 Panel supports continued level of funding for NCC By Craig M. Kibler The Layman Online Wednesday, June 30, 2004
The General Assembly Committee on Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations, in approving a review of the NCC, did not discuss the $4.6 million cut from the 2005-2006 mission budget and the elimination of 37 national staff positions in May - on top of $1.47 million in cuts and 19 layoffs in 2003 and $5.7 million in cuts and 66 layoffs in 2002. Instead, commissioners asked if the PCUSA was funding a disproportionate share of the NCC's budget. Presbyterians gave $421,178 in per-capita funding to the NCC in 2002-2003, second behind the United Methodists. In 2002, the NCC received $429,602. The PCUSA long has been a leading benefactor of the NCC, using undesignated funds to support the organization through the General Assembly's per-capita budget and through additional support from the Mission Budget and in-kind contributions made by PCUSA staff members handling NCC assignments. Only the per-capita contributions – running at more than $400,000 for the past several years – are clearly identified in the PCUSA budget as contributions to the organization. The full General Assembly will be asked to approve a Mission Budget that includes per-capita funding of $400,000 in both 2005 and 2006 for the NCC, which is budgeted to receive the same amount in 2004. Later, a commissioner chastised the committee, singling out the way the debate on the National Council of Churches report was handled. It "was politically one-sided," he said. The process intimidated him, he said, so that he felt uneasy "about speaking out on issues of concern to me." |
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