wfn.org | Assembly Approves Budget Cut That Will Eliminate

[PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG]

1-Aug.-1996 
 
 
96276    Assembly Approves Budget Cut That Will Eliminate 
            Family And Single Adult Ministry Position 
 
                         by Julian Shipp 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--The 208th General Assembly (1996) has approved a budget 
cut in the Congregational Ministries Division (CMD) that will eliminate the 
Family and Single Adult Ministries position held by the Rev. C. Raymond 
Trout and end the Presbyterian Mariners' financial agreement with the 
denomination. The change is effective Jan. 1, 1997. 
 
     However, the Mariners Covenant Relationship, established between the 
division and the organization in 1990, remains intact and, it is hoped, 
will be enhanced in the future, according to officials. 
 
     Presbyterian Mariners is the only family ministry-focused organization 
in the PC(USA). For nearly 70 years, the organization has enriched married 
couples and their families through a variety of programs at the 
congregational, regional and national levels. In more recent years, it has 
also affirmed and incorporated increasing numbers of single persons into 
its ministries. 
 
     Compelled to balance its $18 million budget, the CMD trimmed its 
expenditures by $260,000.  The cut that eliminated Trout's position, the 
largest single expenditure, is $57,000. 
 
     Larry and Carolyn Gabbard of Arvada, Colo., executive secretaries of 
Presbyterian Mariners, told the Presbyterian News Service that they regret 
the General Assembly acted to eliminate the Office of Family and Single 
Adult Ministries, since family ministry remains a national priority of 
their organization. 
 
      According to the Gabbards, only about half of all American children 
live with both biological parents (25 percent live with a single parent, 21 
percent live in blended families and 3.7 million live in households headed 
by grandparents).  Moreover, about half of all first marriages end in 
divorce, and less than one fourth of today's marriages are supported by one 
wage earner. It takes two wage earners, in today's economy, to keep up with 
the cost of living, they said. 
 
     On the positive side, Mrs. Gabbard said, Commissioners' Resolution 
96-2 on continuing support for family and single adult ministries was 
approved by the Assembly -- but without financial implications. Moreover, 
she said, the Mariners organization is in dialogue with CMD officials to 
discuss ways to nurture its relationship with the church, and the Mariners 
group will discuss the issue further during its annual meeting and family 
conference, July 28-Aug. 1 at Las Cruces, N.M. 
 
     Mr. Gabbard said confusion reigned in March after it was announced by 
the division that Trout's job was scheduled for termination. In accordance 
with their financial agreement, the Mariners have given $20,000 annually 
($115,000 to date) toward Trout's staff position in family and single adult 
ministry. 
 
      But due to a communication snafu, Mr. Gabbard said, it somehow got 
conveyed that the entire covenant relationship between the Mariners and the 
division was being severed. 
 
      "The covenant will continue, but the [financial] partnership through 
which we have helped fund the Office of Single and Family Adult Ministries 
has been eliminated along with the office," Mr.  Gabbard said. 
                   Set sail toward the horizon 
 
     Mr. Gabbard said that what's now being proposed by the division is the 
creation of a planning team that would meet several times a year to address 
family ministry issues and plan responses. Under the proposal, the Mariners 
would use the $20,000 now being used to help support the family ministries 
office to fund their costs of participating in the meetings. 
 
     "The $20,000 that we had set aside for 1997 may be spent over two or 
three years on this sort of planning team activity," Mr. Gabbard said. "But 
the Mariners board of directors has to decide just what financial 
obligations they're going to take on." 
 
     The Rev. Ed Craxton, the CMD's associate director for Christian 
education, said the division desires to maintain its covenant relationship 
with the Mariners. 
 
     "We are in conversation with the Mariners and we do not want our 
relationship to be severed," Craxton said. "We do want to remain in 
covenant with them." 
      
     The Rev. Eunice Poethig, the CMD's director who proposed the budget 
cut, said the decision to eliminate the program was not made hastily or 
easily. 
 
      "We looked carefully," Poethig said. "We worked up until the General 
Assembly Council meeting in February, hoping that we would be able to find 
an alternate way to make the cuts."  

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