Finances at Stony Point Center again have emerged as a concern for the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board – with expenses at Stony Point outrunning revenue by more than $286,000 for the first seven months of this year. In response, the Presbyterian Mission Agency is holding off on all but emergency or essential capital spending at Stony Point, hoping that guest occupancy rates at the conference and retreat center outside New York City can increase in the rest of the year, said Mike Miller, acting director of shared services. While Stony Point finished 2017 with an occupancy rate of about 45 percent, the occupancy rate so far this year has fallen a little shy of 40 percent, said Rick Ufford-Chase, who is co-director of the center along with his wife, Kitty. Speaking during a conference call meeting of the board’s Resource Allocation and Stewardship Committee on Aug. 13, Miller said the budget was prepared anticipating a 50 percent occupancy rate – which, if achieved, would have … [Read more...]
Voices and votes of the 223rd General Assembly
ST. LOUIS – “How big a voice do we necessarily have?” A young adult advisory delegate asked that question about Presbyterian influence during a debate at the 2018 General Assembly over a proposal that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) divest from fossil fuel companies (something the assembly chose not to do, favoring continued corporate engagement instead). And it’s a fundamental question — in some ways, both a practical and a theological one for a mainline denomination with a declining and aging membership, whose stated clerk, J. Herbert Nelson, often proclaims: “We are not dying, we are reforming.” The PC(USA) today is not the same denomination it was five or 10 years ago. It has tilted markedly towards the progressive side as more than 350 congregations have left the PC(USA) since 2012 for more conservative denominations — many of them in response to the denomination’s decision, after years of discord, to allow the ordination of gay and lesbian pastors in partnerships and to … [Read more...]
Structure and statutes: Presbyterian Mission Agency Board approves A Corporation bylaw changes
This makes one more step down the road. The Presbyterian Mission Agency Board voted July 19 to approve a series of bylaw changes for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation, a secular corporation through which the denomination transacts business for the Presbyterian Mission Agency and Office of the General Assembly. The actions that the board took involving the bylaws parallel the decisions regarding the A Corporation that the General Assembly made in St. Louis in June – decisions with which the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board’s Governance Task Force strongly disagreed. The assembly, however, voted in favor of reconfiguring the structure of the A Corporation’s board. And the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board, meeting by conference call July 19, approved a series of bylaw changes to match that new configuration. Also, the voting members of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board are being asked to resign their seats on the A Corporation board by July 26 – so that the … [Read more...]
The 223rd General Assembly: News in brief
ST. LOUIS – Fourteen committees addressed a multitude of issues over the course of the 223rd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) meeting in St. Louis June 16-23, 2018. The consent agenda alone brought and quickly passed 80 items of business on the floor of the assembly. Hours of discussion and debate ensued as the GA created task forces, made statements, passed budgets and much more. Below is a sampling of some of what they accomplished. For more coverage, analysis and commentary, visit pres-outlook.org/tag/ga223. For all of the business conducted, go to pc-biz.org. Small churches. An item of business concerning small churches in the PC(USA) called for establishing a new department within the Presbyterian Mission Agency with a multi-million dollar financial implication. The committee amended the resolution to instead require a report to the next General Assembly that would report on the existing and new programs designed to help smaller churches. The alternative … [Read more...]
Celebrating 200 years of the Presbyterian Outlook at GA
Each year, the Presbyterian Outlook hosts a luncheon on the first Saturday of General Assembly. The gathering gives participants an opportunity to hear from each of the candidates standing for moderator and listen to some thoughts from the editor on the critical issues facing the church. This year, the luncheon was held in St. Louis on June 16, 2018, and celebrated the Outlook’s 200-year anniversary. Here are the remarks from the event. Jill Duffield, Outlook editor and publisher Researching one’s ancestry seems to be in vogue right now. The ability to swab our cheek, put it in the mail and – “presto!” – discover the journey our DNA has taken that leads to us seems irresistible. We long to know to whom we are connected, what hardships and triumphs they experienced, what kind of people are “our” people. I have not sent my DNA to ancestry.com or 23andMe or any of those services. My sister, however, has done them all. She has also researched parts of our family … [Read more...]
Video: Presbyterian Disaster Assistance brings narratives to life in documentary films
ST. LOUIS — At General Assembly, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance screened some of their award-winning documentary films to encourage congregations and communities to use them to open conversations around some of the hard subjects. Filmmaker David Barnhart follows the example of Jesus by using narrative stories to bring people together and discover the lives of others. … [Read more...]
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