Nearly a year after the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) closed its World Mission ministry area and eliminated all mission co-worker positions, three overtures propose that the 227th General Assembly take up what proponents call unfinished business from one of the denomination’s most consequential decisions in recent memory.
OVT-004, OVT-005 and OVT-006 – all submitted by the Cascades Presbytery – ask the commissioners meeting this summer in Milwaukee to address three interconnected questions left open by the 2025 restructuring: Were mission co-workers silenced while losing their jobs? Did the process violate the denomination’s own policies? And what missiology will guide the PC(USA)’s global engagement going forward?
Timeline of PC(USA) world mission closure in 2025
The story behind these overtures begins in January 2025, when PC(USA) leadership announced plans to cut its mission co-worker roster by at least 50%, from 60 to no more than 30. Fifteen years earlier, more than 200 co-workers had served globally.
By March 31, 2025, the World Mission ministry area was formally closed, and 54 mission co-workers were laid off. A small number of former co-workers were invited to consider serving as global ecumenical liaisons in a new Global Ecumenical Partnerships model.
Mission co-workers, global partners and presbyteries responded with immediate backlash, citing the absence of meaningful consultation with international partners and a lack of transparency in the process. The 226th General Assembly had passed two commissioner resolutions the previous summer, reaffirming the role of mission co-workers and calling for their retention, resolutions that the Presbyterian Life and Witness, then called the Interim Unified Agency, did not follow.
What OVT-004, OVT-005 and OVT-006 propose to GA227
OVT-004 proposes extending a prohibition on non-disclosure covenants to all agency employees, building on the 226th General Assembly’s ban on non-disclosure agreements in pastoral calls. According to the overture’s rationale, mission co-workers served under non-disclosure covenants – a distinction IUA staff pressed – and received warnings that speaking publicly about their experiences could cost them their severance packages.
OVT-005 asks the assembly to direct the moderator or co-moderators to appoint a commission to investigate the decision-making process behind the elimination of World Mission. That commission would determine whether the Unification Commission and Presbyterian Life and Witness acted in conformity with or in violation of prior General Assembly mandates. It would report findings to the 228th General Assembly (2028), along with recommendations for acknowledgement, confession, repentance, and reparation.”
Related reading: Follow the Outlook’s reporting of mission cuts from the beginning
In a comment to the overture, the Unification Commission described the restructuring as “a living process” requiring continued refinement, with a focus on “deeper listening, broader collaborations, and a renewed emphasis on justice and local context.”
OVT-006 takes the longest view, proposing that staff and a moderator-appointed advisory group develop a comprehensive new missiological statement that would address foundational questions, such as: What is the PC(USA)’s missiology? Who engages in global mission, and how? What protections exist for those sent abroad, and what funding models apply? The advisory group would be required to consult missiological scholars, former mission co-workers, PC(USA) Mission Networks, mid councils, congregations and global partners, and would report to GA228.
“We worship the God who sends the church into the world,” the overture’s rationale states, “not the Mammon who seeks its own self-preservation.” A group of denominational leaders, former mission co-workers, and several academics gathered in March to begin drafting a missiological statement to present to the commission should the OVT-006 pass.
