wfn.org | Illinois Church Kicks Off Mission Fund With $5,000 Gift

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

16-December-1999 
99425 
 
    Illinois Church Kicks Off Mission Fund With $5,000 Gift 
 
    Endowment will fund Presbyterian missionaries around the world 
 
    by John Filiatreau 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The mission accomplished by a delegation from First 
Presbyterian Church of Herrin, Ill., on Dec. 15 was the delivery of $5,000 
to the Rev. Marian McClure, the director of the Worldwide Ministries 
Division of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). 
 
    The money, presented during a joyful gathering at the Presbyterian 
Center here, is the first contribution to WMD's new International Mission 
Personnel Permanent Endowment Fund, which the 1998 General Assembly 
approved in response to an overture prepared by a member of the Herrin 
congregation and submitted to the Assembly by the Southeastern Illinois 
Presbytery. 
 
    If all goes as planned - if all Presbyterians are as generous as the 
members of the Herrin church - the endowment to fund Presbyterian mission 
personnel around the world eventually will grow to $80 million or more. 
 
    The Rev. Jack Seibert, a former pastor of the church, first proposed 
the creation of an endowment fund to support international mission 
personnel of the PC(USA) during the 1982 General Assembly in Hartford, 
Conn. "It didn't pass," Seibert recalled during the recent check-passing 
ceremony. "They asked whether it had financial implications, and of course 
it did." 
 
    The principal financial implication Seibert had in mind was the 
extraction of $30 from each of the approximately 2.7 million members of the 
PC(USA), which would produce the contemplated $80 million. The most recent 
version of the overture known as 98-47 actually mentioned the $30 figure as 
the per-capita amount of "extra mission support" necessary to get the job 
done. It's not by accident that the $5,000 contribution from First Church 
of Herrin amounts to roughly $30 from each of its 168 members. 
 
    Seibert, a former long-time PC(USA) missionary in India, Africa and 
Alaska, said he envisions the endowment as a means of supporting PC(USA) 
missionaries and encouraging the "many, many young Presbyterians who want 
to go into mission work." A second purpose, he said, is that of "helping 
the people of the Presbyterian Church understand the reach, the need, and 
the involvement we have in mission." 
 
    "The missionaries are an embodiment, an incarnation of Jesus Christ and 
of the word of God," he said, "and I think Presbyterian lay people, if they 
knew what we were doing in mission, would be interested, and supportive. 
This (endowment) program will test that perception. I will be praying that 
this will be true." 
 
    Seibert said the creation of the fund after an 18-year campaign is 
especially gratifying because it shows that "a single church can have an 
idea that proves useful to the whole denomination." 
 
    The fund will be used for international missions in keeping with 
priorities established by the WMD; the General Assembly Council will 
approve its expenditures.   

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