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07246 April 26, 2007
Imminent change
Consultation launches planning for a new mission partnership funding system between synods, General Assembly
by Toya Richards Hill
KANSAS CITY, MO - Change is imminent for the system that allocates funds to Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) synods from unrestricted revenue of the General Assembly.
It won't happen overnight. But the process - outlined in a proposal presented during the recent Synod/General Assembly Council National Mission Partnership Funds Consultation - is under way, pending approval from the General Assembly Council.
"The whole group made it (the proposal) its own document, its own direction," said the Rev. Jan DeVries, synod executive and stated clerk of the Synod of the Southwest. "It made it clear that change had to occur, but that change needed to happen in a strategic and planned way in which we understood the context in which all the synods work."
"Until we understood that, we really couldn't be engaged as partners," she said.
Synod and GAC representatives met for the consultation April 18-20 in Kansas City, MO, to carry out their regular process for distributing mission partnership funds.
The group approved 2008 allocations for the nine synods that receive funds - Alaska-Northwest, Lakes and Prairies, Living Waters, Pacific, Puerto Rico, Rocky Mountains, South Atlantic, Southern California and Hawaii, and Southwest - based on a formula of 10.447 percent of 2006 unrestricted General Assembly receipts, which were $29,032,881 (excluding a special gift of $9.54 million). The other seven synods opt not to receive the funds.
The total amount for distribution is $3,033,065, which includes $303,307 set aside for four synods that receive Mission Funds Development (MFD) project grants. The group agreed to end development grants in 2008.
The largest distribution amount goes to the Synod of the Southwest, which will receive a total of $702,582; followed by the Synod of Alaska-Northwest, which will receive $507,181. Both also receive MFD grants.
The consultation group's actions mean the continuation of programs and staff for 2008 that might not otherwise get funded.
But on a much broader scale, the group's overall actions mean the re-evaluation and revamping of the mission partnership funding system.
Synod and GAC representatives rejected a recommendation from the National Mission Partnership (NMP) Committee calling for a five-year phasing out of the current system, prompted, in part, by continually declining unrestricted giving to the General Assembly mission budget.
Instead, it opted for an alternate proposal present by the Synod of the Southwest calling for the continuation of the current system while a new one is developed "to support mission and ministry mutually affirmed and which recognizes concerns of historic obligations and future needs."
And, the development of that new system must be a collaborative one that includes all 16 synods and the GAC, the group said.
"We set in motion a process for dealing with 2010 and beyond, which includes participation of all synods," said Jack Shelver, who hails from the Synod of Southern California and Hawaii and is a member of the NMP committee. "We are all in this together. That's certainly a step in the right direction."
Planning for the new system will include a comprehensive survey of the impact of ending the current system on the synods presently receiving support, and an action plan would be reported to the 2010 General Assembly.
"It may have been a great system when it was designed," but things have long-since changed, said the Rev. Jim Collie, executive presbyter of the Santa Fe Presbytery in the Synod of the Southwest. "The conversations we need to be having * are what are the values we all want to affirm for the mission system of our denomination * and how do we get there?"
Much of the discussion during the consultation centered on first defining what mission is in order to determine how to adequately address mission funding. Examples for how to use funds ranged from anti-poverty programs in Appalachia and youth exchanges, to rebuilding Native American economic, cultural and social structures and diversity training to help Anglo and Native American Presbyterians be better partners in those efforts.
"I would have us look at some unions and partnerships that are experimental and different," said the Rev. Gary Skinner, a former executive for the synods of the Southwest and Alaska-Northwest and currently a GAC member.
Several partnerships and collaborative efforts already in place were highlighted, including ones in the synods of Lakes and Prairies and Southwest.
Continuing efforts to unite the GAC and middle governing bodies were noted, including this consultation, which followed up on a similar one held last fall in Louisville in conjunction with the fall meeting of the GAC.
The group also voted that the $996,653 coming to the synods from a special gift to the church as part of the recent $9+ million Heiserman bequest, be invested through the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Foundation to create a "mission program fund."
"Any two or more of the 17 entities (the 16 synods and the GAC) involving a variety of configurations * for the purpose of funding mission and ministry together" could then apply for the money, the group said.
"National mission is what happens throughout the church," said the Rev. Daniel Saperstein, executive presbyter of Plains and Peaks Presbytery in the Synod of the Rocky Mountains.
"As long as we continue with a model that assumes that everything flows through the General Assembly ... we are increasingly going to be out of touch with how national mission is defined by the person in the pew."
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