 PCUSA says 2001 giving ‘encouraging’ – but is it? By John H. Adams The Layman Volume 35, Number 3 Posted June 3, 2002 The Office of the General Assembly, whose overseer is Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick, has released a sunny report with its statistics about the performance of the Presbyterian Church (USA) during 2001.
Despite the loss of 31,549 Presbyterians, the report quoted Kirkpatrick as saying: “The encouraging news in these numbers gives us courage to face our challenges.” Among the “encouraging signs,” according to the news release, was that “annual per-member contributions rose to over $1,200 per year.” But there was no evidence that contributions reached anywhere near that level. Kirkpatrick’s office listed income – including foundation money, bequests and other funds – that is not normally used by the denomination to calculate per-member giving. The official denomination reports for its annual Comparative Statistics use a simple formula: Total contributions by Presbyterians are divided by total membership. With that formula, per-member giving in 2001 was $783.33 – which represented the lowest increase in more than a decade. And, when inflation is factored in (using the model and calculator of the American Institute for Economic Research), giving in terms of 2002 dollars actually fell from the per-member contributions in 2000. According to the institute’s calculator, the value in 2002 dollars of the per-member contribution of $773.42 in 2000 was $797.22. The inflation-adjusted value of the 2001 per-capita contribution was $785.11 – $11.11 less. |
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