General Assembly Council GAC, COGA to seek disapproval of overture seeking transfer of funding for ecumenical work from per-capita to mission budget By Craig M. Kibler Staff Writer The Layman Online Friday, April 25, 2008 LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The General Assembly Council (GAC) and the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (COGA) will be urging commissioners to the upcoming General Assembly to disapprove an overture that seeks to transfer any funding of the Presbyterian Church (USA)'s involvement in ecumenical and ecumenical agency relationships from the per-capita budget of the Office of the General Assembly to the mission budget of the General Assembly. The 218th General Assembly will be held June 21-28 in San Jose, Calif. In discussing a draft comment to the overture Wednesday during a morning meeting at the Brown Hotel, the Rev. Allison Seed, chair of the GAC executive committee, said that the overture (OVT-20) "has significant implications. There is a mission ecumenical engagement involved." The comment, she said, "is to disapprove this overture because there are distinct features regarding engagement with the ecumenical bodies." The overture, sponsored by Indian Nations Presbytery with a concurrence from the Presbytery of Santa Barbara, seeks to have the transfer take place beginning with the denomination's budgets for 2009. It also asks that the per-capita apportionment for 2009 "be adjusted downward accordingly." The overture also asks that, if approved by the General Assembly, the GAC and the COGA be instructed "to initiate a study of the per-capita budget to determine, prior to the 219th General Assembly (2010), all other items funded by the per-capita budget that do not constitute 'Office of the General Assembly operating expenses' or 'General Assembly meeting expenses of commissioners' and thus should be rightly transferred to the mission budget." Frank Adams of Pensacola, Fla., the chair of the Stewardship Committee, said that, "If this were to be transferred, we're looking at about one-and-a-half million dollars in impact. There is a significant financial implication, but it would also be a major change in how the church structures its mission work." In the draft comment, COGA and the GAC state that "the purpose of per capita is to provide a mechanism for all Presbyterians to share equally in core ecclesiastical functions. On several occasions over the past three decades, the support through per-capita funds of one of our core ecclesiastical functions, participation in ecumenical bodies, has been challenged through overtures, but consistently rejected by General Assemblies, as cited in Advice on Ovt. 20 from the Advisory Committee on the Constitution." In its rationale, the overture states that the Book of Order provides for per-capita budgets "to include funding as follows:" "… The General Assembly shall pay the expenses of commissioners who are elected by the presbyteries to attend the meetings of the General Assembly. Per-capita funds may be used by each governing body to pay such expenses" (G-9.0308). "Each governing body above the session shall prepare a budget for its operating expenses, including administrative personnel, and may fund it with a per-capita apportionment among the particular churches within its bounds" [emphasis added] (G 9.0404d). "Any reasonable reading of the above Book of Order references," the rationale states, "would conclude that contributions to ecumenical bodies, along with ecumenical and ecumenical agency relations expenses, do not properly fall under the category of items to be included in a per-capita budget, irregardless of the use that the ecumenical bodies might make of the funds. The Book of Order allows a governing body only 'its' operating expenses to be funded with a per-capita apportionment." The original purpose of many of the ecumenical agencies to which the PCUSA belongs, according to the rationale, was "to promote unity in Christian doctrine and mutual recognition of ministries. Increasingly, these same ecumenical agencies have changed their primary focus away from building Christian unity toward advocating for policies that may or may not be consistent with the policy of the PCUSA or her member churches. In the case of the National Council of Churches of Christ, denominations and other religious groups are no longer even the primary source of funds, yet the NCCC claims to be a 'religious' organization." "Because these agencies have shifted their focus toward political action, termed 'justice advocacy,'" the rationale states, "it is appropriate that they be funded under the mission budget, where the church normally funds advocacy activities, rather than the per-capita budget, which is intended to pay for the administrative costs of the Office of the General Assembly." The rationale also states that "shifting the ecumenical agencies' funding from the per-capita budget will likely strengthen support of that budget by moving it closer to its original purpose and by providing relief of conscience to those not in support of the ecumenical agencies' political agenda. At the same time, it will afford supporters of those agencies the opportunity to designate mission contributions toward their support." In asking for a study of other items, the rationale states that "there are other expenses currently paid from the per-capita budget that should be evaluated to determine if they are properly included in that budget. These include, but are not limited to: Expenses associated with the General Assembly Council (GAC), which oversees the mission budget. Expenses associated with the GAC administration, including the office of the Executive Director of the GAC, which is related to functions included in the mission budget. In its draft comment advocating disapproval of the overture, COGA and the GAC state that the overture "is based on a fundamental misconception of the role and responsibility of the Office of the General Assembly for seeking and maintaining a strong participation in ecumenical relations and ecumenical witness. Further, it seeks to put forward a very restricted definition of the work of the Office of the General Assembly, thereby misconstruing what may be properly underwritten by 'operating expenses' (G-9.0404d)." The draft comment states that the denomination's constitution "manifests a strong historic and continuing commitment to ecumenical relations and witness. G-3.0401 asserts that, 'The Church is called: … d. to a new openness to God's continuing reformation of the Church ecumenical, that it might be a more effective instrument of mission in the world." "In G-4.0203, in speaking of 'The Unit of the Church,'" the draft comment states, "we find: 'Visible oneness, by which a diversity of persons, gifts and understandings is brought together, is an important sign of the unity of God's people, it is also a means by which that unity is achieved. Further, while division into different denominations do not destroy this unity, they do obscure it for both the Church and the world. The Presbyterian Church (USA), affirming its historical continuity with the whole Church of Jesus Christ, is committed to the reduction of that obscurity and is willing to seek and to maintain communion and community with all other branches of the one, catholic Church.' "In G-9.0402c, we read: 'All structures shall be open to the possibility of change and new forms of ecumenical cooperation.'" In its conclusion, the draft comment speaks of a commitment to the unity of Christ's Church as being "a core ecclesial responsibility of the Presbyterian Church (USA), and a primary function of the stated clerk of the General Assembly. The Office of the General Assembly is the instrument of the Presbyterian Church (USA), the 'structure' within our historic polity that maintains communication and engages in cooperation with the Church ecumenical on behalf of the denomination, seeking to reduce the obscurity that a divided Church presents to the world. Our fundamental commitment to God's gift of unity in Jesus Christ is an expression of the whole church, and is properly funded by a per-capita apportionment as a sign of our covenantal relationships within the Presbyterian Church (USA) and with the Church Universal." Craig M. Kibler is the Director of Publications and Executive Editor of the Presbyterian Lay Committee.

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