wfn.org | Budget Cuts Force Presbyterians to Withdraw Support

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

8-January-1997 
 
 
97011  Budget Cuts Force Presbyterians to Withdraw Support  
             For "The Protestant Hour" Radio Program 
 
                      by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--Cuts in the 1997 General Assembly mission budget have 
forced the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to withdraw its financial support, 
currently $40,000 annually, from "The Protestant Hour" radio program. 
 
     The PC(USA) is one of four charter denominations that have sponsored 
the weekly broadcast of "The Protestant Hour" for more than 50 years. 
 
     In a Dec. 12 letter to J. Paul Howard, president of Protestant Radio 
and Television Center, Inc., the producer of "The Protestant Hour," Gary 
Luhr, PC(USA) associate director for communication, reassured Howard that 
the elimination of financial support for the program was "no reflection on 
the quality of  The Protestant Hour.'" 
 
     Luhr insisted the reason for the cut was strictly financial.  He 
pointed out the $7 million reduction in the General Assembly budget in 1993 
and the additional $4 million that must be trimmed from the 1997 and 1998 
budgets.  The Office of Communication budget, from which "The Protestant 
Hour" is funded, was reduced by $200,000 (nearly 10 percent) in 1997. 
 
     Luhr had informed Howard earlier this year that funding for "The 
Protestant Hour" fell into a "marginal category" for 1997.  Luhr told 
Howard he "intends to write to several churches whose pastors have appeared 
on the program in the past and to presbyteries in that part of the country 
where the program historically has had its most significant audience" to 
try and find designated funds to restore PC(USA) support for the program.  

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