Attention, Presbyterian shoppers!
Starting Sept. 1, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is opening what leaders are calling one-stop shopping – a consolidated online retail site called the PCUSA Store, managed by the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation.
There, people will be able to purchase items from the Office of the General Assembly, the Presbyterian Mission Agency and Presbyterian Women – everything from curriculum to Bible studies, books and hymnals.
The intention is “to combine our retail presence into one single website,” Tony De La Rosa, the interim executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, told the executive committee of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board during a conference call Aug. 31.
The changes are the result, in part, of a recommendation stemming from the 2012 agency review of the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation, which recommended that the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation, Presbyterian Mission Agency and the Office of the General Assembly conduct a study to see if their publishing efforts could be consolidated or done more efficiently, including through changes in the ordering and distribution systems.
Still in the works: a proposed consolidation of Congregational Ministries Publishing into Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Details of that consolidation still are being worked out, but the board likely will vote on the plan during its meeting in Louisville Sept. 21-23.
According to information provided by the Presbyterian Mission Agency, the proposal under discussion includes transferring responsibility for Presbyterians Today magazine and the Presbyterian Planning Calendar to the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation.
The recommendation includes a number of conditions, according to that background paper. Among them:
- Curriculum “continues to seek to serve the broad theological middle of the PC(USA).”
- Only endowments particularly restricted to curriculum would be transferred to the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation.
- The Presbyterian Mission Agency would provide up to $270,000 annually in unrestricted funding for the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation to produce curriculum materials in Korean and Spanish.
That consolidation, if approved, likely would take effect Jan. 1, 2018. It’s still not clear whether General Assembly would need to approve such a consolidation, said Barry Creech, director of policy, administration and board support for the Presbyterian Mission Agency. If it’s determined that General Assembly approval is needed, that could delay the timeline.
