a positive budget report for the first seven months of 2021 (C.001 FOB Report 08-26-2021) — with total net assets in July 2021 of $720.6 million, up $150 million from the previous year. Much of that change is due to market value increases in investments and to changes in the value of beneficial interest in perpetual trusts.
Travel and meeting costs were down because of the pandemic. And overall, spending was less than the amount budgeted for the Administrative Services Group. “This is a positive story to report,” Hall said, with the increases in assets “something to be celebrated.”
But he also sounded a word of caution. The PC(USA) budgets were reduced by 25% in 2021, anticipating that revenues would be down because of the pandemic. “The whole financial report tells a good story,” with revenue outpacing expenses so far this year, Hall said. But compared to 2019, “we have less resources to do ministry with. … The long-term and maybe troubling story is a budget that has contracted, giving less resources to serve the church and Christ.”
Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan
The board voted to approve an allocation plan for the $8.8 million PPP loan the PC(USA) received in 2020, and which the Small Business Administration has forgiven.
The $8.8 million will be allocated as follows:
- $2 million to the capital reserve fund for the Presbyterian Center renovation. The first floor of the building is being renovated to make space for committees of the hybrid 2022 General Assembly to meet in person in Louisville, with the plenary sessions to be held virtually.
- $3 million to create a cash flow reserve for the A Corporation — enough to cover payroll for two cycles in an emergency.
- $3.08 million to the Presbyterian Mission Agency.
- $770,000 to the Office of the General Assembly.
The division of revenue between PMA and OGA reflects the 80%/20% cost-allocation arrangement currently in effect between those agencies.
Renovation
Lueckert said detailed drawings for the project are in progress, and interviews are being conducted to hire a firm responsible for integrating the audiovisual system that will be used at the conference center. “Designing a system that is fairly complex is not something we are able to do on our own,” and if the technology doesn’t work properly during General Assembly “there will be very little grace extended,” she said. “We want to get this right.”
Two other concerns: potential delays getting the necessary permits from Louisville Metro Government, which is short-staffed and “taking a little bit longer than usual,” Lueckert said.
Also, “we’re concerned about supply chain issues,” with little flexibility on deadlines as “GA will come when GA comes.” There are endless decisions to be made, from paint colors to the all-important “what coffee brewers to get for the beverage center,” Lueckert said.
There also are plans for a “shake-down meeting” prior to the assembly to test out the systems — probably a meeting of the Presbytery of Mid-Kentucky in May.
COVID-19
The A Corporation board could not reach agreement on whether to meet in hybrid fashion at its Oct. 28-29 meeting (with some participating remotely and others choosing to attend in person), or whether to hold the whole meeting via Zoom. Ultimately the board voted to put off that decision for a month, to see how the pandemic morphs in September.
The board’s debate over whether it’s safe to travel and meet in person reflects the conversation taking place in congregations, schools and workplaces around the country.
Board member Chris Mason, from New York City, argued for the value of in-person relationship building and discernment, saying that “most churches are having in-person services,” and “it seems a little weird” for the A Corporation board not to do so.
Board co-chair Bill Teng, a pastor from Florida, said that with a hybrid meeting, “those who don’t feel comfortable traveling can still call in.” In Florida, where more than 43,600 people have died from COVID-19, many churches are meeting in person, Teng said. He traveled this week for a family funeral, and “the airport was full, the plane was full.”
Board member Bridget-Anne Hampden of North Carolina cautioned that “we need to be extremely prudent,” recognizing that the Presbyterian Center isn’t expected to fully reopen until at least Nov. 1 and that the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board and the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly both are meeting virtually this fall.
“All of the churches have not opened,” Hampden said. “There are still a lot of communities that are being extremely prudent” — and she questioned whether it would be good stewardship for the A Corporation board to rent hotel meeting space in Louisville if it’s not able to meet at the Presbyterian Center.
Sam Bonner, a board member from New Jersey, said he’s stunned by the divisions the pandemic has created, and the way “this disease has created some extraordinary diversion in common sense.”
COVID-19 “has taken down over 600,000 American citizens, over six million people around the world,” Bonner said. “The idea that for reasons other than just health and safety people can decide to do things, even in the face of the devastation this thing has done, is shocking to me.”
Bonner said his desire is to meet remotely “as long as it takes. I would go with the science on this.”
Board co-chair Heidi Bolt, a pastor from Minnesota, said she expects there are likely as many opinions on this as there are board members. Lueckert said a cross-agency COVID-19 planning team continues to meet twice a week to set policy on the pandemic for the national staff, and pointed out that “the delta variant has really exploded here in Jefferson County.”
Denominational employees are being asked to submit preference forms soon indicating whether they want to work remotely long-term; partly at home and partly in the office each week; or return to the center full-time when it reopens. Another major downtown employer, Humana, has pushed back its office reopening date to Oct. 18, and will require employees who work in its facilities and not just in their homes to produce proof of vaccination, Lueckert said.
“We have not taken that step yet, but we continue to evaluate the science and what other employers are doing,” she said. “We could make a change before folks come back to the center.”
