Support declines; deficit projected at $7.6 million The Layman Volume 35, Number 2 Posted April 8, 2002 LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Support for the Presbyterian Church (USA) is declining sharply because of unrest in the denomination and the nation’s economic slide, the General Assembly Council learned during its recent meeting in Louisville. The council approved a number of measures to try to overcome projected deficits totaling $7.6 million for 2002 and 2003, a projected membership loss of 45,000 in 2002, and a steep decline in support for work of the denomination through refusal to make per-capita payments. Still, because leaders expect membership losses in 2002 to number 45,000, the 2003 per-capita budget for the General Assembly will be down about $400,000 from 2002. Furthermore, Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick said he expects per-capita withholding to more than double to $425,000 in 2003. To ride out the economic storm, the council voted: To increase the per-capita apportionments for 2003 by 2.8 percent, from $5.25 to $5.40 per member. To provisionally authorize spending $1 million in an attempt to raise $40 million for national and world missions. To begin a process to try to determine what is essential and what is not in an effort to streamline spending and correlate appropriations to reflect the agenda of the Great Ends of the Church.

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