Panel rejects Baltimore overture seeking to make per-capita payments mandatory By Craig M. Kibler The Layman Online Saturday, June 17, 2006 217th General Assembly Birmingham, Ala. BIRMINGHAM -- The Committee on General Assembly Procedures has voted to recommend to the full General Assembly that it reject a proposal to make the payment of per capita mandatory. The Presbytery of Baltimore overture (023) sought to have the 217th General Assembly provide an Authoritative Interpretation of G-9.0404d the Book of Order stating that: 1. The covenantal relationship of the Presbyterian Church (USA) recognizes both the need and obligation of governing bodies to support each other; and 2. That sessions are responsible for the payment of per-capita apportionments of General Assembly, synod and presbytery directed to them by the presbytery in accordance with G-9.0404d. In advocating for the overture, Rev. Peter Nord, executive of the Presbytery of Baltimore, said that, in listening to Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick's report on the per-capita budget earlier, "he spoke of organized efforts to undermine the paying of per capita. They sadden me because they impair our ability to fulfill the mission Christ calls us to as the church." "That's the reason for this overture," he said. "No churches the Presbytery of Baltimore withhold per capita as a protest to anything. I'm not sure, though, how long our churches can withstand the temptation if people's budgets cause them to avoid paying per capita in preference to paying for other things." Per-capita hike recommended The Committee on General Assembly Procedures voted late Friday night to recommend to the full General Assembly that the per-capita rate be increased 15 cents for 2007-2008. The proposed rate is $5.72 for 2007-2008, up from $5.57 for 2005-2006. The vote of the committee was unanimous (48-0-0). Nord then referred to a statement by Kirkpatrick that, "in spite of organized campaigns to undermine the payment of per capita, the per-capita payments remain remarkably strong." "It is not significant on the General Assembly level," Nord said, "because the presbyteries who do not receive their full per capita make it up. I estimate it may be $1 million. To make it up, presbyteries have to go into the real benevolence budget." He then argued, in essence, that the overture is a form of local option for the payment of per capita. "This will not change what the presbyteries are now doing," Nord said. "If presbyteries pay it now, that will continue. If they don't, that will continue." Rev. James B. McCoy of Coastal Carolina Presbytery asked Nord, "Have you considered the pastoral implications of decades of sessions having total control of their budgets?" Nord said he had, adding that, "I think it depends on how you interpret these issues to your churches." Leon Swenson, an elder from Central Washington Presbytery, said, "My concern is that this kind of an overture will appear to be one more big hammer that the people already are pushing back against, and it may hasten their approach to withhold" their per capita. Nord responded that, "if it's used as a hammer, I agree with you. I would push back as well. So much of this is based on the trust between a church and a presbytery." "One can look at this as a hammer," he said, "but one can also look at it, in some respects, as being offered, I hope, in Christian love. We talk a lot about discipline, the celebration of discipline. This is a discipline. This is what it means to be a part of our church." In making the motion to disapprove the overture, which later was approved on a vote of 37-8-3 after the addition of a pastoral comment, McCoy said, "I think that the fallout of having such an Authoritative Interpretation would not bring back any of the congregations that have withheld their per capita. The response should be a pastoral response to what their reasons are. I'm concerned that some churches that have been paying per capita may now start withholding per capita."

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