NCC on brink of financial disaster PCUSA may forward bailout although required contingency has not been met By Paula R. Kincaid The Layman Online Thursday, September 21, 2000 MONTREAT, N.C. – Because a $700,000 pledge by the United Methodist Church has become iffy, the Presbyterian Church (USA) has delayed paying $400,000 it pledged to the National Council of Churches. Facing a critical "cash flow crisis" and on the brink of financial disaster, the NCC could go under if it doesn't receive the promised Methodist/Presbyterian bail out funds soon. On Wednesday, John Detterick, executive director of the General Assembly Council, recommended that the council authorize payment of the $400,000, despite the fact that the Methodists have not sent the funds they promised earlier this year. If the General Assembly Council agrees to go along with Detterick's proposal, it will renege on a major condition that it placed on funding the bail out. One of the contingencies for the PCUSA payment to bail the NCC out of its financial crisis was that other denominations contribute $1.5 million. The Methodists pledged $700,000 but have paid only $200,000. The General Assembly Council's Executive Committee voted Wednesday to forward Detterick's recommendation to the full council which is expected to vote on the issue this Saturday, Sept. 23. Not all contingencies have been met Detterick said three of the five contingencies set by the council in February have been met. The NCC has approved a balanced budget and a plan to solve the unfunded liability of the pension and healthcare plans. It also has requested that all members of the organization contribute to the deficit bailout. The fifth contingency is for the council to review the organization every three years. But the first contingency -- that "other members pledge at least $1.5 million so the goal of $2 million in contributions will be fully committed" -- has not been met, he said. The two biggest contributors to the bailout plan are the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the United Methodist Church. The PCUSA has already paid $100,000 from the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly. "I was ready to go ahead and release" the $400,000, said Detterick, when he made a call to the Methodists and found out they had not received corporate approval to give the full $700,000 to the NCC. The Methodists will ask for $500,000 from mission and finance boards in September and October, but there is no guarantee that those boards will approve the requests. Detterick said his decision was that the contingencies had not been met, so "we have not funded that money." "While there are still problems, the staff has done all we asked and all they could," he said. Methodist funding uncertain Philip Young, a Presbyterian delegate to the National Council of Churches and treasurer of the organization, told the executive committee that the odds of Methodists approving the additional $500,000 are 50-50, but that he believes "the Methodists are very reluctant not to honor the commitment." He added that if the Methodists do not make the contribution, that it would be a sign to all the other member denominations of the end of the National Council of Churches, "so I believe they will honor this commitment" by the end of the calendar year. The United Methodist Church held its quadrennial conference this summer. Young said major administrative changes and election of new bishops resulted in the reluctance of leaders to honor the commitment of those who preceded them in office. Some of the new bishops are more conservative than their predecessors, and they view NCC activities with a more skeptical eye. The end of the NCC? Executive Committee member Lynn Shurley asked about a quote he read in a newspaper from Robert Edgar, general secretary of the NCC. Edgar talked about the end of the NCC and the emergence of a new ecumenical organization that would include evangelicals and Roman Catholics as well as mainline denominations. Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick said there was some serious work happening on a new ecumenical organization. By the end of this quadrennial, there may be no NCC but a much broader ecumenical organization, he said, adding that we are not trying to preserve the NCC as it is. "We are at a place with fresh opportunities." 'We ought to fund it' The NCC has done everything they can, said Detterick. They can't control that the Methodists haven't fulfilled their contribution. "I think we ought to fund it." "Why now," asked executive committee member Jeff Bridgeman. "Why is it so crucial that we need to step out of the commitments we made last year?" Detterick replied that the NCC continues to have serious financial problems. They have done all they can, he said, so why make them suffer for what they can't control? Young said the NCC has already booked the money as accounts receivable and said there is a "significant cash flow issue. This is a telling moment for us as a council." A history of deficits The NCC's current financial troubles are not new. In 1999, it announced a deficit of $3,987,000. In 1998, the deficit was $1.5 million. In 1997, it was $1.6 million. Each year, officials of the Presbyterian Church (USA), the NCC's largest contributor, have stepped forward to bail it out of its crisis.

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