The General Assembly Mission Council is meeting this week, from May 13-15, to approve budget cuts that are expected to result in a significant staff reduction – with layoffs expected of perhaps 15 to 20 percent, although the exact numbers will depend on a variety of factors.
This will mark the sixth time since 2002 that the PC(USA) has reduced its staff because of budget shortfalls and declining membership. Already, about 250 jobs have been lost through layoffs and attrition over the past eight years, according to the figures used when those announcements were made.
This time, denominational leaders have warned that the cuts could mean the elimination of entire programs or areas of ministry. As council member Mark Schramm put it in February: “We may have to say goodbye to some long-treasured programs that no longer serve the needs of the church.”
The PC(USA) is not alone in its budgetary distress. This round of budget cuts fits into a much larger picture, stretching back for decades now, of membership losses and the shrinking influence of mainline denominations. In 2008 (the latest year for which these statistics are available), PC(USA) membership had dropped to 2.14 million, just over half what it was in the 1960s. Other mainline denominations are losing members too – Lutherans, Methodists, Episcopalians – as their congregations age; as they disagree about homosexuality and other theological issues, and congregations leave for other denominations; as some nondenominational churches grow and many Americans opt for spirituality lived outside of organized religion.
Details of the PC(USA)’s 2011 budget likely will not be released until close to the start of the council’s meeting; information on the layoffs won’t come until the affected employees have been notified, probably Friday afternoon at the earliest. The council has several closed sessions on its agenda during the week.
But in the February, 2010, meeting, Joey Bailey, the denomination’s chief financial officer, presented some early projections, showing the mission budget dropping from roughly $93.8 million this year to $78.5 million in 2011- a decline of more than $15 million – and in 2012 to about $76.2 million.
Severance packages were offered this spring to about 30 veteran employees – many with long experience with the church. No information has yet been released as to how many have decided to leave or what impact their departures will have on the leadership in key ministry areas.
In February, the General Assembly Mission Council also approved a set of “guiding principles” which Linda Valentine, the council’s executive director, said would be used in shaping the budget cuts.
Among those principles:
* “We will stop those ministries that can best be done by other parts of the church.”
* “We will avoid duplication within our own ministries.”
* And “we will operate according to fiscally sustainable principles in a commitment to live within our means and in alignment with funding trends.”
