wfn.org | "Andersen Report" Given Favorable Hearing

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

17-June-1997 
GA97045 
 
                The "Andersen Report" Given Generally 
                        Favorable Hearing 
 
                          by Dee Wade 
 
SYRACUSE--In its afternoon session, the Assembly Committee on Mission 
Program Coordination heard a series of speakers reacting to the Andersen 
Report -- a recently received organizational and management assessment of 
the way the national offices of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) conduct 
business.  The report was prepared by the Arthur Andersen company, a 
Washington, D.C. consulting firm. The General Assembly Council (GAC), which 
responded to the report for the first time only days before the meeting of 
the 209th General Assembly,  noted that the Andersen report "contains many 
valuable observations and recommendations to improve the management network 
within and beyond the GAC." 
 
    The Rev. William Philippe, former interim executive director of the 
Council,  who helped guide the process which led to the hiring of Arthur 
Andersen, shared with the committee a positive appreciation for the report. 
He also called the committee to consider the next phase of the assessment, 
moving beyond the report to "make appropriate recommendation on all issues 
affecting the national expression of the church_" 
 
    Earlier in the day, the Assembly Committee on Mission Program 
Coordination heard reports from Youngil Cho, chair of the GAC, and Frank 
Diaz, the Council's interim executive director.  Cho and Diaz have ridden 
together through a year of transition within the denomination, due, in 
part, to the failure of last year's General Assembly to confirm the 
re-election of the Rev. James Brown as executive director of the GAC.  Diaz 
highlighted the "Covenant of Leadership" between his office and the 
executive officers of the five other agencies of the Presbyterian Church 
(such as the Foundation and the Board of Pensions) as an important aid in 
the shared work of church leaders over the past 12 months.  Cho, an Elder 
and businessman, when asked if he would want to live the term of his 
chairmanship over again,  smiled broadly, thought for a moment, and said, 
"Yes, I would." 
 
    In other business, the committee held hearings on Overtures 97-44 and 
97-56 and 97-59.  The first of these would mandate the direct election from 
presbyteries of 50 "slots" on the GAC as nominated by Sessions. Overture 
97-56 would place the Evangelism and Church Development Work Area on equal 
par with the three Ministry Divisions of the church,  National, 
Congregational, and Worldwide.  Overture 97-59 would establish a "Year of 
the Child"  to start in 1999 and would establish programs responding to the 
special needs and gifts of children. 
 
    The only completed action taken by the Assembly Committee on Mission 
Program Coordination came late on Monday afternoon.  The Rev. Marian 
McClure was presented as the director-elect of the Worldwide Ministries 
Division, filling the vacancy created a year ago when the Rev. Clifton 
Kirkpatrick, former WMD director, was elected stated clerk of the General 
Assembly.  McClure was elected to her new position by the GAC in its 
pre-Assembly meeting.  The committee voted to recommend that the full GA 
confirm McClure's election. 

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