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...]

CINCINNATI – The Presbyterian Mission Agency Board has approved a mission budget for 2019 and 2020 that’s balanced and calls for no layoffs – what Ken Godshall, the board’s chair, has described as “a good news budget” for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The board approved a mission budget (F.104 - 2019-2020 Budget) of $71.6 million for 2019 and $70.5 million for 2020. That budget now goes to the General Assembly in June for its approval. The adjusted 2018 mission budget stands at $68.2 million. No unrestricted reserves were used to balance the budget, and Denise Hampton, controller for the Presbyterian Mission Agency, reported that the unrestricted reserves stood at $12.5 million as of December 31. Here’s some of the other business the board dealt with in the closing session of the April 25-27 meeting. Prayer for North Korea The board approved this call for prayer suggested by Heath Rada, moderator of the 2014 General Assembly: “In light of last night’s announcement … [Read more...]

CINCINNATI – By a 13 to 12 vote, the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board voted April 27 not to accept a substitute comment to the 2018 General Assembly regarding the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation. That substitute would have still raised concerns and questions the board has regarding a joint A Corporation recommendation coming from the Way Forward Commission and All Agency Review Committee, but struck a more conciliatory tone. That’s something the board was not willing to do. With the proposed substitute, “what we’re doing is we’re watering it down and trying to make nice,” said Conrad Rocha, a board member from New Mexico who serves as co-chair of the board’s Governance Task Force, which recommended the original comment.  “We have to be clear.” The board had voted April 26 to approve the original comments — despite a caution from J. Herbert Nelson, stated clerk of the PC(USA), to consider what kind of witness the disagreement sends about the church. At the … [Read more...]

CINCINNATI – The Presbyterian Mission Agency Board voted April 26 to send a set of comments to the 2018 General Assembly regarding the proposals of the Way Forward Commission and All Agency Review Committee. Those comments (P.002 Governance Task Force WFC AARC comment) express the board’s disagreement with the recommendations involving the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation, saying the proposal lacks vision and focuses too much on technical change and suggesting that the assembly might take more time to consider all this – putting off changes to the denomination’s national structure until 2020. So for now: This complicated, messy, periodically rancorous dispute over the A Corporation is heading straight for the 2018 General Assembly, unless some sort of compromise can be reached before the assembly convenes in June. Several speakers at the board’s meeting in Cincinnati raised concerns about what kind of message that might send. “Please consider how we might be … [Read more...]