Despite layoffs and budget cuts, PCUSA wants G.A. to maintain funding for WCC, NCC, other groups By Craig M. Kibler The Layman Online Wednesday, June 23, 2004 Despite cutting $4.6 million from the 2005-2006 mission budget and eliminating 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, as well as 10 percent of the denomination's foreign missionaries – the General Assembly Council is recommending that the 216th General Assembly continue to maintain its level of funding for such controversial organizations as the World Council of Churches and the National Council of Churches. The Presbyterian Church (USA) long has been a leading benefactor of the World Council of Churches and the National Council of Churches, using undesignated funds to support the organizations 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 and WCC assignments. Only the per-capita contributions – running at more than $400,000 for each organization for the past several years – are clearly identified in the PCUSA budget as contributions to the organizations. A report last year by a five-member PCUSA review committee, for example, acknowledged that the "denomination's support in 2001 [for the WCC] was 1,948,947 Swiss francs ($1,437,806.75 U.S.), some 70 percent more than the next largest North American supporter; the United Methodist Church." Commissioners, who will be meeting in Richmond from June 26-July 3, 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. In 2003, the PCUSA provided the organization with $421,178 in per-capita funding while, in 2002, it received $429,602. They also will be asked to approve per-capita funding of $449,414 in 2005 and $458,402 in 2006 for the WCC, which is budgeted to receive $449,414 in 2004. In 2003, the PCUSA provided the organization with $440,602 in per-capita funding while, in 2002, it received $431,963. Other per-capita funding that commissioners will be asked to approve includes: Church Union Efforts. This primarily includes support for Churches United in Christ, billed as an ecumenical initiative but which is ignored by Roman Catholics, Orthodox, mainline Lutheran and the fastest-growing Protestant bodies, including Southern Baptists, Pentecostals and other evangelical communions. The ultimate goal of CuiC is that any minister in one communion would be acceptable to another, which would be problematic for the PCUSA since it has a constitutional standard that prohibits the ordination of officers who are self-affirming, practicing homosexuals. The United Church of Christ and the Episcopal Church allow their ordination. The General Assembly Council is recommending that these efforts receive $30,600 in both 2005 and 2006, which is the amount they are budgeted to receive in 2004. The PCUSA provided $33,151 in 2003. The World Alliance of Reformed Churches. Commissioners will be asked to approve $232,731 in both 2005 and 2006, the same level of funding the organization is budgeted to receive in 2004. The Alliance received $228,168 in 2003. A report to the 214th General Assembly showed that the PCUSA is the highest contributor of the member churches to the alliance. Ecumenical Assemblies. Primarily for attendance at such events, the General Assembly Council is recommending that $75,000 be approved in both 2005 and 2006, the same amount such initiatives are budgeted to receive in 2004 and the same amount they received in 2003. Last year in Denver, the 215th General Assembly commended Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick, a member of the WCC's Central Committee. Kirkpatrick has been an unwavering supporter of the WCC, which has moved increasingly away from its founding purpose – the proclamation of the Gospel to the world and the unity of Christians for that purpose. Kirkpatrick, whose professional career was as an employee of ecumenical groups before he began working for the PCUSA, has been a prime mover in the National and World councils and the World Alliance, serving several years on their governing bodies. The primary agenda in the past year for those three agencies has been to oppose the coalition led by President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair that ended the torturous regime of Saddam Hussein. While the National Council and World Council have received the most media attention for their opposition to the liberation of Iraq, the World Alliance issued one of the strongest condemnations. "We condemn unreservedly this war of aggression, and we condemn the unilateral and imperial mentality that lies behind it," the World Alliance said in a statement posted on its Web site. "No nation, however powerful, may act on the world stage simply as it pleases."

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