wfn.org | GAC and Foundation agreement approved

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05-July-1996 
 
GA96105 
 
    GAC and Foundation agreement approved 
 
ALBUQUERQUE - The report of the Assembly Committee on Stewardship and 
Communication began with a presentation from the Presbyterian Foundation, 
led by Jim Bellatti, chair, and Georgette Huie, vice-chair.  Their 
announcement of the Foundation's official agreement of cooperation with the 
General Assembly Council was celebrated by committee chair Thomas Huser, 
and hailed by the applause of the whole Assembly. 
 
    Barbara Roche, editor of Horizons magazine, received the committee's 
congratulations for 125 years of women owning and publishing magazines. She 
briefly addressed the commissioners and advisory delegates. 
 
    The majority report on special offerings -- keeping the Peacemaking 
Offering, One Great Hour of Sharing, and the Christmas Joy Offering 
virtually the same, while changing the current Witness Offering to the 
"Pentecost Offering," supporting the causes of youth and young adult 
mission, and aid for "children at risk," was accepted by the Assembly. 
 
    This majority report was drafted by the committee in place of a 
proposal originally made by the task group on special offerings of the 
General Assembly Council, whose proposed changes, especially to the 
Christmas Joy Offering, would have been more extensive.  The committee led 
the Assembly in thanking the task force, chaired by John McFayden, a pastor 
in Dale City, Va., for its 18 months of "diligent" work. 
 
    The committee also reported to the Assembly its "mediation" of a 
disagreement among several parties involved in or responsible for mission 
work at Ganado, Ariz., and at Cook College near Phoenix.  This 
disagreement, over the spending of dollars from the Jennie Wimer Fund which 
the Foundation held,  had been one of the presenting issues of a wider 
misunderstanding between the General Assembly Council and the Foundation. 
 
    Though the GAC and the Foundation reached its new understanding in the 
weeks leading to the General Assembly, the particular issue of the Wimer 
Fund was left hanging. 
 
    In the committee's work, it was able to bring all the parties together, 
hearing their respective concerns.  After the committee drafted its 
response to the issue, all of these parties expressed thanks for having 
their concerns heard. Each agreed with the committee's recommendation to 
let the new relationship between the Foundation and the GAC follow its 
course, feeling that the matter would be resolved for the good of all. 
 
    The Assembly affirmed this mediation by vote, and further approved a 
process for handling any such disputes in the future, mandating a system in 
which all governing bodies are recognized as partners in the allocations of 
mission funds given to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).   After one hour 
on the floor, the committee's work on behalf of the General Assembly was 
completed. 
 
 
Dee Wade  

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