wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Controversial mission-funding change is tabled

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Note #7948 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Controversial mission-funding change is tabled
03403
September 25, 2003

Controversial mission-funding change is tabled

Detterick, opponents will keep looking for a 'win-win' solution

By Jerry L. Van Marter

MONTREAT, NC - A controversial proposal to begin deducting administrative
costs from designated mission funds has been tabled so General Assembly
Council Executive Director John Detterick can meet with critics of the plan
to find a compromise solution.

The GAC's Mission Support Services Committee (MSS) on Sept. 25 unanimously
approved an appeal from Executive Director John Detterick to postpone
consideration of the measure until the February meeting of the General
Assembly Council (GAC). Meanwhile, he said, he intends to meet with prominent
critics of the proposal "to work in a partnership mode to say, 'Yes, let's
find a solution.'"

GAC staff leaders had recommended that up to 5 percent of money designated to
special funds by Presbyterian givers be charged to those funds to cover
administrative costs. The new cost allocation, which was planned to save $1.4
million in unrestricted funds, was to take effect in 2005.

Currently all costs of administering restricted funds - including Extra
Commitment Opportunity projects, special offerings, disaster assistance,
hunger funds, the Theological Education Fund and the Mission Initiative - are
paid with unrestricted funds. The proposed cost-shift would save $1.4 million
per year in unrestricted funds - the portion of the General Assembly mission
budget facing the greatest pressure.

In the last 15 years, the unrestricted share of the mission budget has
declined from 70 percent to 30 percent. "We live in changing times, we all
know that," said MSS Chair Bruce Hendrickson. "One of things we've been
forced to deal with in last two years is cutting a total of $8.5 million from
the unrestricted budget."

Joey Bailey, the MSS director, said another estimated $4 million will have to
be cut from the 2005 and 2006 unrestricted budgets. "We have a real problem
of funding, folks," he told the MSS committee. "Presbyterians are telling us
exactly how to spend their money, so funding the unrestricted budget is a
huge problem."

But critics said the change would hurt rather than help mission funding.

Calling the proposal "a tax," Louis Weeks, the president of Union Theological
Seminary/Presbyterian School of Christian Education told the committee that
the change would "further erode" the covenant established in 1986 between the
PC(USA) and its 10 seminaries.

"We work very, very hard to persuade Presbyterians to direct their mission
gifts through the church," said David Hackett, general director of the
Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship. "The churches we've talked to are telling
us they'd immediately find other ways to give to those same projects."

"We're sympathetic to need to cover administrative costs, Hackett said, "but
we've got to find a better, more comprehensive way to fix the whole broken
mission-funding system."

Bailey pointed out that $2.8 million of the $4 million deficit for the next
two years could be covered by making the proposed change.

But Detterick, calling the opposition since the proposal was made public "a
journey of learning, with helpful conversations with Dave Hackett and Louis
Weeks," asked for more time.

"I realize there's a risk that there won't be a solution come February," he
told the committee, "but it's worth the risk to try and find a win-win
outcome ... that minimizes damage and finds ways to fix the mission-funding
system."

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