Council for Chaplains and Military Personnel gets low priority GAC says it must plan to raise its own funds By Parker T. Williamson The Presbyterian Layman Monday, September 28, 1998 LOUISVILLE - The Presbyterian Council for Chaplains and Military Personnel has received an ominous message from the General Assembly Council (GAC). On Sept. 25, the GAC issued a warning that this ministry's funding from the denomination's mission budget may be coming to an end. Funding for the Presbyterian Council for Chaplains and Ministry to Military Personnel was for many years lodged in the General Assembly's per capita budget, a fund whose primary function is to underwrite the denomination's administrative expenses. In 1997, the General Assembly decided that this ministry should be recognized, not as an administrative expense, but as one of the denomination's mission programs. On that basis, the General Assembly transferred the program to the mission budget, where it was assigned to the General Assembly Council's Division of National Ministries. In order ease the financial impact of this transfer, the General Assembly provided that the cost of this ministry would be shifted incrementally from the per capita budget to the mission budget over a period of three years. Chaplains and the National Ministries Division The chaplains' new home, the National Ministries Division also houses the denomination's Peacemaking Program, the Washington Office (which often associates itself with anti-military caucuses) and the office on Mission Responsibility through Investment (which regularly files shareholder resolutions against corporations that manufacture weapons or develop a high percentage of their business with the military). Closely related to this division is the Women's Advocacy Committee, a group that produced a paper in 1998 accusing the United States government of promoting and facilitating prostitution in areas near US military bases. (The US government flatly denies these charges, and the Women's Advocacy Committee offered no documentation to sustain them.) According to the terms of the transfer, the National Ministries Division is obliged to maintain the chaplains program until the year 2,000. After that, all guarantees are gone, and the Council for Chaplains and Military Personnel will compete with other programs in the division for a shrinking pool of mission dollars. Already, the division is pushing the chaplains to help raise the money to cover their portion of the division's budget. Anticipating a less than friendly sponsorship by National Ministries, Presbyterian chaplains and military personnel appeared before the 1998 General Assembly, testifying to the merit of their ministry and seeking assurances that their program would not be cut by Louisville budget officials. Recognizing that the chaplains' budget is secure through 1999, the Assembly declined to take an action that would tie the hands of a future Assembly. GAC sends a message If the chaplains had any doubt about where their program stands among the priorities of Louisville leaders, there should be no question following the September 25 meeting of the General Assembly Council. During that meeting the GAC sent a clear message to the chaplains. Attached to an allocation that fulfills its commitment to fund the council through 1999 is this advice to the chaplains: "advise the Presbyterian Council for Chaplains and Military Personnel (effective in the budget year 2000) to seek alternative sources of funding, such as the Extra Commitment Opportunities Program, to meet the needs of the Council." |
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