wfn.org | Committee on Stewardship and Communication

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01-July-1996 
 
GA96042 
 
Committee on Stewardship and Communication 
 
ALBUQUERQUE--The General Assemble committee on Stewardship and 
Communication held two hearings today concerning the way mission might be 
funded in the future within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).  The first of 
these hearings involved a small, but potentially wide-ranging issue of the 
way donor-designated money is received and administered, and spent.  The 
second hearing was devoted to proposed changes in the four Special 
Offerings promoted by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and received in its 
congregations. 
 
    The first hearing concerned an overture from the Grand Canyon 
Presbytery (96-123).  This overtures seeks to restore $136,000 to the 
Jennie M. Wimer Fund which the Presbyterian Foundation determined to be 
mis-spent at Cook College, a school near Phoenix, Ariz.  Cook College is a 
racial/ethnic college related to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) which 
serves Native American students, including some Navahos.  The Foundation 
maintains that the donor restricted her bequest to the Ganado Mission, 
Ganado, Ariz., which has done evangelistic work among the Navaho people for 
90 years.  The overture specifies that the money be given to the 
presbytery, where it would go in a special account and set aside for 
Ganado's use. 
 
    The committee heard testimony from the Rev. Paul Stone, director of the 
Ganado Mission and pastor of the Ganado Presbyterian Church.  While in 
favor of the spirit of the overture, Stone requested that the committee 
consider striking out the provision of Grand Canyon Presbytery as the 
recipient of restored funds, and instead proposed that the money be 
received by and spent directly by the session of the Ganado Presbyterian 
Church. 
 
    Barrie Gray, the advocate from Grand Canyon for Overture 96-123, spoke 
to the committee, expressing his hope that the committee would recommend 
its passage with its present wording intact.  The committee also heard from 
George Conn, General Assembly staff associate for racial/ethnic colleges, 
and from Larry Carr of the Presbyterian Foundation.  No action was taken on 
the original overture or on the request by Stone. 
 
    The second hearing dealt with the matter of special offerings in the 
Presbyterian church.  The proposal before the committee came from the 
special task group on special offerings, charged to conduct an in-depth 
review of current special offerings and to prepare a recommendation for the 
pattern and causes of those offerings in the four-year period from 1998 to 
2001. 
 
    John McFayden, chairperson of the task group, reported on its work and 
recommendations.  Briefly, the recommendations would: 
 
    1.  leave the One Great Hour of Sharing offering intact; 
    2.  leave the Peacemaking Offering "mostly intact" -- asking that the 
peacemaking causes supported by the General Assembly's share of that 
offering include some programming toward "restoring creation," or 
environmental justice; 
    3.  change the name of the current Witness Offering to the new 
Pentecost Offering, and change its current causes -- aiding mission 
personnel throughout the world, supporting evangelistic efforts including 
new church development, and developing educational materials for small and 
racial/ethnic congregations -- to a new set of causes having to do with 
equipping young people in the church to do mission; 
    4.  Keep the name of the current Christmas Joy Offering but add to its 
current causes of help for retired ministers and their spouses and help for 
racial ethnic colleges a third cause: "children at risk."  This change 
would reduce the Board of Pension's current share in the offering from 50 
percent to 30 percent, which would effectively stop funding the Board's 
increasingly costly nursing home assistance program. The program for 
children at risk would receive 20 percent of the new offering, leaving the 
racial ethnic colleges' share at 50 percent. 
 
    Following the report from the special offering task group, the 
committee heard from the Board of Pensions, who propose an alternative to 
the task group's recommendations.  By press time, no action was taken on 
either the original recommendations or the alternative. 
 
 
Dee Wade 

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