Diane Moffett, president and executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, wants all Presbyterians to hear of the Matthew 25 vision in the next two years – “to make sure it gets down to every level” of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). And she told members of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board during a June 17 conference call meeting that “I’d like you to be an advocate and a cheerleader on every level” for the Matthew 25 vision, which the agency unrolled April 1. So far, “people are very open to this,” she said. “We have not gotten a lot of push back at all,” but Presbyterians seem eager for something that unites and connects the denomination. Moffett is careful to describe Matthew 25 as a “vision” and not an initiative – with board member Marci Glass of Idaho saying she’s heard people asking questions about what’s the difference, for example, between Matthew 25 and other PC(USA) endeavors, such as Hands and Feetor 1001 New Worshipping Communities. (The short … [Read more...]

The Presbyterian Mission Agency Board continues to struggle with a question that it’s been poking at for years: how much it’s willing to spend to continue the operations of Stony Point Center outside New York City. The board, meeting by conference call April 24 (part of that in closed session) voted to authorize spending up to $630,750, for “critical expenditures” for capital improvements at Stony Point, a conference center about an hour outside New York City that also is home to an interfaith community. The board also gave permission for the board’s Coordinating Committee to approve additional spending for a roofing project involving two buildings at Stony Point should bids for doing that work exceed initial estimates, and once money from a fund held at the Presbyterian Foundation for support of one of those buildings has been used. Discussion during the open portion of the meeting, however, showed that some board members still are uncomfortable with how much the … [Read more...]

LOUISVILLE – What assumptions do we make about poverty? As in: People are to blame for their own poverty. It’s their fault. Poor people grew up in a subculture of poverty. It’s not their fault.  Poor people live in the ghetto. They live in rural America.  Not here. Poverty is triggered by cyclical events: by the auto plant closing, the flood, the hurricane, the impact of war – things outside our control. The poor will always be with us. The Presbyterian Mission Agency is concentrating its mission focus on three things: congregational vitality, dismantling structural racism and eradicating systemic poverty. On March 28, the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board spent about two hours of its spring meeting talking about poverty and injustice — learning some of what the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is doing to confront poverty and what Presbyterians need to do differently if they want to make an impact. “We need to address the root cause of poverty,” said Rhashell … [Read more...]

LOUISVILLE – It’s not clear how the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board is leaning regarding the finances and future of Stony Point Center – as the board went into closed session for the part of its meeting March 27 when it talked about that. Diane Moffett, president and executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, and her leadership team have made a proposal: that the board hire a consultant to help develop a vision for Stony Point, and that Stony Point become a mission arm of the PMA, aligned with the agency’s Matthew 25 focus. That recommendation carries financial implications. The consultant, Run River Enterprises, would cost about $38,000, plus another $3,200 in travel costs. The deeper commitment: the recognition that Stony Point has run a deficit in eight of the last 10 years, and that it needs significant capital expenses to fix what’s been put off over time and to provide the kind of amenities that travelers routinely expect. The report to the boardstates … [Read more...]