wfn.org | Committee votes down overture to reduce church funding of NCC

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Note #6033 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

GA00085
June 27, 2000

Committee votes down overture to reduce church funding of NCC

	by John Filiatreau

LONG BEACH, June 27 -The General Assembly Committee on Catholicity and
Ecumenical Relations on Tuesday voted down an overture calling for drastic
reductions in Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) financial support of the National
Council of Churches (NCC) and the World Council of Churches.

	Overture 55, submitted by the Presbytery of Savannah (and known informally
as the Savannah Overture) would have cut total financial contributions to
the NCC and WCC from “all General Assembly entities” to an amount no greater
than the average contribution per member of the six largest other donor
denominations in the United States.

	The PC(USA) contributed $2,772,287, less than two percent of the total
expenditures of the General Assembly Council (GAC) and the Office of the
General Assembly (OGA) for the year, to the NCC in 1999. Almost two-thirds
of that money was from Special Offerings. The 1999 contribution breaks down
to a per-member contribution of about $1.10. The next-largest per-member
contributor, the United Church of Christ, gave about 82 cents per member.

	The NCC finished 1999 with a budget deficit of nearly $4 million. Earlier
this year, the GAC approved a $500,000 emergency “bail-out” contribution to
the council.
											
	Opponents of overture 55 brought out their “big guns” for the debate,
including NCC President Andrew Young, NCC General Manager Bob Edgar, General
Assembly Council Executive Director John Detterick, the PC(USA)’s stated
clerk, the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick and the Rev. Syngman Rhee, the newly
elected moderator of the 212th General Assembly.

	One committee member said he felt that he’d witnessed “a real dog-and-pony
show.”

	At length the panel was convinced by NCC proponents that financial controls
have been put in place to prevent future mismanagement at the NCC and WCC,
and that the ecumenical councils are in the process of “rebirthing”
themselves as more efficient, better-managed, organizations.

	Foes of the overture argued that, if such a “drastic” cut in funding were
approved, the councils’ ministries would be “hampered and hindered,” and “a
wrong message” would be sent to the 34 other U.S. member denominations.
									
	Edgar, who assumed his post in January, told the committee that he
initially “shared some of the concerns that are part of this overture,” but
he noted that the NCC has a new general manager, a new president, a new
controller and a new human-relations director; has strong financial controls
in place; has a balanced budget; and is ready to “recharge, respark and
reignite the ecumenical movement ... at the beginning of this new decade,
the beginning of this new century, the beginning of this new millennium.”

	Edgar said he and his management team are “moving the council in a new
direction,” and warned that a reduction in PC(USA) funds would have the
effect of “demoralizing other member denominations.”

	“The council would survive,” he said, “but would be significantly reduced.” 

	Detterick said the NCC is now taking advantage of an “opportunity to
rebirth itself into something new.” He said the council has complied with
the conditions imposed by the PC(USA) for continuing contributions, and the
church will release pledged NCC funds “within a week or two after returning
from the assembly.”

	Phil Young of the Redwoods Presbytery, said on Monday that a reduction in
the PC(USA)’s support for the WCC and NCC would be “debilitating to the
capacity of the Presbyterian Church” to do mission in the world, and also
would weaken the council’s other member denominations. Moreover, he said, a
withdrawal of support at this time would be “demoralizing to the people now
working to help the NCC recover” from fiscal mismanagement. He called the
NCC “a sign of the grace of God in the world.”
	
	“Keeping up with the money is only part of the concern,” one committee
member said. “There’s also the problem that the NCC tends to say and do
screwy things. ... There is no shortage of things to be done ... that don’t
create divisions among good people like us.”

	John Muller, a minister from Fort Worth, Texas, said Monday that “the NCC
has not been a 10-talent steward” of “our beloved denomination’s ecumenical
talents.”

	The committee was expected to express concern about past NCC mismanagement
and to affirm the new controls and the changes in NCC management.

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